Trenton, New Jersey, accepted $22 million in state aid because of the deep budgetary hole it was in. That lifeline from the state came with a number of restrictions. Bloomberg Businessweek, Dec. 5, 2011 at 38, mentions that one of the constraints is that the state’s Community Affairs Department now…
In an article about how to integrate two law departments when their companies merge, there is a list of “Twenty-Five Key Areas of Focus for Legal Department Integration.” The list appears in the ACC Docket, Nov. 2011 at 62. The first eight areas highlight management of the operations of the…
Bob Santamaria is profiled in Asia-MENA Counsel, Vol. 9, Issue 7 at 40, Santamaria being the Group General Counsel of ANZ Bank, the third largest in Australia. He estimates that ANZ now has around forty-five lawyers across some thirty jurisdictions who work alongside the remainder of the team back home.…
A profile in Asia-MENA Counsel, Vol. 9, Issue 7 at 40, describes the role of the Group General Counsel of ANZ Bank, the third largest in Australia. The role requires Bob Santamaria to report to and interact on a daily basis with three of the bank’s most senior stakeholders, the…
Each strata of a law department, from person to unit to the entire function, has its own regularities and concerns. A “lower level” won’t fully inform a “higher level.” Scientists have realized for years that an understanding of atomic interactions doesn’t encompass the larger sphere of molecules, nor does understanding…
An article in Sloan Management Review, Fall 2011 at 21, reports 2004 data on the concentration levels of the four largest competitors in 50 industries. That is, in Aircraft the level almost reaches 100 percent, because four companies (Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and Embrair?) dominate the market completely. Helicopters, smart cards,…
Some lawyers describe their department as “hierarchical.” I have tried to unravel the concepts in that term because it has many. Five of them are summarized below. Rank has more than its share of privileges. Distinctions in levels manifest themselves in many ways. Hierarchy has to do with special perquisites…
Andrea Bonime-Blanc oversees internal audit, enterprise risk management, ethics, corporate responsibility and compliance for Verint Systems, a global software company. She reports to the Chairman of the Audit Committee and indirectly to the Chief Legal Officer. In a recent BNA Insights article (Corporate Governance Reports) she gives four reasons why…
Less than four years ago, Pernod Ricard created six dedicated hubs of intellectual property lawyers and paralegals specialized by different categories of alcoholic beverages. About 30 of them work in these hubs, which are usually located near the production facilities. All this is spelled out in the Leaders League 2010…
Winmark, through its CLO Programme members, obtained survey data in the Autumn of 2010 from 124 UK general counsel. The 27-page report can be requested from John Jeffcock. Here is the report’s summary of what happened to those departments overall in the financial meltdown. “Like in 2009, 2010 saw a…