“Any three workers in a group performing similar tasks earn substantially more than any other two.” This quote from the NY Times, April 25, 2010 at BU4, befuddled me. The author, a respected economist at Cornell, explains that while economic theory holds that the combined salaries of the two best…
Trevor Faure, author of The Smarter Legal Model: more from less (Practical Law 2010) devotes pages 50-66 of his book to the basic principles of neuro-linguistic program (NLP). I have questioned the utility of NLP (See my post of Oct. 21, 2005: neuro-linguistic programming.), but perhaps the set of beliefs…
No manager can control an independent contractor (law firm lawyer, temporary hire, consultant, vendor) as well as an employee. Each external worker has interests that diverge from the manager’s to some degree. Even employees pursue their own interests. With both external hires and internal hires, the ever-present risks and how…
A law review article, based on empirical research, makes a good case for the vital role of general counsel when a company’s legal problems come to the unwanted attention of the public. Public relations plays a crucial role when there is a crisis or harsh scrutiny in the press and…
Based on a survey of large US legal departments, the average number of years a general counsel occupied that position was 4.6 years. The median was even shorter, a mere three years. This data comes from a survey during 2007 of Fortune 500 legal departments and is reported in a…
My friend Brad Blickstein,head of the Blickstein Group, wanted to supplement my recent post about law department administrators who mediate between the legal function and other support functions. I had mentioned the profusion of titles for administrators so he helpfully sent a partial list of responses to the question “What…
One of the metrics that came out of a survey conducted by the Harvard Law School Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry tells us the provenance of new general counsel. A table from an unpublished article by four authors from the Harvard Center (at 19), gives results from…
Aaron Van Nice, Director of Operations for the legal department of Baxter International, will be speaking at Mitratech’s upcoming Interact conference. The conference will take place May 16-19, but I read Van Nice’s bio in the program materials. Among his many responsibilities, “Mr. Van Nice has primary responsibility for being…
The general counsel I interview can always rank their direct reports in terms of their ability to take on the general counsel’s position. Some they recognize as very strong candidates (“X is my likely heir apparent.”) while others are pegged as workmanlike lawyers who will never make the jump. Most…
A publication of the law firm of Butler Snow has in its Pro Te: Solutio, Jan. 2010 at 13, an impressive three-page summary of the requirements in each state “governing admission of out-of-state attorneys who represent business organizations as in-house counsel within the forum state.” Shannon Hoffert compiled the list…