The varying elements of experience for an in-house attorney consist of the attorney’s (1) formal education, (2) years since graduation from law school, (3) years in the current company’s law department, (4) degree of legal specialization over time, (5) actual work experience, which includes the number of different jobs held,…
In-house staff who are trained to support lawyers in substantive areas are highly valued (See my posts of Aug. 21, 2005: the terms paralegal or legal assistant; March 23, 2006: certificates of paralegals; March 19, 2006: certified legal assistants are as common as non-certified; Jan. 3, 2006: save money by…
The term “culture” in the context of law departments is slippery (See my post of Nov. 20, 2007: culture in law departments and references cited.) but whatever its meanings, people often acknowledge its presence. “That’s not the way we do things around here.” Let’s look at a few aspects of…
The law department of Starbucks Coffee Company has devised a way to help remote lawyers from feeling out of sight and out of mind. Through a somewhat informal process, lawyers based at headquarters select a “buddy” lawyer in the field. The buddy is a peer, at the same reporting level.…
A number of posts – 29 by my count – have dealt with aspects of diversity in law departments. As a descriptive term, diversity takes on many hues (See my posts of Sept. 4, 2005: defining a diverse lawyer; Sept. 4, 2006: minority counsel distinguished from diverse counsel; and Dec.…
“[Caterpillar] has paid for dozens of attorneys to earn MBAs from the University of Chicago.”. Since the department has 179 attorneys — of which only 58 are US-based — that means quite a high percentage have taken advantage of this professional development opportunity, all of which is reported in Corp.…
Of the 179 lawyers on Caterpillar’s legal team, 121 of them (68%) are based outside the United States. GM has nearly half its 236 lawyers based outside the U.S. and among McDonald’s 147 lawyers about half are based internationally. All these figures come from Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, June 2008…
Winner of Corporate Counsel’s Best Legal Department of 2008 award, the law department of Qwest Communications leaves us with a good example of a general counsel who pushed for a benefit to his team. As explained in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, June 2008 at 96, Rich Baer lobbied successfully for…
Mark Belnick, the former general counsel of Tyco, escaped criminal and SEC charges. Not surprisingly, he fulminates in InsideCounsel, June 2008 at 54, about the risks general counsel now face. Belnick says “the threat of becoming the target of an internal or external investigation has scared off bright and talented…
The importance of leadership by general counsel and others in law departments is everywhere proclaimed (See my posts of Dec. 19, 2005: a key goal; Feb. 4, 2006: a key to best deployment of knowledge workers; May 10, 2006 and Jan. 18, 2008: high in professional development rankings.). Definitions abound…