Practicing lawyers within a company should report to the general counsel (See my post of May 30, 2005: risk otherwise to attorney-client privilege.). So classically legal functions are clearly in the fold: 1. Contracts (See my post of May 5, 2006: contracts with 15 references.) 2. General legal counsel 3.…
This blog has said very little about initiatives by companies, through the efforts of their law departments, to influence prospective legislation and change existing legislation. These endeavors are generally called “lobbying” (See my post of March 3, 2006: lobbying; March 3, 2006: lobbying’s oblique relation to law departments; Aug. 8,…
Corporate governance issues rank high on the list of concerns law departments know they should address (See my post of Aug. 14, 2005: CEOs think general counsel should spend more time on governance; March 6, 2005: governance as a challenging area of law; July 25, 2005: legal risk and governance…
In-house counsel represent the company, not individual employees of the company. So runs the mantra, and it is true. A recent survey, however, published in Corp. Bd. Mbr., Vol. 11, July/Aug. 2008 at 86, extends the scope of whom the hard-pressed internal lawyers represent. One of the questions asked of…
In early 2007, 84 general counsel of “leading multinational companies” submitted survey data on the functions that report to them other than traditional legal functions. The general counsel are largely from companies with their headquarters in Northern Europe or the UK and Ireland and these findings are from PLCLaw Dept.…
In the United States, many general counsel also serve as the corporate secretary. Hence, among other tasks of that role, they are responsible for minutes of Board meetings, corporate governance documents, and the logistics of the Board (See my posts of Dec. 12, 2007: with references to corporate secretary; April…
Regarding assignment of structure and responsibilities, the three most common choices from a recent survey were “mainly by business area or product line” (25.3%), “mainly by area of law” (25.3%) and mainly by geographic area (16.9%). This data dates from early 2007 when 84 companies responded to an online questionnaire…
The law department of Sarah Lee has 30 lawyers in 11 offices worldwide. That description comes from Corp. Bd. Mbr., Vol. 11, July/Aug. 2008 at 80, in a piece on its former general counsel, Rick Palmore. Palmore has recently moved to General Mills to lead its law department. Two observations…
In the midst of a profile of Leonard Kennedy, the General Counsel of Sprint Nextel, Corp. Bd. Mbr., Vol. 11, July/Aug. 2008 at 79, the author refers to the 2005 merger of the two companies. Kennedy, who had been the GC of Nextel was put in charge of both legal…
This blog has commented on relocations of lawyers (See my post of May 25, 2008 – 7 posts.) but the topic is not even remotely fully covered. An advertising section www.fortune.com/adsectins in Fortune, July 2008 at S7, lays out data from GMAC’s 2008 Global Relocation Trends. That report ranks the…