Articles Posted in This Blog

Previous posts consider the three most common categories among my “ten bests”: outside counsel, metrics, and thinking (See my post of July 5, 2010: 39 on outside counsel; July 5, 2010: 16 on metrics; and July 5 , 2010: 12 on thinking.). Email me rees@reesmorrison.com if you would like the entire 28-page collection.

Eight of the remainder dealt with value demonstrated by legal departments, an equal number with talent, and seven with productivity. Not much to say about those topics and numbers given their perpetual prominence.

On the other hand, only two posts had to do with client relations and merely one with technology. Let’s winkle out some reasons. As to the scarceness of client-related posts, all I can surmise is that the nothing sufficiently new came to my attention so that the post made a top-ten list. That’s odd because a law department that loses the support of its client base withers. But if there is nothing new under the sun, just the solid and respectable constants of responsiveness, practicality, education, risk balancing, and alignment, then there is nothing new. My suspicion is that I have missed good ideas or failed to come up with them on my own.

Reflecting on my writings, five sizes are apparent, each more expansive than the other. The trick might seem for me to match the size to the idea, but not really, since a person can express any idea at any level. I believe in fractal ideas.

1. Rees Morrison’s Morsels are very short, the Twitters of this blog, and always connect to a post previously written. Morsels consist of four-to-six short comments or additions to earlier posts. I have posted 135 Morsels during the 54 months of this blog.

2. Posts are 100 to 250 words in two or three short paragraphs. My goal for a post is to make a single point clearly, although the point can be as trivial as earbuds in corporate lawyers or as profound as epistemological uncertainty about all knowledge of law department management. LawDepartmentManagementBlog.com from its Hildebrandt origins more than five years ago through yesterday had 5,558 posts. Even metaposts, which compile six or more posts on a topic, are not all that long. At this moment readers can research 472 metaposts that compile 6,267 posts and refer to 213 metaposts. There are no less than 20 hyperposts, which each collect five or more metaposts on a topic.

Reflecting on my writings, five sizes are apparent, each more expansive than the other. The trick might seem for me to match the size to the idea, but not really, since a person can express any idea at any level. I believe in fractal ideas.

1. Rees Morrison’s Morsels are very short, the Twitters of this blog, and always connect to a post previously written. Morsels consist of four-to-six short comments or additions to earlier posts. I have posted 135 Morsels during the 54 months of this blog.

2. Posts are 100 to 250 words in two or three short paragraphs. My goal for a post is to make a single point clearly, although the point can be as trivial as earbuds in corporate lawyers or as profound as epistemological uncertainty about all knowledge of law department management. LawDepartmentManagementBlog.com from its Hildebrandt origins more than five years ago through yesterday had 5,558 posts. Even metaposts, which compile six or more posts on a topic, are not all that long. At this moment readers can research 472 metaposts that compile 6,267 posts and refer to 213 metaposts. There are no less than 20 hyperposts, which each collect five or more metaposts on a topic.

The Internet always amazes me. To wit, a few days ago I stumbled on Atomic Noodle. It tracks online videos. Here are three of me pontificating. The “view counts” are nothing to brag about.

MH Connected Pulse interview with Rees Morrison – global legal benchmarking

Length: 8:32; View Count: 31; Author: MartindaleHubbell. “Legal benchmarking consultant and Martindale-Hubbell Connected member Rees Morrison discusses his latest global survey, (including responses from almost 400 law departments) with Rory Webber, MH Connected Marketing & Community Development Manager. Rees’ latest research includes key questions…

Thirty years ago on a MetroNorth platform in Scarsdale, NY, I met Joe Bookman, then the President of CompInfo. Soon thereafter, disgruntled with law practice and enamored of PCs and software for lawyers, I joined CompInfo to sell its LawPack program to law departments. Joe and I have been friends since then.

Joe founded and runs PinHawk, which aggregates news from the Internet about law firms, law departments, legal technology and related topics. For a modest subscription you get a daily download, edited and attractive, of material that is relevant to your interests.

With increasing frequency subscribers to PinHawk’s service click through to this blog. Thank you, Joe!

Another in my series of kudos, thanks and gratitude (See my post of Nov. 15, 2009: history of this series; and Jan. 4, 2010: seventh set.).

1. BrightLeaf
2. Entertainment Litigation (Hank Fasthoff)

Let’s see, what have I done differently on this blog in the past year or so?

Three changes particularly stand out. First is the distribution of my posts on Twitter through TweetDeck. I now have hits on this blog from Twitter all the time (See my post of Nov. 16, 2009: lists on Twitter; and May 24, 2010: retweets.). Second is my posting of the 10 best posts of each month, two months later, on social network sites such as Connected, LinkedIn and Legal OnRamp. Again, spreading the word. Third, in terms of improvements is the new “linkwithin” function of TypePad. All the time these days I see clicks to related posts that are suggested by TypePad at the bottom of my primary post. Some of that back-referencing I do on my own, such as in the second sentence of this paragraph but the automated functions must be doing something appreciated by readers.

Other innovations on this blog include syndication on Newstext, my making available all my metaposts on my website (ReesMorrison.com), registration for my newsletter and the first issue sent out, my third blook – structure, more ads hosted by me, the extreme pride of being an ABA Blawg 100 Honoree, the evolution of hyperposts, my first .Gif animated notice (for the General Counsel Metrics benchmark effort), drawing on ideas from the Academy of Management Review, and my internal use of Examine software (See my post of Nov. 9, 2009: a test of Examine.).

Through his invitation to connect with me on LinkedIn I met Richard Russeth, the general counsel of a $2 billion, privately held company, Leprino Foods. His blog just got underway but it looks good, has neat features, and his first several posts show a solid grounding in how to be a successful general counsel.

Welcome, blawger Russeth! Readers, take a look at The Last Generalist.

Immodesty will get a blogger/consultant nowhere, so here are five praises that would make my mother proud, my children dubious, and my wife ironic.

“Rees Morrison was not presenting at the conference but attending. And as the guru of law department management with one of the most highly read online blogs, Law Department Management we requested an interview. … Rees has assisted more than 250 law departments and he has written scores of articles that appeared across the legal media blogosphere.

He is now running the largest general counsel metrics/global law department benchmarking ever undertaken (click here).

The term “hourly billing” appears in so many posts here that it was hard for me to accept that I have not compiled the posts that pertain particularly to it. Worse, once I dug in to do so, I found that variations on the term are everywhere, such as “billing by the hour,” “bills based on hours worked,” etc. Since I have several times compiled posts on topics that are related – fixed fees, alternative billing, bill review — this metapost simply looked for posts that use the term “hourly billing” to make a significant point.

Anyway, at least 18 posts qualified (See my post of Oct. 26, 2005: durability of hourly billing; Jan. 4, 2006: top ten reasons from survey why hourly billing survives; March 12, 2006: different hourly rates per lawyer depending on complexity of task; June 5, 2006: Sarbanes-Oxley encourages hourly billing; Sept. 17, 2006: unsubstantiated claim about trend away from hourly billing; Oct. 24, 2007: goal – one quarter non-hourly bills; Nov. 11, 2007: strengths of hourly billing; Nov. 13, 2007: weaknesses of hourly billing; Nov. 24, 2007: hourly vs per diem billing; Nov. 27, 2007: top-ranked method of cost control; Dec. 19, 2007: hourly billing survives because of relative not absolute costs; Dec. 11, 2008: odd reason to stand by hourly billing; June 14, 2009: periodic determinations of payments; May 3, 2009: hyperpost on billing rates with 7 metaposts and 32 references; May 6, 2009: hourly billing discourages clients from calling; June 1, 2009: firms sell ideas, not time, as do ad agencies; Jan. 11, 2010: clients intervene in firm operations more with hourly billing; and Jan. 28, 2010: how often does software in-house fasten department to hourly billing.).