A piece in the Sloan Mgt. Rev., Fall 2006 at 21, set off some thoughts about client satisfaction and alignment. Flexible companies, the authors state, “maximize the ‘surface area’ of the organization by connecting as many employees as possible with the external environment.” Translated to law departments, I take the…
One of the eternal truths about law departments is that they expect their law firms to plop down no major surprises. Don’t bushwhack us, department managers say to law firms, and help us foresee as much as possible potential major events. The same advice applies in a second direction, to…
A piece about the newly-appointed general counsel of Marriott International, in the Bisnow on Business E-Letter, May 2007, mentions that Ed Ryan communicates with the chairman Bill Marriott with a “constant stream of written memos and e-mails.” The two of them, additionally, talk directly at least twice a week. To…
InsideCounsel, April 2007 at 59, draws on several surveys of in-house compensation. At one point it cites one survey for the proposition that business unit performance is a fairly common determinant of bonus awards (See my post of April 8, 2007 for more on three other determinants of bonuses; and…
Scoff I did when a recent survey brayed that for many law departments who are selecting firms the prestige of law firms was their guiding light (See my post of May 4, 2007.). Not simply as a proponent of hire-the-partner-not-the-firm, I doubt this finding. Prestige matters only where people think…
Many general counsel believe that publicity about the achievements of their department will benefit the law department (and incidentally the career of the general counsel). If members of the law department speak at conferences write articles, are quoted, or win awards, all that inures to the benefit of the department…
InsideCounsel, June 2006 at 70, profiles Charles James, the general counsel of Chevron. Looking back on when he joined Chevron in that role, James recalls that “the chairman of Chevron wanted a world-class legal organization and I don’t think he felt had had one.” CEOs should not blithely say they…
Deep within the LexisNexis Martindale-Hubble 2005 “Study into the European market for legal services,” there are findings from a survey regarding “defining excellence in deliver” (at 20). Some 150 law department respondents ranked first, second and third from among seven choices concerning what they think defines excellence in terms of…
The LexisNexis Martindale-Hubble 2005 “Study into the European market for legal services” at 15, lays out the rankings that 150 senior in-house counsel gave to a dozen important tasks and issues. Based on a scale from 0 (very low) to 10 (very high importance), here are the results: 1. “Working…
An odd, troubling point surfaces from a survey done in 2004 and the six-page report of its results about the internal legal functions of two-year US colleges. Although clumsily phrased in the quote that follows, here’s its point: lawyers in-house might run over their clients or make everything too much…