“Scientific explanations are theories, assertions about what is out there and how it behaves.” Thus does David Deutsch, in The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World (Viking 2011) at 3, introduce the key concept of his magisterial book. Explanations come about because people conjecture them regarding objective reality.…
In response to my post last week about Kenneth Arrow’s impossibility theorem (See my post of Sept. 5, 2011: no fair way to decide by voting.), my friend Michael Mills, head of the legal software firm Neota Logic, offered some additional comments. “True, there is no approach to decision-making that…
As an aficionado of metrics and empirical data, I encourage you to take this survey. Mitratech, a leading provider of software for legal departments, is surveying legal departments to get their feedback on technology spending – which technologies are they investing in? How much are they spending? Which technologies provide…
Doggedly, I compile these monthly summaries of the elite, but does anyone care? Most firms in survey say that law departments ask for UTBMS code billing but give no guidance based on codes (July 5, 2011) Three-quarters of the respondents said clients remained mute regarding any conclusions they might have…
Previously, I collected my posts that have lists of 6, 7, and 8 items (See my post of Aug. 8, 2011: 44 posts with lists of six; Aug. 11, 2011: 34 posts with lists of seven; Aug. 19, 2011: 25 posts with lists of eight.). Those posts with nine items…
Having just put up two posts – yesterday and today – with 29 costs that some legal departments bear (or might bear), I wanted to compile my most recent writings on internal legal department budgets. Internal budgets figure in other posts, but not necessarily specific expenses (See my post of…
The first 15 items of expense I covered in my post yesterday (See my post of Sept. 6, 2011: unusual expenses sometimes in legal department budgets.). Here are the final 14. Independent investigations (See my post of May 8, 2011: frustration of responsibility for costs but no control.). Insured costs…
Courtesy of Aspen, publisher of the two-volume directory of more than 30,000 in-house lawyers at some 8,000 corporations and nonprofit organizations, your law department can get the 2010 directory on CD-ROM. This year’s edition (2011) has more than 2,800 pages and retails for $1,495. For questions about the directory, write…
First 15 of various expenditures irregularly (or rarely) included in legal department budgets Budgets of legal departments include many costs as a matter of course, such as salaries, cash bonuses, retreats and conferences, Continuing Legal Education, subscriptions, and a range of other common out-of-pocket disbursements. Even with that broad commonality,…
A piece in the Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2011 at 32, describes a makeover of office space at the pharmaceutical company Lilly. The facts I extracted from the sidebar may not be representative at all, but they triggered some thoughts. One point was that employees typically spend only 35 percent…