Guest blogger Jeff Kaplan writes that “SEC Rules of Part 205 – based on Section 307 of Sarbanes-Oxley – requires attorneys practicing before the SEC to take certain actions if faced with evidence of a securities law violation. When first enacted, the SEC standards caused many law departments to issue…
Some linkages exist between the shares of a publicly traded company and the actions of its legal department. Most of the connections are tenuous. A few posts have mentioned earnings per share (See my post of Sept. 7, 2008: doubts about usefulness of EPS; Jan. 7, 2009: total shareholder return…
Back references of six or more collected on a topic (See my post of Sept. 16, 2010: Part LXI.). Accruals (See my post of Oct. 5, 2010: accruals with 6 references.). Complacent firms (See my post of Sept. 23, 2010: entrenched and content firms with 7 references.). Conflicts of interest…
18 lists on Twitter that include this blog and an analysis of their reach (Aug. 3, 2010) My tweets on 18 lists that follow 4,150 Twitterers but have 470 people following them. Will the numbers reported on alternative fees please stand still a moment? (Aug. 5, 2010) Definitions of AFAs…
Number of legal departments in the US. According to Intellectual Prop., Fall 2010 at 48, “There are 30,000 companies in the United States that have at least 100 employees.” If so, it is very hard to imagine as many as 20,000 legal departments since many of them are likely to…
The Economist, Oct. 2, 2010 at 72, draws on data from the World Intellectual Property Organisation to show that patent applications in 2009 were 450,000 in the United States, 350,000 in Japan, 310,000 in China and 140,000 in Europe (my estimates from a chart). Small wonder that translation costs are…
Both are tools for management that have distinguished pedigrees. Every general counsel creates budgets and most should seek benchmarks from time to time. Both offer more insights to those comfortable with mathematics. Percentage change, compound annual growth rates, correlations and other math methods fly in formation. Both are attacked for…
Retirement formulas, such as 50 years old and 15 years of service. When general counsel worry about loss of talent, one of the considerations is the age of lawyers in the department and whether they are eligible for retirement. Companies have different formulae, one of which is summarized in the…
Natural log one of metaposts with references (See my post of Aug. 9, 2010: Part XLX.). Africa (See my post of Sept. 8, 2010: Africa with 9 references.). Benchmark survey of General Counsel Metrics (See my post of Sept. 6, 2010: GCM study with 36 references.). Collective, consortia, (See my…
No one has written to say that my retrospective selections have any value, but I keep doing them – with thumbnail summaries – because it pushes me to rethink my material and consider priorities of ideas. Your thoughts by email? Could a law department declare 10-11AM as quiet time, with…