Every general counsel who has direct reports, by which I mean senior lawyers who manage other lawyers, deals with the different styles of those lawyers in staff meetings. Every general counsel encounters how their comments dampen or direct discussion (See my post of Feb. 1, 2006: how to reduce the…
Almost seven years ago I listed 12 general counsel who had turned to management consulting after their stint as a top lawyer (See my post of July 31, 2005: from Bob Banks to Peter Zeughauser.). It seems so natural, but successful career shifts from practicing to preaching are difficult. I…
An enthusiast duplicate bridge player, I have for years added periodically to my personal summary whatever strikes me as useful. My personal bridge log is now about 60 pages. Writing helps test whether I have learned something, it helps me remember, and it helps me reorganize material in ways that…
Most general counsel sharpen their management tools from reading about a technique that strikes them as worthwhile, or from hearing about one at a conference or meeting. Some less common sources also supply new ideas. You can ask your favorite law firms to critique how a major matter was handled…
A recent book explains a half dozen ways to goose your creativity. The book is Jonah Lehrer, Imagine: How Creativity Works (Houghton Mifflin 2012) at 30-44. Lawyers practicing in companies need all the creativity they can muster, so here is my thumbnail of each method. Spend time on a problem,…
With the surge of research on the neural underpinnings of cognition, you can’t help but project that as we learn more about the electrical and chemical exchanges in the brain, we will put more of the extraordinarily complex pieces together. Given time, research, funds, better equipment, and the resulting insights,…
A column by Richard Stock for the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s quarterly, Leading Corporate Counsel, Fall 2010, provides a rule-of-thumb for when to consider in-sourcing legal work. Stock writes that “a minimum of 600 external hours must be in-sourced to cost justify a new position in the legal department.” What…
Deloitte’s Global Corporate Counsel Report 2011 shows a chart, based on data from nearly 900 in-house respondents around the world, of the “Responsibilities of Corporate Counsel.” The data pertains to the various functions general counsel oversee. For each of eight areas of responsibility, the percentage of respondents who have the…
When embroiled in a law suit, many times inside lawyers ask their litigation counsel: “What are our chances?” Define successful outcome as you will, they want the partner to give the odds. The experienced and wise litigation partner replies, reluctantly, “Seventy percent.” That estimate is a subjective probability, according to…
When I have written about the law departments of government agencies, mostly I have marveled at the size of them (See my post of Sept. 10, 2005: New York City’s Corporate Counsel Office, more than 650 lawyers; Nov. 6, 2005: US Department of Homeland Securities, roughly 1,500 lawyers; Pennsylvania’s Office…