This on-the-money quote appears in the NYSBA J., Oct. 2010 at 37, and is attributed to a senior lawyer at United Technologies. It hits the right note. In-house lawyers give their advice as part of a larger business problem. They are rarely king of the hill, with pivotal decisions resting…
Like the Pacific’s Rim of Fire, litigation shakes where the tectonic plates of business shift or collide. Providing two examples, the Economist, Oct. 23, 2010 at 75, describes the titanic legal struggles between the giants of technology over the next generation of platforms, software, and technology. Three pages later the…
An article in the ACC Docket, Sept. 2010 at 22, mentions that the small legal department of Bangor Hydro Electric used a web-based survey last year to gather client satisfaction data (See my post of March 26, 2007: Snap and Survey Monkey as choices.). Large companies may have their own…
Assume that the workload of a law department increases steadily yet the CEO requires cuts in both legal staffing and outside spending. Does the imbalance of professional obligation as a lawyer to a client and the exigencies of a company struggling to stay afloat financially squeeze a general counsel between…
The most important contracts handled by a legal department are those with customers. Whoever wants to purchase your company’s goods or services deserves the most attention and creativity. No customers, no company. Second in priority come contracts with suppliers. Cost and quality, to be sure, bear on how well in-house…
Addelshaw Goddard, the UK-based law firm, lance.sapsford@addleshawgoddard.com offers an unusual perquisite for its major clients. According to a piece in Managing Ptr., July-Aug. 2010 at 49, it can “run business simulation events designed to put in-house lawyers in the shoes of their colleagues (managing director, finance director, commercial director) over…
A few days ago I unveiled seven koans about legal risk (See my post of July 29, 2010: seven paradoxes about risk.). For those of you who have not reached enlightenment, my sketched explanations may spur you on. “Risk flirts with dollars but marries reputation.” Some risks put money at…
A few days ago, Jon Olson, the thoughtful general counsel of Blackbaud,commented on my post about legal departments as multi-dimensional (mathematical) spaces. He explained his own theory: “One theory that I find useful is the idea that law departments essentially manage the externalities of a business. That is to say,…
Showing the value of a legal department can be accomplished in various ways. One way that may be overlooked is to do what the company wants. If the company wants process maps, use Visio for lots of boxes, triangles, and arrows. If Six Sigma is the initiative of the moment,…
I’m out on a limb here, since all I claim to know a bit about are law departments, but what does this quote suggest: “[O]ur study found that many organizations have a negative perception of their IT departments. Often executives agree that technology is important – but that their IT…