Journalists call me from time to time and I always like talking with them. They usually know about some situation that is new to me and they ask good questions. They make me think. Sherry Karabin called a while back regarding a piece on consultants to law departments, which appears…
A previous post listed more than 20 ways to bring down legal costs, each with some percentage estimate or dollar value of the saving (See my post of Aug. 21, 2008: estimates of savings from techniques.). Other methods of saving money have shown up on this blog, but the initiatives…
General counsel read and hear that they can reduce their spending by plunging into all kinds of techniques. True, at least to some extent, but some of the claimed savings are grossly exaggerated. I have collected a startling range of savings estimates or claimed actual amounts from more than 18…
Vendors of software have conjured these two terms to imply a difference. In Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, June 2008 at 52, both terms — matter management and legal spend management — appear but my feeling is there is much ado about nothing. All matter databases worth talking about keep…
The 2007 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey asked a group of questions about law departments and compliance. As summarized in ACC Docket, Vol. 30, March 2008 at 12, “less than half of law departments have the following specific internal controls for validating the accuracy of the data in their compliance…
If you belong to LinkedIn, consider joining the group I host there for in-house counsel. More than a score of members have joined since I started the group a few months ago and the group holds promise to offer benefits. If you belong to LinkedIn, I would be honored if…
This gathering of in-house counsel from all around the world is organized by the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (Association canadienne des conseiller (ères) juridique d’enterprises). Another ten in-house groups support the gathering, to be held January 25-27, 2009 in Vancouver, Canada (See my post of Aug. 19, 2007 #4 for…
According to Legal Technology News recently, to kedge a ship was to move it by dropping a small anchor ahead and hauling on it to pull the ship forward. For ships becalmed, this arduous process inched them forward until the wind picked up. General counsel may feel that they are…
In early 2007, 84 general counsel of companies mostly headquartered in Northern Europe or the UK and Ireland ranked five techniques to train people on compliance issues. The survey findings are in PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, April-June 2007, at 31. The methods the respondents had to to choose from…
In September 2006, I wrote an article for Legal Times about the number of groups affected by a matter management system (MMS). Scouring the 3,400 posts on this blog, I find that I have returned to matter management systems frequently. Several writings have explored the various solutions at hand (See…