I know a general counsel who believed, on the strength of discussions with his CEO, that the legal department would be immune from cuts being inflicted elsewhere in the organisation. Within a few weeks he had to tell his staff that there would be redundancies. A bitter pill for all to swallow. The current climate makes more acute the need to focus on best use of resources and encourage the team to perform well.
Richard Norman and I are running workshops which are intended to help heads of legal grapple with these issues. For more informationhttp://www.lawyers-in-business.co.uk/inhouse/workshops.html