Articles Posted in Thoughts/Observations

Susan Neiman’s Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grownup Idealists (Harcourt 2008) emphasizes the principle of sufficient reason. It is the idea that whatever happens can be explained (at 131), that everything happens for a reason (at 138). That principle is the basis for the structure of reasoning itself.

When I blog, I assume there is an explanation for something done experienced by a department, or some set of benchmark metrics, or some change in the legal industry. The explanation may be complicated; it may be subtle and multifarious; it may well be beyond my ken. But it is there as I believe in the principle of sufficient reason.

Hand in hand with the principle of sufficient reason goes Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation is likely to be the best one. Accordingly, I try to give an explanation for law department occurrences, and the simpler the explanation, the better.

Debuting on the stage of law department metrics, blog posts per trillion dollars of revenue will almost certainly have a short run (See my post of Aug. 25, 2008: five largest corporations in the world.). Always striving to advance research, however, I forged ahead, searched for posts about the next five largest corporations, and presents the results below.

Chevron = 5 (See my post of Jan. 30, 2006: how to integrate clients with litigation; March 4, 2007: split engagements with law firms; March 4, 2007: scrutinize costs as closely as fees; May 8, 2007: toughest GC position; and May 16, 2007: the meaning of a world-class legal organization.).

ING Group = 0

Joint law and business degrees in-house. The general counsel of Blackboard Inc., Matthew Small, graduated with a joint JD/MBA from the University of Connecticut. In 2008, according to Inside Counsel, Aug. 2008 at 49, Small was named chief business officer in charge of operations, marketing and business development, in addition to his position as chief legal officer (See my post of Dec. 31, 2006: JD/MBAs might gravitate to law departments.).

General counsel who move laterally in the company. Alison Gregory, the top lawyer of GobeOp Financial Services in the fall of 2006 took a job in the company’s enterprise risk management division, according to Corp. Counsel, Vol. 13, Aug. 2006 at 66. Elsewhere, I read that Andrea Zopp, erstwhile general counsel of Sears, moved laterally to become head of HR for the company.

Growth of General Electric’s legal department. According to the recollection of a partner from King & Spaulding in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, Aug. 2008 at 36, over the past thirty years there has been phenomenal growth in the GE legal department, “which in 1978 consisted of only one lawyer.” In three decades the company bulked up with more than 1,200 lawyers (See my post of May 23, 2007: General Electric and its 1,225 lawyers.).

Finding a new listing of the global Fortune 500, I took a quick look at how many posts I have published about the top five.

Wal-Mart = 11 (See my post of Nov. 6, 2005: fixed-fee arrangements; Sept. 22, 2005: Wal-Mart and its minority relationship partners; July 29, 2007: diversity quotas among its outside counsel; Dec. 3, 2005: conference for its key law firms; Sept. 22, 2005: Wal-Mart legal’s rapid growth; May 28, 2007: most diverse law department in America; June 4, 2007 #1: rapid growth of the department; June 4, 2007: customized its I-9 software; Dec. 5, 2007: clamp down on law-firm rate increases; Jan. 1, 2008: travel policies for outside counsel; Feb. 6, 2008: subsidiary uses a Brazilian matter management system.).

Exxon Mobil = 0

I offer ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of Aug. 17, 2008: Part XV.) along with the number of posts or other references cited within them.

1. Lobbying and government affairs (See my post of Aug. 21, 2008: government relations and legislation influencing with 6 references.)

2. Savings techniques with estimates (See my post of Aug. 21, 2008: techniques to save costs with 24 references.)

What to pay law firms when their lawyers travel for you. The law department of a well-known biotechnology firm permits its outside attorneys to bill travel time, but at a lower rate. They figure it’s unfair to ask an Illinois attorney to take a deposition in San Diego but refuse to pay for travel time to go there, but they also don’t want to pay full rates. This framework may be a reasonable compromise (See my post of May 7, 2008: travel policies for outside counsel with 7 references.)

New blawg relevant to law department management. The Alternative Fee Lawyer is a relatively new blawg. Hosted by D. Michael Grodhaus, a partner in the Columbus, Ohio firm of Waite Schneider Bayless & Chesley, the blawg offers his “reflections on alternatives to the billable hour in setting legal fees for business clients.”

More than $31 billion spent on patent filing fees in 2007. An item in LPO Watch, July 2008 states that more than 1.8 million patent applications were filed worldwide in 2007. The filing costs for that inundation of innovation were between $30 billion and $32 billion. It is not clear whether “filing costs” include preparation and prosecution costs as well as governmental charges, but there is certainly room for growth in patent services offshoring.

I offer ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of Aug. 17, 2008: Part XIV.) along with the number of posts or other references cited within them.

1. Panels of law firms (See my post of June 18, 2007: law-firm panels with 13 references.)

2. Paralegals (See my post of July 9, 2007: paralegals legal assistants with 11 references.)

To my latest assemblage, I have ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of Aug. 17, 2008: Part XIII.) along with the number of posts cited within them.

1. CYA self-protection cover your ass (See my post of Aug. 15, 2008: CYA and 6 references.)

2. Emotional intelligence (See my post of Dec. 3, 2007 #4: EI with 5 references.)

Here are ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of Aug. 13, 2008: Part XII.) along with the number of posts cited within them.

1. 360 assessments (See my post of Dec. 26, 2007: 360˚ instruments with 5 references.)

2. Board of Directors (See my post of Dec. 12, 2007: Boards with 18 references.)

Here are ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of July 27, 2008: Part XI.) along with the number of posts cited in them.

1. Associates, complaints about (See my post of May 11, 2007: associates and complaints about them with 13 references.)

2. Bonuses for law firms (See my post of July 27, 2008: bonuses for law firms with 13 references.)