A new book on tools to improve the management of your legal department

The Smarter Legal Model (Practical Law 2010) by Trevor Faure, General Counsel of Ernst and Young Global, has just been published. The marketing blurb touts the book as “a practical “toolbox” of complementary methodologies which have been applied on a multi-million dollar scale and proven to: increase legal coverage by maximising individual potential, reduce legal costs, improve both compliance and client satisfaction at the same time, and replace the traditional law firm-client tension with a mutually-profitable partnership.”

Enticingly, at least to this blogger, The Smarter Legal Model applies … principles such as six sigma, return on invested capital, zero-sum game theory and neuro-linguistic programming to the practice of law for the first time with tangible results.” Not so sure about the “first time” claim but the compilation of techniques has allure.

The author, Trevor Faure, is “The Lawyer” magazine’s In-House Counsel of the Year 2008, the BSN Lawyer of the Year 2007 and was ranked as one of the world’s top 25 Corporate Counsel on the “Legal Business” Global Power List 2007.

I have not read the book but its description entices. It costs £250 (approximately $375).