Not that much hiring is underway during these troubled times, and not that many general counsel want to devote time to potential hires, but an article in talent mgt., Dec. 2008 at 50, discusses attention to “passive job seekers.” “[R]esearch found 62 percent of best-in-class organizations are focused on creating…
The autobiography of Borealis AG’s law department and its spunky general counsel, Ruth Steinholtz, appears in the ACC Docket, Vol. 26, Nov. 2008 at 38. Steinholtz and the coach/consultant she retained embraced wholeheartedly personal and team development activities. One of the goals was team effectiveness and a tool to get…
Several posts have commented on the emotional odyssey of Borealis AG’s law department and its deeply-committed general counsel, Ruth Steinholtz, which appears in the ACC Docket, Vol. 26, Nov. 2008 at 38. A small part of her many-pronged approach to departmental effectiveness appears at the end as Steinholtz summarizes the…
“Speaking very generally, private practice lawyers tend to move firms frequently, while their in-house counterparts stay put.” Sapna Bedi FitzGerald, chair of the Commerce & Industry Group and head of legal at LSL Property Services plc made this remark and believes that the lack of movement from job to job…
Corp. Counsel, Vol.16, Jan. 2008, at 57, which cites compensation data from Incomes Data Services Ltd. Based on data from 83 organizations (more than 900 in-house lawyers) the average base pay for a U.K. head of legal is now roughly $200,000, while the average salary for a deputy general counsel…
No one knows the frequency with which general counsel, or lawyers who report to them, avail themselves of executive coaches. My impression is that most general counsel in large companies can retain a personal coach with no one thinking twice about it. Indeed, some companies have a coach on call…
Actually, Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 87, Jan. 2009 at 56, says that these are traps that befall managers who take on new leadership roles and go after “quick wins.” The managerial mistakes, however, sound all too familiar in law departments. Among the newly-promoted senior managers studied by the authors, between…
In July 2008 BAE Systems’ general counsel chose a law firm partner to head its “Dispute Resolution and Risk Management” group. According to Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, Dec. 2008 at 96, this is the title of the group. I have no quarrel with “dispute resolution,” because that term – broader…
We admire law departments that describe the attributes of leadership. After all, doing so helps institutionalize the behaviors and values expected of leaders and introduces common terminology. Problems exist, however, with leadership competency programs, as outlined in the Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 86, Dec. 2008 at 31. The authors lay…
An entire page in the American Lawyer commands a hefty tab, but there it is on page 12” “The Chevron Law Function is pleased to present the first annual William T. Coleman Award to José “Jay” Layug.” (I think that William T. Coleman was the fourth United States Secretary of…