Where do law department administrators come from? Data from the First Law Department Operations Survey, published by InsideCounsel and Blickstein Group, identifies the three most common sources. Of the 33 who responded to the question, about a quarter joined from a similar role in another law department, a quarter were…
Consider another finding from the First Law Department Operations Survey, published by InsideCounsel and Blickstein Group in cooperation with Huron Consulting and David Cambria, Director of Operations, Law Department, Aon Corporation. The survey obtained responses from 50 administrators, and among other questions asked them to choose from 10 attributes the…
Every law department that allows its lawyers to work from home has to consider how it should deploy technology to permit that telecommuting to be productive (See my post of May 30, 2006: telecommuting with 5 references.). An item in 8-K, Vol. 4, Fall 2008 at 32, lists nine technologies…
Some people break down the current workforce into four groups: ”Traditionalists, baby boomers, generation X, and generation Y (sometimes referred to as the Millennial generation).” These generalizations (pun fully intended) cast a wide shadow (See my post of June 13, 2006: age differences and extroversion; June 30, 2007: age differences…
The top lawyer of a global law department ought to think about how to create a one-world department. Shared culture, shared training, and shared experiences knit a geographically dispersed legal team. The general counsel of Synnex, the $7 billion IT information provider, has lawyers in China. According to the general…
As stated in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, Dec. 2008 at 111, the merger of Akzo Nobel and International Chemicals in early 2008 created a combined legal department of 240 lawyers. Within a few months that number had fallen to 180 lawyers, a 25 percent reduction. Mergers result in layoffs, including…
At the American Kennel Club, its law department of three lawyers and two staff attorneys is certainly dog friendly. According to its general counsel, Margaret Poindexter, in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, Dec. 2008 at 105, “Our building is full of dogs” – but the dogs must have the “good canine…
The general counsel of BAE Systems, Philip Bramwell, is on record that “his goal is to create a world-class legal department with specialists, rather than generalists.” His disparaging words in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, Dec. 2008 at 96, about in-house generalists were biting: “Who gets out of bed looking to…
To be a manager need not only mean that people report to you. Indeed, every in-house lawyer is a manager, even if no one reports to that lawyer. The lawyer must still manage her time (See my post of June 26, 2008: priorities with 6 references.). The lawyer must manage…
Should you have your employment lawyer, who advises clients on how to minimize litigation, also handle employment lawsuits? Should your patent lawyers prosecute in the morning and litigate in the afternoon? How about your environmental lawyers likewise playing offense and defense? And then the ultimate. Should transaction-oriented business lawyers, generalists…