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If you are with a law department, and if you are not interested in document review products – litigation support products, the pickings were slim at LegalTech NY other than matter management (See my post of Jan. 5, 2012: 11 matter management systems with booths at LegalTech.).

Even consulting assistance was sparse. Huron Consulting Group had a booth as did Kierested Systems. Epiq, which now has a legal consulting group headed by veteran Jim Mittenthal, a refugee from the diaspora of HildbrandtBakerRobbins, was also on the floor.

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One question asked in the most recent ALM Intelligence metrics survey was about the source of lawyers who had been hired during 2010 by the respondent law departments. As it turns out, 44 lawyers were hired from law firms and 36 were hired from other law departments. Most readers of this blog probably think that law departments hire much more commonly from law firms, and it may well be that junior hires come from firms; but for more experienced practitioners general counsel want someone who is had in-house experience previously.

There did not appear to be much difference in the one-to-one ratio as law departments grew larger. It might have been plausible that larger departments would hire more from law firms. To learn more about the Law Department Metrics Benchmark Survey of ALM Legal Intelligence, click here for ALM’s website.

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Every now and then law departments request software written especially for their own purposes. Usually they are very large departments and they conclude that there is no suitable package available for license. Custom software that holds promise as precisely targeted to solve a need may be the perfect solution, or it may belong better elsewhere.

For example Cisco developed the platform that it decided eventually to spin out to LegalOnRamp. According to an interview of Cisco’s Steve Harmon, Senior Director of Legal Services, on July 25, 2011 by LegalOnRamp, Cisco did so in part for economics. “Over time, … we could license the technology from LegalOnRamp … more cheaply than I could continue to pay my own staff to maintain and develop that platform.”

As a second reason, one applicable to every law department that creates bespoke software, “every dollar that I spend on maintaining existing applications is a dollar that I’m not free to spend on other innovation.” Look in the market for vendors spurred to innovate and use your own dollars for different purposes.

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Two out of three general counsel (or chief legal officers) who responded to last year’s benchmark survey by ALM Intelligence also serve as their company’s Corporate Secretary. That is, of 80 respondents, 58 held the dual title and 21 did not. This finding leads me to speculate that privately held companies, without stock traded publicly, may be less likely to bestow the Corporate Secretary title on the top lawyer, although they still have a Board of Directors and obligations to it.

To learn more about the Law Department Metrics Benchmark Survey of ALM Legal Intelligence, click here for ALM’s website.

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If you are interested in knowing more about software for contract management, you can get my compilation of 39 of them. My list has the trade name of the package, the vendor’s name, and a website address. While it can’t claim to be the definitive list of software geared toward production, retrieval and analysis of contracts and agreements, it can certainly claim to be long!

To get it, e-mail me and tell me what software for managing contracts you use in your law department. I am asking neither about generic document management software nor about workarounds (e.g., Word and directories and naming conventions). I want to know about software that is purposefully designed for creating, tracking, and storing contracts. If enough people respond, I will write a summary blog post, disclosing no specific information but only aggregated results.

So, to get the list, write me about your department’s software that helps prepare and administer contracts. rees@reesmorrison.com

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The group has grown steadily, and last week welcomed member number one thousand. Along with the steady increase in participant numbers has come an increase in the flow of discussions and comments.

Anyone who belongs to LinkedIn and who cares about the effective management of inside counsel and their teams is warmly urged to join the group. All you have to do is search for it among “Groups” – hint, type in “law department management,” and then click on the yellow shape, “Join Group.”

One more point: if you are an administrator of a legal department or part of the administrative support team of one, you can also join a group especially for them. It has about 80 members and is growing steadily.

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I had an opportunity to analyze some of the data collected by ALM Intelligence for its recent benchmark survey. Of the 29 respondent law departments that had at least 10 lawyers, 19 of them (65%) reported having at least one “Legal Administrator.” In the next 19 smaller law departments that had at least five lawyers but not more than nine, only six (about 34%) reported having an administrator. This data suggests that among U.S. law departments at somewhere around eight lawyers, perhaps it becomes as common to have an administrator as not to have one. Since a ratio of one non-lawyer for every lawyer holds commonly in U.S. legal departments, that tipping point would leave approximately 16 people, whose administrative demands – plus external counsel – justify someone in a dedicated law department operations role.

It is also noteworthy that 11 of the law departments reported having an information systems person (and a total of 30) while three more than that had a dedicated financial analyst position (28 total positions in the group). Sophisticated law departments need specialists to help handle their various needs.
To learn more about the Law Department Metrics Benchmark Survey of ALM Legal Intelligence, click here for ALM’s website.

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Two conclusions have clarified for me as I have tussled once again with a conceptual structure for what goes on in law departments. My previous forays have resulted in a farrago of ideas and terms swirling around concepts, toolboxes, processes, methods, and tools.

It now seems to me that a set of three almost always applies: a cognitive category (a management concept), a set of related actions (a management process), and aids to accomplish those actions (management tools). Perhaps no longer do I need my constructs of “concept toolboxes” or “methods.”

Secondly, digging deeper, a part of speech applies to each set of three, which I will illustrate with one set of three: cost control – a noun form – means the concept; controlling outside costs – a verbal, gerundive form – means the process; and budget – an adverb applying to the verb – means one of the tools. This is a loose and creative metaphor but it may have usefulness.

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A few days ago my online column appeared at InsideCounsel.com. It offers thoughts on scatter-plots (aka scatter-grams). They and their usual sidekick, trend lines, provide a compelling way to present a lot of data so that some message from the pattern comes across immediately. If you want to read the full column, published on January 16, 2011, click on this scatter-gram link.

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Paul Lippe, in his email to Legal OnRamp members of Jan. 17, 2012, offers “five phenotypes of change reactors.” They characterize general counsel (and all people) on a spectrum of willingness to try something new.

• Innovators, who do new things because they like doing new things.

• Early adopters, who want competitive advantage over others.

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