Compensation as that term applies to legal departments has many components. I have assembled below some posts on five of them (See my post of July 21, 2008: compensation accounts for largest portion of a law department’s internal budget; and Feb. 28, 2006: explain the value of compensation and benefits…
Some companies and some general counsel agitate for a workplace that recognizes there are things in people’s lives other than in-boxes, conference calls, and meetings. These enlightened advocates recognize the whole person, and seek a better balance between the demands of the 9-to-5 world and the world of groceries, sick…
According to Bus. Law Today, July/Aug. 2008 at 7, a recent poll by Blumberg Capital Partners inquired about what “workplace factors dampen employees’ spirits and decrease their productivity most?” The number one complaint related to office conditions, with 47 percent of respondents slamming “extreme office temperatures due to poor heating,…
In Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15 Aug. 2008 at 76, Amy Miller reports on the Fortune 500 general counsel who were among their company’s five highest-paid officers in 2007. I assembled the averages of their cash and equity compensation in a previous post (See my post of Aug. 12, 2008: handsome…
Of the Fortune 500 general counsel who were among their company’s five highest-paid officers in 2007, the 100 with the highest cash compensation had an average salary of $567,195. Twice as high, at $1,039,931 was their average bonus/nonequity incentive cash compensation. On top of that pile of cash, their average…
Career path, ethnicity, and diversity are each unusual aspects of Gloria Santona, the general counsel of McDonald’s. Santona is the subject of a profile in Corp. Bd. Mbr., Vol. 11, July/Aug. 2008 at 83, where the reader finds out more about these aspects. Thirty-one years ago, Santona, who became general…
Gradually I am turning away from systems and technology and other impersonal resources of law departments and towards an emphasis on people (See my post of July 20, 2008: resources is the wrong word for humans.). All the best practices in the world falter if your people are incompetent, unmotivated,…
We admire law departments that regularly hive off general counsel to other companies. We recognize that strong talent may have too little head room in one department, but can stand tall elsewhere (See my posts of Dec. 19, 2007: inevitable to lose some talented lawyers; and Jan. 18, 2008: general…
It’s tough to accept the general counsel position from outside the company. Consider imported CEOs. An article in strategy + business, Summer 2008 at 80, looks at the performance of companies that promoted an insider CEO compared to those that hired a CEO from outside the company. For the 10…
Every time you hear about “the problem of career paths” for corporate counsel, you hear that the discontent wells up in part because “there is only one GC position.” The implication is that everyone below that level aspires to topple the king or queen and seize the throne. That regicide…