Law Department Management Blog
Legal complexity (tax). “The number of pages of federal tax regulations has risen by over 40%, from 46,900 in 2000 to 66,498 this year, according to Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute.” The quote is from the Economist, April 15, 2006 at 34 (See my posts of Feb. 16, and April 19, 2006 (#1) on legal complexity.)
Rating law firms. Law departments can learn about outside counsel in trade journals. For example, Reactions, an international insurance industry magazine, published in May of 2005 an extensive survey of in-house counsel. Based on the survey responses, the journal ranked firms having insurance practices by categories, such as dispute management, insolvency, corporate contract, policy drafting, reinsurance, and regulatory. It also ranked firms by country (See my post of Oct. 17, 2005 about rankings compared to ratings of firms.)
Drastic decline in volume of British civil lawsuits. Legal Week, Vol. 8, April 6, 2006 at 28, ran an article that notes “a drop of more than 500% in court-based civil litigation in the past six years.” If that means the number of such cases has dropped to a fifth of the number filed in 2000, that belies proclamations that “US-style litigiousness” is seeping into Britain (See my post of Sept. 17, 2005 on European antitrust litigation rising.)
Another conference with management sessions. The Legal Week Corporate Counsel Forum will be held in Paris from May 10 to 12, 2006 with sessions on best practices, outsourcing, optimum client services, and holding on to talent (See my post of March 9, 2006 on other conferences.).
Non-lawyer specialists in law departments. Marc Capelluto is the “procurement manager for Microsoft’s legal operations,” in the words of Law Practice, Vol. 32, April/May 2006 at 11 (See my post of Sept. 10, 2005 on specialist operatives in law departments.)