Some general counsel live far from their main office and commute by air. One, in the defense industry, flew in every week and stayed in an apartment. Another one I know flies from Connecticut to the Midwest where he heads a Fortune 250 company’s law department. I believe that Bill…
Lucy Kellaway, writing in the Fin. Times, April 2, 2007 at 8with her inimitable bite, lampoons annual evaluations. They are clogged with bureaucracy such as having pages and pages of evaluation form to complete and multiple signatures to obtain (See my post of Jan. 24, 2006 about the use of…
In all my consulting engagements, the members of the law department have views about the degree to which their department is “political.” No one defines the term, but “politics” is uniformly described as an undesirable feature. People try to ingratiate themselves and they try to land responsibility for high-profile projects.…
Once I noticed one ad with on a testimonial of a general counsel, I spotted others everywhere. Here are a few of recent vintage: An ad by Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear in Corp. Counsel, March 2007 at 41, quotes Matthew Fawcett of JDS Uniphase. The legal department of Concentra,…
A law department that has run into difficulties recruiting the right talent might consider granting rewards to employees for introductions that result in permanent appointments (See my post of March 26, 2007 with data on employee referrals.). According to the Fin. Times, April 16, 2007 at 6, “Almost half of…
In the Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 85, March 2007 at 115, co-authors Laurie Bassi and Daniel McMurrer describe a framework of 23 human capital management (HCM) practices. Readers can find the first nine summarized previously (See my post of May 11, 2007.). This post covers the final three categories, again…
A piece in the Fin. Times, April 26, 2007 at 14, reports on the professionalization of executive search. Among its observations, the article suggests five rules to observe if a searcher approaches you about a possible new position. “Be courteous, not superior.” A headhunter may be useful to you in…
This quote comes from the Fin. Times, Feb. 21, 2007 at 8. The law department of Wal-Mart has more than 150 lawyers: more than 40 percent of them are female and nearly a third are ethnic minorities. Other law departments may match or exceed the gender distribution – the J.C.…
Stefan Stern, who writes thoughtful columns for the Financial Times, passes on some good points about why it is better to recruit from the ranks (Fin. Times, March 6, 2007 at 7). “In the long run, growing your own talent, and then holding onto it, is always going to be…
When its former general counsel was to retire, Marriott International “had a wide open, nine-months, excruciating search for the right person.” As described in the Bisnow on Business E-Letter</em>, May 2007, the company selected a veteran in-house lawyer, Ed Ryan, to take charge of the 90-lawyer department. During the process…