The whole topic of compliance, ethics, risk management and governance has attracted much attention and drawn consultants. Three of them known to me are Linda DiSantis of EthicsLINC, Rick Wolf of Lexakos, and Debra Sabatini Hennley of Compliance & Ethics Solutions. DiSantis has been a co-author on this blog. Each…
The bubbling cauldron that is electronic discovery these days intimidates me. Unless you are immersed in this turbulent field, the enormous variety of offerings and competing claims for excellence can deter even the most confident blogger. That said, it does seem to me that software for litigation discovery review that…
My friend Ron Friedmann of Integreon emailed me about my post on price inelasticity (See my post of March 20, 2008.). The original posting discussed three ways that law departments can cope in a world where they cannot raise prices. ”I would add a fourth strategy, namely create a queue.…
What truth is there in the following quote? Do general counsel pay more to lawyers whose specialties are vital to the company? “Large corporations, for example, place a high value on limiting their tax liabilities. The most talented corporate tax attorneys are often able to reduce these liabilities by tens…
A speaker from a financial-services firm, who obviously has an economics background, describes law departments as “businesses with no price elasticity” (See my post of April 27, 2006: explains the term elasticity.). By that he means that law departments cannot raise their prices to their clients. Because of that limitation,…
Tough legal issues surround companies that are having difficulties, which suggests that their inside lawyers might be relatively immune to reductions in force compared to other employees in a company. But layoffs scythe through all groups (See my post of March 1, 2008: Ford’s law department lost 32% of staff.).…
Data from InsideCounsel, March 2008 at 56, shows that the larger the company the more the general counsel is paid. For example, in companies with $3 to $10 billion in revenues, median total cash compensation for the top lawyer stands at $470,000, while in companies with more then $10 billion…
Many law departments have touted shortening the time cases last as a good aid to budget discipline (See my posts of Sept. 28, 2007: cost-control technique; May 16, 2006: FMC Technologies’ reductions; and May 23, 2007 GE on reduction of cycle time.). The shorter the duration, the lower the cost,…
An article about services supply management in Cal. Mgt. Rev., Vol. 49, Summer 2007 at 53, cites a study by a financial services company. The company found that its actual temporary labor prices were 6.2 percent higher than what the company had contracted for. The authors remark: “This range is…
Paul Roy, Director of Finance & Administration of Time Warner Cable’s Law Department, allocates to 20+ divisions and regional offices outside-counsel costs incurred by the Department on their behalf. His department charges back approximately 60 percent of its outside costs in a typical year. The rest is absorbed in the…