Patent-related legal services, including litigation, bulk large for many law departments, and data appears frequently about these services. The Wall St. J., June 9, 2007 at A7, offers a number of insights. “It is cheaper to obtain a patent, which can cost $5,000-$25,000, than to invalidate one. Legal fees average…
Count the number of PCs in your law department. You will probably find more PCs than people, and each PC or laptop wastes significant amounts of electricity. According to the Wall St. J., June 13, 2007 at B6, “PCs waste about half the power they consume,” since, for example, most…
I offer this post in hopes that a reader can respond with a better solution to a problem. A major financial company pays an ASP for its e-billing function. Typically, law departments pay a commission-based fee borne by outside counsel; two percent of the invoice amount is the norm. An…
Once I noticed one ad that relies on a testimonial of a general counsel I started spotting counterparts everywhere. I wonder what the law departments got in return. Here are a few ads of recent vintage: Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear ad in Corp. Counsel, March 2007 at 41, quotes…
In 2005, $1.1 billion specialty-paper producer Glatfelter brought in its first general counsel. Since then that general counsel, Jeffrey Norton, has added three lawyers, one being a contract attorney on assignment to the company. As reported in GC Mid-Atlantic, May 2007 at 8-9, the legal department also hired two legal…
The 700-lawyers of Allstate’s legal department consume a tremendous amount of continuing legal education because many of them are admitted to practice in Illinois, which has mandatory CLE. To whittle away at those ongoing professional development costs, Allstate ask its premiere legal firms to provide free seminars that qualify for…
These days, patents are revered by many companies. To identify, protect, and license patents has become a widespread and important initiative. Curiously, at the same time one of the most common legal services subject to fixed fees are – you guessed it – patent applications and prosecutions. Many law departments…
Auctions tend to be dominated by cost: which law firm will offer the lowest billing rates or take on the work on offer for the lowest fees. Competitive bid processes scrutinize costs, of course, but also take into account more subjective determinants, such as each firm’s experience, staff, diversity, approach…
At a recent panel, a general counsel told the audience that his department was under a mandate to reduce costs from its 2005 baseline at a rate of two percent each year, year after year. That is a Herculean task. Beside that vapid comment, two prickly issues trouble my mind.…
The law department of a large financial services company had to deal with a mandate from the CEO to reduce costs by a certain percent year over year. Of the many measures this large department adopted, a set of them had to do with bringing compensation costs down. Typically, compensation-related…