Mark LeHocky, general counsel of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, is the subject of a profile in the Recorder, March 30, 2007. He tries “to embed our legal team members [three attorneys and soon a fourth] into our various business teams such as manufacturing, marketing and distribution.” That is commendable, as…
Phil Crowley, a senior lawyer with Johnson & Johnson, describes in ACC Docket, April 2007 at 96, some aspects of how his law department determines the value it delivers to clients (See my post of Sept. 17, 2005 on client perceptions of value and satisfaction surveys; and March 18, 2005…
On April 25, 2006, the Supreme Court of Georgia issued Formal Advisory Opinion 05-2 in which it concluded that a company may enter into an agreement with an in-house lawyer to hold that lawyer harmless for malpractice committed in the course of employment. Normally, a lawyer cannot make an agreement…
Nothing ratchets up the value of an in-house attorney as much as a satisfied client (See my post of April 8, 2007 about how to add value.). A satisfied client believes he or she has been heard well by a lawyer, gotten an answer at the right level, and understood…
Ben Heineman, dispensing Olympian wisdom about law department lawyers, confides that “business leaders were enthused about inside lawyers who could help get things done.” Yeah, ok, what’s new, but what else follows that obvious allure from Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, April 2007 at 85? What follows is an expectation bar…
CounseltoCounsel, Nov. 2006 at 9, quotes Michael Roster, at the time the general counsel of Golden West Financial, in the context of status reports in-house lawyers prepare for clients (See my post of Aug. 1, 2006 on reasons to do and not to do status reports.). Roster volunteers that “his…
As reported in CounseltoCounsel, Nov. 2006 at 9, a survey by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubble/Altman Weil asked the respondents – 138 law departments – to choose among seven obstacles to closer alignment between them and their clients. The respondents could choose more than one of the obstacles (See my post of Dec.…
An audit report dated January 25, 1999, went to the Board of County Commissioners for Hernando County, Florida. The 20-page study followed up on an audit of the County’s Legal Services Department. For government legal departments especially, and for any small law department, the report has some useful ideas. One…
Any businessperson who contemplates checking with the law department knows there is a price to pay. The cost is at the least additional calls, meetings or e-mails, some delay, and possibly serious obstacles. There’s no way around this for law departments; it is always, to some degree, an aggravation to…
Senior lawyers in law departments understand that within the company they have some friends, some neutrals, and some foes. Friends respect them and use them properly, neutrals need some nudging and education to learn when to come to the law department, but foes stay away. Those non-users raise legal risks…