“The most common interviewing methodology is the ‘past behavioral interview’ (PBI),” according to an article in the Harvard Bus. Rev., Nov. 2005 at 100, 106. A PBI avoids personal questions but asks about the candidate’s experience performing activities that are relevant for the job. The PBI “can explain about 25%…
An article in the Harvard Bus. Rev., Nov. 2005 at 100, explains a test for “executive intelligence.” The author, Justin Menkes, writes that “studies have shown that [IQ tests] predict work performance at least as well as competency interviews do (the most common assessment tool used today for hiring and…
There’s only one general counsel, and that person may be in the traces for years, so if he or she hires upwardly mobile, talented legal stars, their having a short track and no space to run will cause frustration (See my post of Oct. 10, 2005 on competitiveness among direct…
Over a five year period, more than 100,000 executives took emotional intelligence tests (Harv. Bus. Rev., Dec. 2005 at 24). Their scores for EQ, on a 100 point scale, peaked at the “manager” level – which in the case of lawyers might be about 8-12 years out of law school…
“Evidence suggests that, up to a point, an additional year of schooling is likely to raise an individual’s earnings about 10 percent” (NYTimes, Dec. 11, 2005 at BU6). I wondered whether this holds for law departments, so I did some calculations on data from 1998 for 90 law department administrators.…
Responding to the latest Corporate Counsel survey of in-house lawyer satisfaction (Nov. 18, 2005), Ellis Mirsky of Trial.com criticizes two points. First, he believes that survey respondents being described as “generally contented” is pretty thin gruel: “Attorneys need to be developing skills, increasing knowledge and securing their future for themselves…
As I read an article about general counsel who graduated Columbia Law School (I am class of 1977), I kept noticing the large numbers of people who report to the lawyers profiled. George Madison at TIAA-CREF “manages a team of 250” in compliance and law, Brad Smith at Microsoft “oversees…
Given the increasing importance of general counsel understanding the business they represent, it makes sense that many of them have held positions outside of the law department. They learn to see the world as a client, and they grapple better with the complexities of their company. I can think of…
A survey in the spring of 2005 by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 45 percent of the responding companies had appointed a Chief Risk Officer or equivalent, although the majority of these were in the financial services sector (Fin. Times, Oct. 18 at Spec. Rpt. 2). Egg, the UK-based…
A book review (Fin. Times, Oct. 15/16, 2005 at W4) draws from the theory of choice the notion of positional goods. Having the best title, the nicest view of the park, the closest parking spot, the largest bonus is impossible for every lawyer to achieve because they “are all pushing…