The most common method of assigning litigation lawyers is by type of case. An alternative is to assign them by geographic area – especially if most of the lawsuits are similar – or by business unit. Sometimes new cases simply go to the lawyer who has the most availability. And…
Two speakers from SPI litigation direct presented useful information at the recent NJCCA Full Day Conference. Their PowerPoint slides explain the need for litigation contingency planning, and talk through the basic steps: assess discovery patterns in your law suits, look at the technology and processes that can help you respond…
The Project for Attorney Retention (PAR), an initiative of the Program of Worklife Law at American University’s Washington College of Law, published a lengthy report in December 2003 (10 Wm. & Mary J. of Women & L. 367 (Spring 2004)). The authors wrote that “the vast majority of attorneys reported…
Although all companies have trademarks and nearly all have domain names, patents sit in the first chair. Patents conjure up genius inventors, market creating ideas brought to commercial triumph, super-sized litigation fees, seven figure annual maintenance fees, and whopping infringement damages. Patents are steroids; trademarks are body lotions. Trademarks, even…
I learned that the law department of a major consumer products company has a writing program for its staff. Excellent idea, because much persons isn’t really actually you know what I mean all that good enuff when they write words what they think is ok, sort of. At least one…
A consumer products company had fixed on ten core principles of its brand-building efforts. While consulting to the company’s law department, we matched against those principles how the lawyers and paralegals estimated they had spent their time in the previous twelve months. We honed those activities down to about 19…
Why might a general counsel send all the work in an area – such as environmental, patent, ERISA, or employment (and some or all of the inside staff doing it) – to a single law firm on a fixed fee basis? Why outsource an area of work? To reduce costs:…
A unit of Cargill’s legal department, cited in a GC Roundtable report, has a policy regarding litigation. “Except in cases involving allegations of fraud, illegal or criminal activity or cases with significant policy or precedential value, the Law Department will no longer handle matters with a dollar exposure of less…
Here’s a controversial idea: “The [Cisco Systems] legal department set out to satisfy managers by automating routine legal transactions and letting employees handle the details by the Web.” (ABA Journal, Sept. 2005 at pg. 55). Most law departments shiver at the thought of letting clients, barbarians outside the gates, create…
Each year, the law department of a $20 billion plus manufacturer in the Northeast processes from its 250 law firms about 26,000 invoices (one hundred a day!). The department requires its firms to submit a bill every month for every matter they are handling. Suppose each invoice gets five minutes…