The veteran consultant Richard Stock wrote a column for the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s quarterly, Leading Corporate Counsel, Fall 2010. Summarizing some of the action tips put forth in a metrics study, the ACLA-CLANZ Legal Department Benchmarking Report, Stock cited one on alignment. “Rotate lawyers’ alignment away from half of…
Almost 900 in-house counsel from 10 countries responded to a survey published as Deloitte’s Global Corporate Counsel Report 2011. Five years ago, a similar survey found that the top three choices for ways the legal team demonstrates value were “timely resolution of legal problems,” “achieving best legal outcomes,” and “reducing…
Deloitte’s Global Corporate Counsel Report 2011 presents data from almost 900 in-house counsel in 10 countries. Only 49 were from the United States. Of that subset, 86% are a member of the company’s senior management team (at 6). Evidently a much lower percentage holds for counsel outside the U.S., since…
Matter management and e-billing systems come with built-in reports, sometimes called “canned reports.” They and the more sophisticated capabilities of report writers can tell users quite a bit. For example, they can show the law firms paid the most during a specific period of time. A dashboard advances data analysis…
Three Canadian firms that provide lawyers to law departments for project work when needed are noted in the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s magazine (Autumn 2010) at 36. They are Cognition LLP, Delegatus Legal Services, and LexLocom. Cognition, the article notes, is five years old and has 24 lawyers. Delegatus, also…
The New York Times, May 1, 2012 at B3, ran a piece on litigation financing. It mentions BlackRobe Capital, Fulbrook Management, and Bentham Capital, all of which investment funds started in 2011. BlackRobe’s founder is John Coffey, formerly a litigation partner at Bernstein Litowitz. Further, the litigation finance team at…
Five years ago a large-scale survey of in-house attorneys tracked how those attorneys said they received legal advice from outside lawyers. They had five choices and were asked to select the two most common methods. Recently, Deloitte revisited that question in a similarly large survey and found a marked swing.…
Private equity firms invest in the legal cottage industry. This is a good thing for general counsel, because those firm inject capital and management experience, but it’s bad if potential acquires take their eye off the ball, if investments lead to turmoil, or if private equity acquirers fail to maintain…
If Rand Corporation says something about data, you have to give it much due. They are careful and they understand the difference between bits and pieces of numbers and reliable data. So, attend to this caveat: “Descriptive data on the use of contract attorneys and outsourced legal talent are even…
Most law departments are asked to review a steady stream of marketing material such as ads, packaging, catalogues, press releases, and web sites – anything making an assertion to the public in theory deserves a legal look over: “Can we say it” and “Do we have sufficient support?” To cope…