As I write in my blook on law department structure, “In U.S. law departments, the number of direct reports to the general counsel rises gradually with the number of lawyers, but plateaus at around six.” What accounts for the number of reports to any particular general counsel? Assume a general…
Some observers call law firms “global” if they have at least 25 percent of their lawyers oversees, I read in David Galbenski, Unbound: How Entrepreneurship is Dramatically Transforming Legal Services Today (2009) at 37. Why not apply the same threshold for a definition applicable to legal departments? I have twice…
Don Liu, general counsel of Xerox, states in a recent book that “Fifty-three percent of Xerox’s revenues and related legal work is not based solely on U.S. law.” I wonder if Liu is simply stating that a bit more than half of Xerox’s revenue comes from outside the United States,…
A lawyer’s office is her castle, her sanctuary, her expression of self, not to mention her frequent lunchroom. Having just issued my metapost on physical configurations beyond the office door, here let me zero in on the individual offices of lawyers in corporations (See my post of Sept. 30, 2009:…
This blog has passed on thoughts from time to time about the architecture of law departments (See my post of Sept. 16, 2008: physical layout of offices with 10 references.). It is a rare general counsel who has any significant say in how the overall physical footprint of the department…
Mark Prebble, Managing In-House Legal Services: Providing High Value Support for Your Organisation (Thorogood 2009) at 5, writes that “My belief is that the minimum size for a viable legal department is two, one of whom may be a good support person with paralegal capabilities.” Prebble, who consults to legal…
A survey conducted by Asian-Counsel published findings about the size of the “legal/compliance teams.” Here are the size breakdowns, rounded off: 1 person (7%), 2-5 people (42%), 6-20 people (34%), 21-50 people (10%), and 51 or more (7%). This size pattern, from Asian-Counsel, e-edition, Vol. 7, July/Aug. at 24, matches…
It has an officious tone, an imperious that puts me off. Beating hearts and thinking brains are within, yet the clammy, 1984-ish “The Office” may or may not oblige your obsequies. I like flesh and blood (See my post of July 20, 2008: do not describe colleagues as “resources”.) and…
Finally, I have finished my blog book on effective law department structure. It is 143 pages, including the index. Unlike my blooks on outside counsel management and talent management, this one is written like a book, but with 100 or so blog posts about structure interspersed. It has recommendations and…
In the 1930s, Karl Popper, a philosopher of natural and social science, introduced the notion of society as an unpredictable complex system. At a smaller scale, the economy is a quintessential example of a complex system. According to William A. Sherden, The Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and…