As the percentage of the in-house lawyers who are women climbs, it will be increasingly important for general counsel, themselves often mothers, to make easier the work-life balance of working mothers. To assess that balance, there is, not surprisingly, a survey and rating scale. Business Law Today, Vol. 16, March/April…
In 2005, the US mega-firm Reed Smith hired Julia Cline, a former general counsel, as its first director of general counsel relations. According to Law Firm Inc., Vol. 5, March 2007 at 22, after Cline’s departure to return to practice, the firm appointed Marti Candiello, previously the general counsel for…
The larger the law firm, generally speaking, the more specialists it offers, the deeper its bench, the more it can invest in product and technology, the better the training and so forth – but all this capability comes at the cost of increased overhead and rates (See my post of…
An article in the Legal Intelligencer, Sept. 27, 2006 (by Gina Passarella) touches on the over-worked theme that as to alternatives to full hourly rates there is infrequent action and much “lip service.” A consultant offers an explanation: “One of the main reasons alternative fee arrangements aren’t being used comprehensively…
Competitive bid processes should stress the even-handed distribution of information to all proposing law firms. To the best of the law department’s ability, it should allow no law firm to have privileged, inside information about the work being bid out. That goal – to balance the distribution of information –…
A survey, published in Legal Week, Vol. 9, Feb. 22, 2007 at 12, asked respondents to pick among five reasons why they might terminate their dealings with an external counsel. Respondents were allowed to choose two of the five explanations. “Quality of work” and “overcharging/lack of value” dominated the choices…
From a group of almost 40 large US and Canadian law firms, we gathered some metrics about Requests for Proposal (RFPs) that those firms had recently received. On average, the firms received 25 RFPs during the last six months of 2006. The trend, not unexpectedly, was that as firms were…
The 2006 Hildebrandt Law Department Survey includes 201 companies, of which 117 had annual revenue of $6 billion or more. The median-sized company had over $8 billion in annual revenue. Of the entire group the median number of law firms that were paid three-quarters of all outside counsel payments was…
Law departments have much more trouble finding competent foreign counsel than finding competent US firms. But the two may often be the same. The Client Advisory, March 2007 of Hildebrandt and Citigroup Private Bank at 5, states that of the 250 largest US law firms, 105 firms have foreign offices…
The Texas Lawyer, Vol. 21, Dec. 5, 2005 details Pfizer’s 2004-05 P3 process (Pfizer Partnering Program) whereby it selected 24 go-to firms for product liability litigation. Pfizer’s 50 page RFP, divided into 12 sections, pushed the proposing firms hard, in part because of some questions that asked for the firms…