Law Department Management Blog
Rapid growth of a law department. When Thomas Mars, Wal-Mart’s general counsel, joined the company in 2002, the legal department had 56 lawyers. In February 2007, as per the Fin. Times, Feb. 21, 2007 at 8, its number of lawyers had nearly tripled, to more than 150 (See my post of May 10, 2007 on rapid growth at Clayton Holdings; Nov. 19, 2005 on Google’s growth rate of lawyers.).
Mega lawsuits. According to the Fin. Times, April 2, 2007 at 9, Qualcomm expects to pay more than $200 million in litigation costs in its current fiscal year. Nokia, Broadcom, and other industry leaders have brought lawsuits to challenge Qualcomm’s patents and the royalty rates it charges for licensing them (See my post of June 19, 2006 on other brobdingnagian litigation costs; and Feb. 10, 2007 #2.).
More legal writing instructors. Some additions to my earlier collection (See my post of May 13, 2007.):
Stella Styllis of Axia Training Limited, 27 Old Gloucester Street
London WC1N 3XX. Also, Marilyn Bush LeLeiko of Law Writing. http://www.LawWriting.com
Lack of the legal privilege in Europe. According to Jacques Buhart of Herbert Smith, as published in the In-House Perspective, Vol. 2, Issue 1 at 19, “the current rules in France prevent company lawyers from being members of the bar.” By contrast in Belgium, recent legislation “extended confidential treatment to the advice of company lawyers who are members of the Institut des jurists d’entreprise” (See my post of Nov. 17, 2006 and references cited.).