A general counsel who does not control virtually all decisions on which law firm to retain falls short – to the degree that right is absent – from being a fully empowered general counsel (See my post of Sept. 13, 2005 on Carey’s Board.). In the United States that power…
A handful of posts have touched on aspects of litigation insurance, each to report on such coverage for different types of litigation risks and the effect the insurance might have on benchmarks (See my posts of July 20, 2005 on IP litigation insurance, and Nov. 16, 2005 (3rd morsel) for…
A piece in the Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 30, Spring 2006 at 90, draws on work by Jonathan Cohen, published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2005. Psychology and neuroscience intersect to suggest why law departments favor impersonal cost-control techniques over personal ones. Research that uses the so-called switch and…
Matter management systems that run on a company’s own servers usually charge an upfront license fee and thereafter an annual maintenance fee, usually in the range of 10 to 20 percent of the base license fee. Relatively straightforward. Far from straightforward are the pricing models of e-billing systems. The possibilities…
You didn’t know this, I’m sure, but electronic discovery costs money. Yes, it’s true, but how true you know even less about. Fios to the rescue, however, in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 13, March 2006 at A6, where Prashant Dubey, its VP and GM of Discovery Management, outlines how corporate law…
In a pique of pedantry, I looked up definitions for those things law firms send in for payment: Bill: “a statement, usually itemized, of charges for goods or services; invoice”; dictionary two says, “a statement of money owed for goods or services supplied.” Invoice: “an itemized list of goods shipped…
Previous posts noted the arrival of procurement departments on the field of outside counsel selection (See my posts of Feb. 20, 2005 and Aug. 14, 2005.). Reinforcements arrived from Legal Week, March 23, 2006 at 12, in the form of a slew of statistics from a survey conducted in association…
Domenic Leo, in a post on Dec. 24, 2005, adds an important point to my earlier note (See my post of Dec. 23, 2005 on costs of licensing and staffing a matter management system.). The total cost for migrating legacy information and processes from the old system to the new…
At a speech I gave recently, I met the general counsel of AHC, Inc., a specialist company that helps hospitals increase recovery of their receivables. AHC’s website says that of its 400 plus employees almost 100 are healthcare attorneys. That impressive corps of lawyers has expertise that includes workers’ compensation.…
In a profile of Paul T. Dacier, senior vice president and general counsel of $10 billion EMC Corp, Nat. L.J. Vol. 28, March 13, 2006, Dacier mentiones that his law department has an “operating budget” of $25 million for its 70 lawyers and 40 other staff. As a benchmark junkie,…