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In-House Counsel

Law Department Management

Comments on every aspect of how best to manage a law department, including how to manage outside counsel. Topics of interest to general counsel and other in-house lawyers who manage legal functions.
By Rees Morrison

Post Frequency: 39.5/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 11:12:47

The three disciplines that best explain law department operations (economics, psychology, and sociology)

Posted on January 05, 2010
Economics. Supply and demand; marginal cost; utility curves; comparative advantage; resources and productivity ? all these explanatory concepts fall into economics, a powerful framework to illuminate a host of problems and solutions. It is the best set of tools for...

Seventh set of bloggers I thank for having referred visitors to Law Department Management Blog

Posted on January 04, 2010
This post continues my series of thumbs up for other blogs and websites that have directed readers to Law Department Management Blog (See my post of Nov. 15, 2009: history of this series.). I have accumulated 13 more to acknowledge...

LinkedIn Groups for lawyers ? 35 and counting (join mine!)

Posted on January 04, 2010
I urge members of LinkedIn to join my group, Law Department Management. We have more than 250 members and welcome everyone. Foraging more widely on LinkedIn, I have found at least 35 groups for lawyers. Not in-house counsel exclusively, but...

Rees Morrison?s Morsels #129 ? posts longa, morsels breva

Posted on January 04, 2010
Ban on software customization of source code. One legal department has decreed that it will not ask for any changes in the source code of any software it licenses. The cost is too high, the rate of success too low,...

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Ten most stellar posts from LawDepartmentManagementBlog during November 2009

Posted on January 04, 2010
Wal-Mart to require outside law firms to have flextime policies ? over-reaching? (Nov. 6, 2009) In light of Wal-Mart?s request that law firms it uses must offer flextime, thoughts on the impositions by a legal department on how its law...

The longer the litigation, the higher the fees ? but a linear relationship?

Posted on December 30, 2009
An IP litigator at Ogilvy Renault, Patrick Kierans, understands the relationship between the length of litigation and the fees paid: ?The cost of litigation is directly proportional to the length of time it takes to complete it.? This quote, from...

How hard it is to spot trends from data in a matter management system

Posted on December 30, 2009
One of the selling points for matter management systems is that astute managers can comb through the data collected and spot issues before they boil over (See my post of March 19, 2009: matter management system data needs analysis.). Unfortunately,...

Thoughts on different goals of outsourcing, offshoring and unbundling by legal departments

Posted on December 30, 2009
A report from BNA, HR Department Benchmarks and Analysis 2008, pronounced that ?Outsourcing of HR functions has become a widespread practice. Three out of four employers have outsourced one or more HR activities. The single most important motivation for HR...

Four observations from an article about Bodhi Global Services, an LPO

Posted on December 30, 2009
An article in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 17, Dec. 2009 at 28, covers the usual points about an Indian-based legal process outsourcer. The particular company is Bodhi Global Services, yet even so the interview of its CEO, Arihant Patni,turns up...

Blook review through multiple posts of Unbound

Posted on December 27, 2009
A recent book provided ample grist for this blog mill. David Galbenski?s Unbound: How Entrepreneurship is Dramatically Transforming Legal Services Today (2009) elicited eight posts (See my post of Oct. 12, 2009: lawyers not admitted in the US as GCs....

Metaphor of metrics: thermometer or thermostat

Posted on December 27, 2009
The metaphorical difference between a thermometer, which gives you a figure but doesn?t tell you what to do about it, and a thermostat, which gives you a figure and then adjusts the heating or cooling appropriately, applies to benchmark figures....

Alternatives to the term "alternative billing"

Posted on December 27, 2009
Jay Shepherd, who blogs at The Client Revolution, attacks the term "alternative billing." His comments are at least clever, if not correct. A shortened version follows: ?It's a terrible term; one that does injustice to the concept. As I've said...

Public disclosure of spending, firms, cases, etc: where?s the harm? Mostly internal knives!

Posted on December 27, 2009
Some general counsel hold their cards close to their vests; they hide their staff numbers, how much they spend on outside counsel, the litigation load they face, locations of lawyers, everything. Yet mighty United Technologies didn?t mind sharing detailed benchmark...

Ratio of US to non-US law firms, law firms per billion, and concentration at UTC

Posted on December 27, 2009
A chart in a presentation recently about the legal function at United Technologies gives the numbers of firms the manufacturing giant retains in the US and outside the US. If we take the most recent year?s total (418 firms in...

Go green, stay healthy, boost productivity in the legal department

Posted on December 23, 2009
Here are some findings about the health benefits of an environmentally sound offices. Not that general counsel have much say as to their office environs, but a first step is to know more about options and benefits. Bus. Week, Dec....

Client groups that heavily use the legal department could have ?pre-legal vetting teams?

Posted on December 23, 2009
Before taking on work from a client group that has constant legal needs, it may be useful to have a person in that group be a gatekeeper, a triager, someone to determine as a first step whether your department is...

Some general counsel thoughtfully restrict the responsibilities of the legal department

Posted on December 23, 2009
An article in Legal Strat. Rev., Winter 2009/10 at 24, describes several management points made by Richard Tapp, company secretary and director of legal services at Carillion plc. The nearly $10 billion company has 27 in-house lawyers focused specifically on...

Rees Morrison?s Morsels #128 ? posts longa, morsels breva

Posted on December 23, 2009
Publicly-traded companies significantly dealing with legal departments; know any others? Do readers know of any companies that are both publicly traded and gain a significant amount of their revenue from legal departments? Some that have come to my attention are...

Ratios of three common types of civil litigation for a manufacturing ? 30% each?

Posted on December 23, 2009
A fascinating conference presentation on outside counsel costs, by AGCl Chester Paul Beach at United Technologies, suggests a possible benchmark. The potential metric derives from a chart of Beach?s that shows the distribution of civil litigation involving UTC by seven...

Offices and countries of dispersed legal departments ? UTC?s metrics

Posted on December 22, 2009
A wonderful picture of many of the lawyers in the legal department of United Technologies says above it: ?248 lawyers ? 21 countries.? That photo, in a presentation by Associate General Counsel Chester Paul Beach at a conference in early...

Three common delusions that confound our decision-making

Posted on December 22, 2009
Michael Mauboussin, Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition (Harvard Bus. Press 2009) at 4-6, describes three particular delusions which stymie our efforts to reach good conclusions. We over-rate our own abilities, prospects, and influence, which makes us more difficult...

The International In-House Counsel Journal ? substantive and management content by in-house attorneys

Posted on December 22, 2009
The International In-house Counsel Journal, established in 2007, publishes papers written exclusively by in-house counsel from around the world covering major areas of interest. Its website says ?The papers are peer reviewed by an international editorial board of leading in-house...

The chief legal officer and local management should combine to recruit a local lawyer

Posted on December 22, 2009
Int?l In-House Counsel J., Vol 2, Summer 2009 at 1301-02, argues that chief legal officers should lead recruitment even for lawyers based with business units and yet also involve the local executives the new lawyer will support. ?A first cut...

Four more simple steps to save energy, i.e., coal and emissions

Posted on December 22, 2009
An article in LTN Law Tech. News, Vol. 16, Dec. 2009 at 47, describes some of the various efforts of ?the light bulb guy.? He is Alexander Tait at the Sonnenschein law firm atait@sonnenschein.com and he writes engagingly about his...

Maligned as mere draftsperson, UK in-house counsel aspire to greater prominence

Posted on December 22, 2009
Int?l In-House Counsel J., Vol 2, Summer 2009 at 1188, has an article about the plight of UK in-house counsel, who, the author claims, are too commonly ?still perceived as draftspersons because traditionally that is what lawyers did? ? their...

Free copy of my blook on outside counsel management, available courtesy of Mitratech

Posted on December 21, 2009
If you are interested in a copy of my compendium of posts on management of law firms retained, visit the website of Mitratech, the legal technology company. Mitratech has graciously agreed to send a copy of the blook to those...

More on rankings and honors for this blog -- Wikio

Posted on December 21, 2009
Sorry, I can?t help myself. I am proud of this blog and pour so much time and attention into it I can?t pass by a metric regarding it (See my post of Dec. 13, 2009 #3: Technorati and two other...

Canadian patent cases cost millions less than US patent cases

Posted on December 21, 2009
Much data is available about US patent cases and their costs (See my post of Oct. 2, 2008: costs of patent litigation, with 13 references.). Nothing has appeared on this blog, however, about costs north of the border. Now I...

Rees Morrison?s Morsels #127 ? posts longa, morsels breva

Posted on December 21, 2009
Jur�dico de Saias, or Women in Skirts. I am indebted to Laurence Simons and their newsletter for highlighting this group of in-house women lawyers in Brazil. I suspect the English translation should be more like Lawyers in Skirts (See my...

A contrarian argument for why in-house lawyers are more independent than external counsel

Posted on December 21, 2009
In a reversal of the normal argument that external lawyers are more objective and forceful since they can walk away, Int?l In-House Counsel J., Vol 2, Summer 2009 at 1344, puts an opposite spin. In-house counsel are not muzzled and...

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