Corp. Counsel, June 2010 at 76, tells us that Microsoft, with more than 450 lawyers, had unwittingly proliferated 1,836 different kinds of contracts. To hack away at that profusion its legal department “launched a new centralized contract tool last year [2009], slashing the number of contract templates to 212.” Impressive…
We learn from Corp. Counsel, June 2010 at 81, that Hewlett-Packard’s law department is retaking most of its patent prosecution work in-house. Two years ago, only 32 HP patents were prosecuted internally; in 2009 the company handled 350 in-house and its goal for 2010 is 600 (See my post of…
We learn from Corp. Counsel, June 2010 at 81, that Hewlett-Packard’s law department is retaking most of its patent prosecution work in-house. Two years ago, only 32 HP patents were prosecuted internally; in 2009 the company handled 350 in-house and its goal for 2010 is 600 (See my post of…
A meaty article in the ACC Docket, May 2010 at 75, details how the litigation group at Textron has put Six Sigma techniques to work. Textron’s initiative aims at “promoting continuous improvement by using specific training, processes and tools.” Several points jumped out at me as I read the article.…
Management researchers have identified both motivational barriers and knowledge barriers to knowledge transfer. Within a law department of some size, the motivational barriers show up as competitive responses between senior lawyers, lack of economic incentives, resistance to change, and turf protection. In addition to these motivational obstacles, an article in…
A good example of delegation and pushing in-house lawyers to add the most value comes from Corp. Counsel, June 2010 at 79. During 2009, Discover Financial Services, with 34 in-house lawyers, executed 700 business technology agreements and about 100 facilities agreements. To get something like four agreements done per workday,…
“Processes are collections of activities that, taken together, produce outputs for customers” (See my post of July 13, 2008: processes pulled together with 26 references.). This broad definition comes from the Acad. Mgt. Rev., April 2003, at 240. Continuing, it adds that “Process management entails three main practices: mapping processes,…
“The observation that unit costs tend to decline at a uniform rate with experience is ubiquitous in the organizational and economic literatures.” What the Acad. Mgt. Rev., Dec. 2005 at 1159, is refers to is called in the management literature as “organizational learning curves.” The concept certainly holds true in…
Absorbtive capacity is much discussed in the management literature, as well as in the Acad. Mgt. Rev., Dec. 2005, at 999. Absorbtive capacity “Refers to the ability of organizations and their units to recognize new external knowledge, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends.” For a law department, it…
Several points struck me from an article in Wired, Aug. 2010 at 132, about occupational stress. The most striking is that the higher your position, the less damage stress does to you. The reason for this seeming paradox is that the higher you rise the relatively more control you have…