Risks from reductions in force among the lawyers of a legal team include the following: Increases in time to accomplish tasks, reduction or delay in services, for example, contracts or patent filings, and any contractual work More legal work pushed back to clients to handle or simply not done Pressures…
“Use a designated contract coordinator from each in-house business unit, thereby streamlining the processes from ‘review and revise’ to final negotiation and execution of contracts in each unit. This minimizes the number of employees needed to finalize contracts.” This idea comes from 75 cost-cutters in the ACC Docket, Vol. 27,…
In-house counsel spend hours on conference calls, so any suggestions can make a difference in effectiveness. I took these tips from a post by Mike Dillon and tweaked them a bit (See my post of June 14, 2007: six suggestions for better conference calls.). Deal with the fact you will…
I admit to a belief based on no data: large law departments always have some rainy day cash they can spend. General counsel of big departments steward large budgets and can almost always find funds, if they want to, to pilot a program, hire a consultant, invest in new software,…
A notable summary comes from an article in the McKinsey Quarterly, 2008, No. 4, at 131, by two Stanford professors that has to do with what facilitates positive change. “First, [leaders] can think constantly about how to develop the most successful blend of existing ideas rather than the newest and…
“[I]nnovations spread quickly when organizations focus relentlessly on selecting and spreading ideas in ways that ease the burden of thought and action for everyone involved.” The quote comes from a thought-provoking article in the McKinsey Quarterly, 2008, No. 4, at 131, by Stanford professors Hayagreeva Rao and Robert Sutton. That…
Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies on setting goals show that measurable, specific, and somewhat (but not absurdly) difficult ones are best for motivating effort.” Two authors of an article in the McKinsey Quarterly, 2008, No. 4, at 136, believe that “motivating people to action requires a blend of lofty aspirations (to…
Hats off to David Munn for his efforts to pull together sources of information on contract management. I extracted this material from his blog. Although I believe legal departments should not have administrative responsibility for contracts, it is still useful for them to understand the activities and alternatives available to…
Techniques exist to encourage people to speak out in meetings (See my post of May 8, 2008: instant feedback after a meeting.). These ideas are most constructive in staff meetings where members periodically convene. Remind senior lawyers and big mouths before the meetings start not to dominate conversations. Start with…
InsideCounsel, Jan. 2009 at 57, summarizes of a gathering of in-house counsel. Murray Aust, a senior counsel at Royal Bank of Canada, describes briefly his law department’s program called “Demand Management.” He refers to it as the complement to vendor management, meaning they “developed a checklist that literally starts with…