Having read my post about general counsel and other inside lawyers who host blogs, Doug Hagerman, the progressive General Counsel of Rockwell Automation, took the time to comment. His experience deserves more than a mere thanks and follow-on remark. “Hi Rees — I have a blog that is published internally…
Do companies that lead in employee-friendliness, such as those honored by Fortune, have law departments that get mentioned for management prowess? No. Does that silence imply anything derogatory about their law departments? No. I searched among my 6,153 posts for mentions of the top dozen companies in the latest list…
Women lawyers are neurologically very similar to men lawyers. Inside the brain, there are no sex differences in mirror neuron functioning; no intra-brain communication differences because of lateralization and the larger corpus callosum of women; and foetal levels of testosterone don’t determine our cerebral destiny. Society does, but not brain…
Everyone cares about how much money they make and whether their paycheck is higher or lower than peers. So, fueling the clamor, on the last day of January I published my column with InsideCounsel on some sources online for in-house counsel pay data. Click to be on the money, so…
“Currently, the average U.S. manager stays with an employer for a median of six years, and about two thirds of the open positions are filled by outsiders.” Both figures from Perspectives, Nov. 2010 at 46, seem high if I consider turnover of senior lawyers in law departments – the direct…
Rent-seekers, a term used by economists and political scientists for those who extort extra benefits because of their power, exist in law departments. A Deputy General Counsel who balks at agreeing to a new software package may get a pass on having her team have to use it for a…
Alternatives for self-education range widely. As I thought back over what I have seen or read about during my consulting career, I came up with the following 17: Brown bag lunches and informal methods (See my post of May 1, 2005: spreading CLE knowledge to the rest of the law…
A piece in Forbes, May 24, 2010 at 46, suggests that psychological testing of candidates for executive positions has become much more common. “Today, two thirds of 517 businesses surveyed … say they evaluate executives using a suite of behavioral, cognitive, critical and psychological tests.” The most arduous tests require…
Morgan Stanley’s legal department promotes diversity in many ways. According to Sutherland Asbill & Brennan’s Partnering Perspectives, Winter 2010 at 17, the department (1) runs a summer intern program for first-year law students, (2) assists youth from underserved communities, (3) sponsors a South African attorney to comes to the US…
My two recent posts on salary data from online sources drew tremendous responses as judge by click thoughts (See my post of Jan. 13, 2011: MySalary.com; and Jan. 18, 2011: Robert Half International.). Just maybe what in-house lawyers earn has some interest? To research I went and found the Internet…