In his comments for Global Counsel, Sept. 2003 at 23, Ulrich Niessen, AXA’s general counsel, remarks on engagement letters that law firms furnish (See my post of Nov. 3, 2005 and its reference to US engagement letters.). “Firms sometimes send us their own engagement letters, in which case we will…
Interviews of law firm partners indulge in flattery and exaggeration, but what should law departments make of two assertions, in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, May 2006 at 44, by an Eversheds partner (Paul Smith). Smith says that “Increasingly we’re doing more and more of our work on a fixed…
Exelon’s legal department, according to its general counsel, William Von Hoene, Jr., pulls off a triple play every year. Von Hoene briefly lists three surveys in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, May 2006 at 43; each provokes an observation. The department surveys nearly 500 internal clients and asks them for…
The quote comes from a Missouri private practitioner speaking in the Report of the Missouri Bar Alternative Billing Methods Committee, Sept. 15, 2003 at 19. It probably reflects a common fear among law firm lawyers, one which they may not balance against their ability to perform the services quickly and…
What if several matter management systems allowed in-house users to rate their law firms on a handful of common criteria? What if there were an industry standard for what those criteria mean and the scale on which to rate them? What if periodically each law department stripped out any confidential…
A piece about John Bellinger, the “senior legal advisor to the U.S. Department of State,” in the Nat’l L.J., Vol. 28, April 24, 2006 at 8, mentions that “security concerns preclude the retention of outside counsel.” The 165 attorneys under Bellinger, augmented by 140 professionals and support staff, for that…
A recent post entertained the idea of a law department that refuses to pay higher rates for associates one or two years out of law school than it pays for the law firm’s paralegals (See my post of April 30, 2006 and citations.). As I wrote that item, I assumed…
The UPS legal department, with about 40 lawyers worldwide, spends nearly 95 percent of its annual spend on outside counsel fees, as noted in InsideCounsel, April 2006 at 77. UPS employs up to 150 law firms globally each year, but “25 core law firms represent more than 80 percent of…
Law firms that merge announce that they do so in response to their clients’ demands. I am dubious how often a general counsel says, “Firm, we need you to add a roster more of lawyers and offices.” More likely, what drives rapid growth by merger comes down more to ego,…
Kevin Groman, a lawyer with PetSmart Inc., explained at a seminar how his law department chooses which litigation counsel to retain (See my post of April 10, 2006 about questions one lawyer proposes to be asked of potential patent litigators.) As summarized in InsideCounsel, April 2006 at 51, PetSmart “asks…