Even amid difficult economic conditions, China's in-house legal profession has still matured above and beyond expectations. The increased complexity of the legal and regulatory environment, along with generally tighter control of costs, has provided a great opportunity for in-house lawyers to demonstrate their strategic value.

While the 2010 ALB China In-house Survey found that 68% of the polled in-house departments have less than 10 legal staff, nearly half said their departments have grown over the past 12 months.

Sami Farhad, vice president & general counsel of eLong.com, has a good vantage point for the evolving profession in China as a US lawyer.  "Over time, as companies in China become larger, engage in more complex financial transactions and have more international exposure, businesses are becoming more sophisticated and recognising that a strong in-house legal team can support the healthy growth and development of the company, while avoiding costly risks and disputes," said Farhad. "Now, many in-house legal departments have built up strong internal expertise in the areas of law which significantly impact their companies. The perception of in-house lawyers as not doing interesting or challenging work is now largely outdated."

In addition to the steady increase in numbers, many in-house departments now have more tiers of staff than in the past and in-house counsel roles have expanded into new non-legal areas, such as compliance, risk management and company secretarial responsibilities.

• The size of your in-house team

• Over the past 12 months your in-house team has

• Top three areas of expertise in-house teams most need to develop:

*To find out more about the issues in-house legal departments face in 2010 and how their external service providers should adapt their offerings accordingly, please see the full 2010 ALB China In-house Survey Report published in the April edition of the ALB China magazine.