The Wall St. J., Sept. 15, 2007 at R6, explains a technology that helps people strike up conversations. Each person wears an electronic name tag, which contains a whole range of information about the person’s background, skills, job experience and interests. When a person approaches someone who has related characteristics…
In its latest compensation report, in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, Aug. 2007, at 80, the author notes that “Since 1993, corporations have been barred from taking tax deductions for any portion of an executive’s salary that exceeds $1 million.” As general counsel salaries have risen over time and bumped into…
The general counsel of Simmons Bedding Co., Kristin McGuffey has three lawyers reporting to her according to GC South, July 17, 2007. When McGuffey started in 2001 the legal department of the Atlanta-based company consisted of only herself and one paralegal, but she has added three lawyers, another paralegal, and…
Lord Acton’s famous saying haunts general counsel, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Bullying and unpleasant behavior can afflict leaders of the legal pack (See my posts of Aug. 4, 2007 about “jerk” behavior; and Dec. 31, 2006 on the “imperial” general counsel; June 28, 2005 on Gallup’s findings…
To find out what clients think about individual performers in a department, a general counsel might make it a practice to inquire. Not just to crudely ask “who is good?,” but to ask a series of senior executives exactly the same question: “Who do you think are the two or…
The McKinsey Quarterly, 2007 No. 2, at 31, gives examples of jerks and how some companies explicitly try to avoid hiring or keeping them. Some of the undesirable actions include blind copying, politics, parochialism, silos, and playing games. Robert Sutton, a professor at Stanford University and the author of the…
John Donohue, profiled in InsideCounsel, July 2007 at 96, is the general counsel of Rhodia, Inc. He “rotates lawyers through various business units to keep their professional relationships fresh.” Who knows what that quote means; it seems like the argument for changing auditors periodically, so that the relationship between a…
A highly-competent, high-performing lawyer can make a huge difference to a law department and indeed to a company (See my posts of Aug. 16, 2006 on super-lawyers; and March 16, 2006 on A-players.). Many law departments try to identify very strong performers early and nurture them (See my posts of…
The Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 85, March 2007 at 115, article on human capital management practices has spawned multiple posts (See my posts of May 11, 2007 with the first 9 practices and May 28, 2007 with the final 14; as well as June 10, 2007 on Leadership; June 11,…
I referred in a previous post (See my post of July 25, 2007.) to a method for valuing stock options, which is called the binomial method. I just know in my bones that my loyal readers, all three of them, crave more information. So, here is an explanation of that…