Law Department Management Blog
Mind-mapping software. Further to my post of Nov. 28, 2005, law departments can try other packages, besides Mindjet, including Mindmapper, Headcase, Visual Mind, and MindGenius, along with the open source program, Freemind. (Fin. Times, Oct. 19, 2005 at 11).
Psychometric tests. Slaughter and May, one of London’s leading firms, has “road-tested the McQuaig personality assessment on a number of its partners,” according to Legal Week, Vol. 7, Dec. 1, 2005 at 3. The article mentions three other British firms that have tried or are using psychometric tests. (See my post of Oct. 21, 2005 about personality instruments and the posts cited there.)
Secondments. An excellent discussion of secondment, between the British firm Crips, Harries, Hall and its client, South East Water, can be found in Legal Week, Vol. 7, Dec. 8, 2005 at 18. (See my post of Sept. 21, 2005 about hiring secondees.)
Patent litigation and patent economics. NERA Economic Consulting has published a book, Economic Approaches to Intellectual Property Policy, Litigation, and Management. The book covers such topics as trends in IP litigation, real options, and event studies. (See my post on May 1, 2005 about patent litigation and posts cited there.)
Jargon and buzzwords. David Krasnostein, the General Counsel of Australia’s National Australia Bank, was praising a management practice when he defensively claimed that it was “not just me spruiking.” Spruiking is an Aussie term for exaggerated talking up and promoting of something fraudulent, such as diet breakthroughs, anti-aging creams, get-rich scams, and holistic medicines. My spruiking awards go to “quantum leaps in legal technology,” “partnering win-wins,” “law department talent management,” and “proving value-add.”