Law Department Management Blog
The legal team at Barclays has swollen to 800 lawyers, according to Corp. Counsel, April 2010 at 20, but even as grand as that it feels pinched for resources. When I read that, I rummaged for earlier posts about the huge bank, and found plenty (See my post of April 18, 2005: 37 firms on its panel; April 18, 2005: Mark Harding’s belief that European general counsel were more commonly managing legal risk; Oct. 17, 2005: praised for its technology; Dec. 9, 2005 #1: Chief Operating Officer for 600-strong group; April 18, 2005: lawyers in 17 countries; May 27, 2007: demanded metrics from firms regarding gender and ethnic demographics; Jan. 28, 2008: gave up on rebates because of administrative hassle; and Aug. 11, 2009: litigation partner came aboard as secondee.).
Obviously, Mark Harding’s legal department actively and creatively manages many aspects of its operations. A new step, described in the article by another lawyer, was that in a recent lawsuit “we hired our own temporary paralegals for nine to 12 months.” They worked well, according to the lawyer, with the law firm that represented the bank.