In a special New York Times section on business and law, Andrew Ross Sorkin opines: “As regulations change and the threat of litigation rises, the importance of lawyers has never been greater.” He, and writers in the rest of the section, then go on to talk about the downward pressures on private law firms to sustain profits per partner and the burgeoning crisis in private practice, symbolized by the collapse of Dewey & LaBoeuf and the exodus of young associates.

But from a business person’s point of view, Sorkin and other writers in the section don’t even discuss one of the most important developments of the last 25 years: the rise in the role, status and importance of the general counsel and other inside lawyers employed directly by the corporation. The following two critical trends for major companies in the U.S. — and increasingly in Europe and Asia — are not mentioned:

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