I had to smile at the questions, published in the Patent Lawyer, Vol. 3, Spring 2006 at 3, one US IP litigator recommends corporate counsel should ask when selecting patent trial counsel: (1) are you registered to practice before the USPTO; (2) have you tried 10 or more patent cases…
Based on my consulting to seven law departments that have conducted competitive bids using RFPs and other sources of experience, here are the 10 commandments: 1. Answer the questions asked in the RFP. 2. As much as possible, give an example or reference for an answer. Rely on reality. 3.…
Allstate Insurance Co. whittled its list of 300-400 law firms nationwide to 13 firms, according to Jack MacKay, assistant general counsel for law administration, in the Chic. Daily Law Bulletin. As Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont famously reduced its outside counsel, so did Allstate, and the insurance giant planned to have that…
Having just read a 2000 white paper by Steele Scharbach Associates, I got to thinking about their term “collaborative computing.” The two authors write that collaborative computing covers three basic technologies: groupware, workflow, and document management. My thoughts went to how law departments can use technology to work more closely…
Once upon a midnight dreary as I pondered weak and weary over whether there are differences when law departments retain outside counsel for litigation or for transactional matters, I was stumped. Suddenly, a raven appeared. “Technology,” quoth the raven. Undoubtedly there is more software and hardware involved in large-scale litigation…
(1) The urge to converge, as illustrated here, leads to massive – and therefore expensive – law firms. The French financial services giant recently underwent a review of the firms that it deems members of its nine-firm global roster, Legal Week, Vol. 8, March 2, 2006 at 1. Of those…
A white paper by executive search firm BCG levels blast after blast at law firm lawyers who are seduced by the siren call of a recruiting law department. BCG praises the training a lawyer gets in a law firm, but says that “once an attorney goes in house, he/she is…
More than half (56%) of the top 200 US law firms use some shade of blue as the primary color in their graphic identities or logos, says PARTNERS+simons in Law Practice, Vol. 32, March 2006 at 9. Commentary on this stunning finding explains that clients – law department lawyers who…
Law firms have more appetite to grant discounts, provide extra services, manage staff strictly, and make other concessions on typical matters if they see the possibility of a feast in the future. “We’ll diet now, but somewhere down the road let us gorge.” The firms that agree to price breaks…
Scientists of many stripes have long debated the relative contributions to a person’s self of genetics and environment. Analogously, law departments go back and forth on whether the firm (environment) or its lawyer (genes) determines the retention and continued use. Law department managers usually espouse the view that they hire…
