The Economist, March 3, 2012 at 20, describes a nascent movement of people who measure aspects of themselves over time. They describe an investment banker who wears a headband at night that tracks sleep quantity and quality by measuring brainwave activity. The data from that tool, along with other information…
A piece in the Economist, March 3, 2012 at 16, connects size of companies and creativity: “Size allows specialisation, which fosters innovation.” In my long-running series of discussions on why larger companies have less spending (in proportion to their revenue), I haven’t cited this link. It makes sense. A specialist,…
We often use the term “equals” very loosely. “Her matter load is equal to his.” “Our paralegals-per-billion-of revenue is equal to the median for our industry.” In my column Morrison on Metrics: “Lies told by the equals sign,” I point out that “equal” rarely means what we think when we…
Much of what happens in and regarding law departments doesn’t permit measurement. That intractable limitation on our understanding and analysis was underscored by an obituary in the Economist, March 10, 2012 at 106, of James Q. Wilson. The Harvard professor spent decades studying politics and society, subjects where challenges of…
The 2011 In-House Counsel Barometer, by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg in association with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association, includes responses from 864 lawyers in Canada. Of them, 295 were with publicly traded companies and 206 private. Public companies likely having larger law departments, this survey, which looked at individual…
An article in the ABA J., March 2012 at 26, focuses on bad behavior – jerks – in law firms, and cites Haynes and Boone as a firm that touts its long-standing no-jerks policy. Moreover, “The policy extends to clients as well, and Haynes and Boone has had to disengage…
It’s good to be an in-house lawyer. Many surveys ask those lawyers what they like about their job, and so did the 2011 In-House Counsel Barometer, produced by the Canadian law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg In association with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA). Actually, the question had…
The 2011 In-House Counsel Barometer, produced by the Canadian law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg In association with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA), asked respondents to break their work day into three categories: legal work, management, and business strategy or advice. The results from 864 total respondents to…
Vincent Polley’s weekly compilation cited Legal Futures, Feb. 20, 2012, regarding Riverview Law. Riverview Law is the brainchild of LawVest, which has financial backing from global law firm DLA Piper and intends to become an alternative business structure (ABS). It will offer “businesses with up to 1,000 employees annual contracts…
The 2011 In-House Counsel Barometer, produced by the Canadian law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg In association with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA) at 11, reports that the average number of hours worked per week up north was 47. What the median hours was is not mentioned. If…