To make sure initiatives in law departments are carried out, general counsel often appoint committees. For example, as described in 8-K, Vol. 4, Fall 2008 at 15, the legal division of Pfizer has a very active Diversity Committee. In fact, that Committee has a Steering Committee, which is a smaller…
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank appointed its first general counsel in January, an Olswang partner named Simon Copleston. When he arrived there were three lawyers at the bank who specialized in debt collection work, and oil was pushing $140 a barrel. Copleston quickly added seven more lawyers, thereby creating a legal…
In Chapter 3 of Michael Shermer, Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown (Time Books 2005) at 38, Shermer considers six “heresies” that challenge deeply rooted scientific assumptions. He summarizes his discussion of the validity of the unscientific positions with a range. For “each of these heresies I have…
It seems extravagant (of time) and duplicitous (of integrity) at the end of a competitive bid to negotiate simultaneously with more than one law firm. Yet the ACC Docket, Vol. 25, Sept. 2007 at 43, offers some language to enable your department to do so, albeit in the context of…
Tracing a visit to this blog from the ABA’s website and its compendium of blawgs, I took a few minutes to see how many of its categories pertain to law department management. Amidst the surfeit of substantive law blogs, here are the 17 categories I noticed that might pertain to…
My friend Ron Friedmann, of Integreon, was talking about offshoring legal services. He stressed that cost economies are not the only benefits of using resources in lower-cost locales to handle legal-related services. Ron made the point that when a competent LPO (legal process outsoucer) takes on a set of tasks…
General counsel can legitimately fret that a process to select outside counsel through their responses to a Request for Proposal can careen off the tracks. The team that develops the RFP has a tendency to Christmas-tree it with lots of steps, controls, and questions. Too many cooks spoil the broth;…
Bob Elliott, President of AKS-Labs in Raleigh, NC, sent me examples of his company’s balanced scorecards for legal departments. AKS-Labs offers software, Balanced Scorecard Designer, that automates the development of a scorecard:. The AKS-Labs litigation scorecard looks at lawsuits from five perspectives, including cost and cycle time, and lets the…
Rather than wading through a full RFP process, consider an abbreviated method. Explain to an experienced service provider the outlines of what you are seeking. Provide them with as much detail as you can and ask them to share with you what they think they might be able to do…
A legal department I am familiar with has prepared a guide for non-lawyers to the negotiation of contracts. It makes sense for in-house counsel to articulate negotiation strategies and tactics, both for themselves and for their clients. Much time in contractual dealings goes to working out the terms (See my…