A newsletter from the US law firm DrinkerBiddle, Dec. 2007 at 2, discusses proposed bills in at least 13 states to prohibit “unlawful” workplace bullying. The newsletter informally defines workplace bullying as “the tendency of an individual or group of individuals to persistently display aggressive or unreasonable behavior against a…
A previous post summarized survey data on the purported laissez faire attitude of many firm and department managers about departures of top talent (See my post of Jan.17, 2008.). The same survey described there asked respondents to rate or list the “professional development programs” that are “most effective in retaining…
A survey by Robert Half Legal gathered responses from 300 attorneys among the largest law firms and corporations in North America. As mentioned by Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, Jan. 2008 at 55, all respondents had at least three years of experience in the legal field. One question was, “How…
By my understanding, an employee of a law department is something different when “engaged” than when “satisfied.” Perhaps this is my idiosyncratic nomenclature, but employee satisfaction connotes to a degree how they feel about some of the external factors that contribute to people’s attitudes about being at work. For example,…
Prof. Daniel Hamermesh of the Univ. of Texas has studied links between physical beauty and a person’s success. Some of his research about lawyers is summarized in the Economist, Dec. 22, 2007 at 54. For example, he analyzed students of an American law school and found that “those rated attractive…
True, career progression may be one of law-department management’s intractables (See my post of June 24, 2007.). Even so, there are some steps that general counsel can take to improve this prickly subject. 1. Publish a chart that shows for each level of progression roughly what the general counsel expects…
Some of you who gather your lawyers together once a year or so might benefit from a few of my observations from a recent conference. The three-day conference was excellently sited and orchestrated. 1. Panels with multiple speakers always go beyond the allotted time, and the more speakers on the…
Smile at the quote that follows, for it crams a lot of misunderstanding into a few lines: “For example, when faced with significant legal challenges, a company will often appoint a lawyer as their CEO. The legal department then has increased stature, power and resources that allow the firm to…
This nifty term, ripe with all kinds of ideas useful for law department managers, showed up in an article on innovation in services, published by Cal. Mgt. Rev., Vol. 50, Fall 2007 at 174. Socialization means how those who join a law department come to learn its culture – its…
A number of entries have dealt with flex-time (See my post of June 9, 2007 and four references cited.) and telecommuting (See my post of May 30, 2006.) but none of them have pulled together the basic principles of success. For convenience I will refer to them as “alternative hour…