The 2012 General Counsel Metrics benchmark survey has staffing and spending data so far from more than 80 law departments at hospital and health systems. A friend of mine told me that the “Joint Commission” that accredits U.S. hospitals recognized 5,754 of them in early 2012. Their total expenses were…
At the recent InsideCounsel SuperConference, the legal search firm of McCormack Schreiber distributed its In-House Counsel Salary Survey. The firm had gathered self-reported salaries for 2010 through 2012 from 163 in-house attorneys. Based on the scattergram they created and a linear regression equation, they produced a formula. What the…
Kraig Washburn, the General Counsel of Flexera, spoke at the recent InsideCounsel SuperConference about his department’s use of Salesforce software. His department has about four lawyers and four other staff. In 2011, they handled about 4,000 requests for assistance, among which were about 700 negotiated software agreements. Currently, with…
A point made at the InsideCounsel SuperConference by Kraig Washburn, the General Counsel of Flexera, is sound. He includes in his corporate headcount one or two contract lawyers who have been working for him for a long time. They do not get benefits, it is true, but it gives a…
Continuing my series on the pitfalls of popular management tools, I offer some for process maps (See my post of Aug. 28, 2005: some criticisms; Aug. 6, 2010: components of process improvement; Sept. 22, 2010: compared to procedure guides; Nov. 19, 2010: contrary to a Romantic view of management; March…
Intriguing and intuitively attractive, scenario planning has a buzz about it. This blog has several posts that refer to it, but as yet I have not challenged the technique (See my post of Aug. 25, 2009: uses of scenarios in legal departments with 18 references; March 1, 2010: elaborate scenarios…
A speaker at the recent InsideCounsel SuperConference offered a good suggestion for general counsel – indeed, for all lawyers who manage others – who want to develop and energize the lawyers beneath them. Ed Ryan, the veteran general counsel of Marriott International, urged people to let someone else in the…
In my consulting projects, I am not a fan of focus groups. Here are some of my concerns about them. They waste many people’s time. Members sit for stretches of time and have little to contribute. The moments of value to others sometimes represent a small portion of their…
It’s a cliché: delegate as much as you can. The prerequisites for effective delegation, often unstated, are that there is someone to whom you can delegate and who is competent, less expensive, and has time to do the work well. Stated in the negative, at least five reservations hold…
A speaker at the recent InsideCounsel SuperConference made a point about budgets from law firms. He said that if the expense for that law firm is charged back to a business unit, it is even more important to get the budget right. If the law department pays for law firm’s…