I commend general counsel who talk to journalists about their department (See my post of May 20, 2005 about star performers being touted and my post of May 20, 2005 about three responses to journalists.) An article describing a management initiative – a budgeting approach, diversity effort, document management system…
Readers may want to read the posts through May 31, 2005 on Law Department Management according to the categories in which I have placed them. Here are the topics and the URLs for the various PDF compilations. Each compilation is 30-60 posts. For Cost Control; for Metrics and Benchmarks; for…
Both terms are used interchangeably. If one of them means that the person has obtained a certificate after appropriate training, then why are those certificates referred to as “paralegal certification?” A tautology? Someone explained to me that any person could be a “para-legal,” such as a filing clerk or a…
I resurrected a press release from Nov. 2003 by Foster Wheeler Ltd. It announced the appointment of the law firm Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe to serve as the company’s General Counsel. A senior partner of Heller would resign from the Foster Wheeler Board to “lead the Company’s legal team.”…
Rosemary Berkery, before her appointment as general counsel of Merrill Lynch, spent two years as co-head of the research department and two years as head of investment products and marketing for Merrill’s private equity group. She predicts, according to her interview in the Financial Times (May 5, 2005 at 9),…
Many general counsel believe that when they retire other general counsel will eagerly seek out their sage management advice. After all, aren’t they begged to speak on panels? Don’t reporters call them for pithy quotes? Aren’t outside counsel bowing and scraping? Don’t consultants swarm like flies? Haven’t they belonged to…
Many general counsel recognize the value of sitting next to or near the CEO, but worry that having an office on Executive Row means not working in the midst of the law department. The GCs relish proximity to the senior executives, yet miss leading and interacting easily with their staff.…
One of the critical success factors (ugh, consultant speak) for a general counsel is grooming replacements for her position and other key positions in the department. Thar be dragons, one might say, but a recent article spots many of the critters and suggests how to slay them. Succession planning, one…
Steven Keeva in the ABA Journal (July 2005 at 72) proclaims: “Research over the last decade has conclusively demonstrated that emotional intelligence [known as EQ] predicts success more than any other single factor – more than subject matter knowledge and job experience,” according to Jean Greaves, co-author of a book…
The U.K.-based law firm, CMF (Cameron McKenna), recently surveyed senior executives (presumably in Britain). According to the Financial Times (July 14, 2005) “one-third of senior executives said that while the Chief Executive has overall responsibility for corporate social responsibility, in-house lawyers come second. More than half the respondents said in-house…