Weil, Gotshal & Manges has set up an ancillary function that is unusual. “One of the things that we have done is to create an in-house graphics group for trials and hearings. They do all the in-court graphics rather than our going outside and paying extraordinary fees.” The quote comes…
On a panel summarized in the ACC Docket, Jan./Feb. 2010 at 91, the always thoughtful Sabine Chalmers, chief legal officer of Anheuser-InBev, spoke admiringly of a “law firm that came to her with an analysis of a previous deal, explaining 10 ways they could be more efficient with similar deals…
Martine Turcotte, Chief Legal & Regulatory Officer of BCE, Inc., lobbed out a provocative idea at a recent panel. In the words of the ACC Docket, Jan./Feb. 2010 at 91, she “mentioned an interest in exploring the pooling of resources with other companies to get lower rates based on volume.”…
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, made some comments on a panel reported in the ACC Docket, Jan./Feb. 2010 at 89-90. He said his budget had been reduced by 10 percent. Given some figures previously published, he may have taken a haircut of something like $40-60 million (See my post of…
When coalescing its group of outside counsel into a smaller number of primary firms or selecting a firm for a multi-year commitment, a law department rightfully wants to select firms that are financially solid, that will prosper during the term of the agreement. That desire prompts questions in the Request…
Shot through and through this blog’s 5,000 posts are references to “primary law firms.” One post tried to define the slippery term and gathered nine earlier references (See my post of March 23, 2009: definition of key, principal, primary, or major law firms of a department.). Ubiquitous almost, mentions of…
DLA Piper has created a repository of laws from the United Arab Emirates, the confederation of seven states that are part of the Gulf States. The UAE includes seven statelets, the best known being Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As described in the Financial Times, Innovative Lawyers 2009 at 42, the…
You might want to think about these steps taken by two UK firms and an Italian firm, as reprted in the Financial Times, Innovative Lawyers 2009 at 37. Linklaters has created a “global pricing function.” For the huge UK firm, “pricing professionals within its marketing department advise and implement pricing…
When organizations collect evaluations of law firms and make them available to legal departments, there should be some mechanism for deleting out-of-date comments. What was true three years ago may well be obsolete today. Partners change firms; associates have high turnover; firms merge and hive off and alter practice groups.…
Kraft Foods has appointed DLA Piper as its preferred outside counsel. According to Corp. Counsel, Feb. 2010 at 57, the “nonexclusive appointment took effect on January 1, and applies to all international business units.” Interestingly, DLA Piper set up a total of five relationship partners to cover four regions (the…