Everything influences a law department’s workload, from clients to cases, from resources to roles, structure to software, time tracking to training (See my post of May 19, 2009: descriptive metrics for legal department workloads; and May 26, 2007: productivity metrics increase in the face of workload.). Too many things influence…
A large portion of what in-house lawyers cope with, unravel, interpret and apply circles around regulations promulgated by the federal government. The Economist, March 19, 2011 at 5 says that “Some 1,000 pages of federal regulations were added each year Mr. Bush was in office. A quarter million Americans have…
“Everything in moderation” echoes Greek philosophy but for law departments, even mothers’ milk curdles if overdone. Consider several assuredly good things that turn bad if overdone. Law departments want excellent client satisfaction ratings, but if they rise too high something is amiss. If lawyers never rein in clients, what good…
Dan Ariely, writing in the Harv. Bus. Rev., March 2011 at 40, describes a thought-provoking contrast between what he terms “complete contracts” and “incomplete contracts.” He believes that “business’s increasing dependence on (I would say, fetish for) absurdly detailed contracts in every situation” leads to problems. If some situation arises…
“We trust our legal department to be risk-averse and process-oriented, and as a result, they’re not very provocative and they’re not controversial.” With those disparaging words from KM World, March 2011 at S3, an executive of a content management vendor roundly dismissed at least his legal department. Process-oriented. The image…
For every hour today’s in-house lawyer works, productivity far exceeds what was possible as recently as 20 years ago. That’s a broad claim for a tiny post, but let me draw on economic history, inspired by Deirdre N. McCloskey, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World (Univ. Chic.…
Meetings — @#$&^%$ — the bane of in-house lawyers. Can’t live with them but (in a big company) can’t live without them. Further, a well-known software designer, Will Wright of Electronic Arts, estimated that with a team of twenty people, “three hours was usually spent working for every hour spent…
In 2006, Fujitsu began publishing its intellectual property strategy. Fujitsu, according to Intellectual Prop. Mag., Sept. 2010 at 93, is the world’s third largest IT services company and a major technology innovator. Making its IP direction available to the world, the company leads in this practice – few have followed…
“The pursuit of perfection is one of the great adversaries of speed, performance and execution” writes an author in the Conference Rev., Winter 2011 at 5. In-house counsel should take the advice to heart: “Rather than seeking what cannot in most cases ever be achieved, it makes more sense to…
As software improves our ability to search documents for ideas and concepts, instead of only for text strings, in-house lawyers will not only cope with discovery requests more effectively but will also more effectively be able to find useful material for their practice. KMWorld, Feb. 2011 at S9, has an…