InsideCounsel polled its readers and 192 responded, of which about a third were general counsel or deputy general counsel. According to InsideCounsel, Oct. 2007 at 64, the median 2006 revenue of the respondents’ companies was $2.3 billion and they typically had one or two IP attorneys. Hence, senior lawyers in…
A mind-boggling item in the Economist, Dec. 8, 2007 at 12, explains the recent surge of interest in what is called “evolutionary design.” Evolutionary design uses a computer program called an evolutionary algorithm to “run through tens of millions of variations on an invention until it hits on the best…
A previous comment explained these three contributors to in-house workload (See my post of Nov. 24, 2007.). Assuming these witches are in fact riding the skies, why is it that the median number of lawyers per billion dollars of revenue has barely changed in the past 10 years (See my…
Every “new idea” has antecedents, and I generally think that “new” is a figment of journalism – it merely means that some law department practice gets written about and praised as novel, but in fact other law departments had done the same before, at least in part. Even so, I…
Several posts have assembled the various attempts on this blog to define terms that we use when we talk about law department management (See my posts of May 3, 2006 with 32 words or phrases; Aug. 26, 2006 with 10 more; and Nov. 26, 2006 and 13 more.). To those…
A previous post discusses multiple-choice questions and one feature of them: how participants are invited to select among the choices (See my post of July 3, 2007.). Other features of the ubiquitous form of question deserve comment. Multiple choice questions on surveys ought to: Recognize that some plausible choices have…
As I reread my comments on a survey that asked law departments to list innovative practices their law firms had recently proposed or used (See my post of May 4, 2005.), I realized I might have been naïve. The list was tepid at best and stone cold from most of…
A previous post collected 23 of my more recent lists of how to do something (See my post of Nov. 26, 2007.). A large number of earlier posts offer how-to suggestions (See my posts of June 14, 2007: conference calls, 6; April 27, 2005: determine the relative effectiveness of cost…
Any law department can use software that helps manage large projects, such as a spin-off, an IPO, a large acquisition, or a major lawsuit. A number of project-management software applications are available (such as Harvard Project Manager) but recently, according to an article in ACC Docket, Vol. 25, Nov. 2007…
In the context of law department management, it has become frustrating for me to define the term “management tools” (See my posts of April 17, 2007 on tools; and April 14, 2005 on 18 tools and a definition.). Tools help managers and others gather facts, organize those facts, diagnose the…