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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

Techniques that save legal costs, but without quantification

Posted on August 21, 2008
A previous post listed more than 20 ways to bring down legal costs, each with some percentage estimate or dollar value of the saving (See my post of Aug. 21, 2008: estimates of savings from techniques.). Other methods of saving...

Estimates of savings from various techniques

Posted on August 21, 2008
General counsel read and hear that they can reduce their spending by plunging into all kinds of techniques. True, at least to some extent, but some of the claimed savings are grossly exaggerated. I have collected a startling range of...

?Matter management? vs ?legal spend management?; ?matter-centric? a useless neologism

Posted on August 21, 2008
Vendors of software have conjured these two terms to imply a difference. In Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, June 2008 at 52, both terms -- matter management and legal spend management -- appear but my feeling is there is much...

Part XIV of a collection of embedded metaposts

Posted on August 17, 2008
To my latest assemblage, I have ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of Aug. 17, 2008: Part XIII.) along with the number of posts cited within them. 1. CYA self-protection cover your ass (See my post...

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Part XIII of a collection of embedded metaposts

Posted on August 17, 2008
Here are ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of Aug. 13, 2008: Part XII.) along with the number of posts cited within them. 1. 360 assessments (See my post of Dec. 26, 2007: 360? instruments with...

Corporate governance as a typical concern of law departments

Posted on August 17, 2008
Corporate governance issues rank high on the list of concerns law departments know they should address (See my post of Aug. 14, 2005: CEOs think general counsel should spend more time on governance; March 6, 2005: governance as a challenging...

Part XV of a collection of embedded metaposts

Posted on August 17, 2008
I offer ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of Aug. 17, 2008: Part XIV.) along with the number of posts or other references cited within them. 1. Panels of law firms (See my post of June...

Eleven blunt suggestions for how to cut litigation costs in half

Posted on August 15, 2008
A number of recent posts have drawn on an article published in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, July 2008 at 39, by two partners at Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz. The authors boldly state that ?Most corporations could cut...

GC?s succumb to expensive, name firms to protect themselves from potential criticism

Posted on August 15, 2008
A recent article by two partners in a small litigation firm, published in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, July 2008 at 39, starts with a provocative claim. The authors believe there are ?two very simple reasons why litigation costs have...

Competitive bids

Posted on August 15, 2008
Earlier I describe 18 good practices for competitive bids and RFP processes (See my post of Nov. 30, 2007: 10 recommendations and 11 references; Aug. 13, 2008: 8 tips on competitive tenders and 2 references.). Despite some assertions to the...

Internal controls on compliance databases and reports

Posted on August 15, 2008
The 2007 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey asked a group of questions about law departments and compliance. As summarized in ACC Docket, Vol. 30, March 2008 at 12, ?less than half of law departments have the following specific internal controls...

Airing grievances that may affect productivity in legal departments

Posted on August 15, 2008
According to Bus. Law Today, July/Aug. 2008 at 7, a recent poll by Blumberg Capital Partners inquired about what ?workplace factors dampen employees? spirits and decrease their productivity most?? The number one complaint related to office conditions, with 47 percent...

Percentages of bills at rack hourly rates compared to discounted hourly rates

Posted on August 15, 2008
A small finding from PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, Jan.-March 2007 at 27, got me thinking about full hourly rates compared to discounted hourly rates and the distribution of fees paid by law departments between those two categories. The report...

Four uses of procurement staff by law departments

Posted on August 15, 2008
Two paragraphs in a survey report offer some insights into how European law departments use procurement personnel. The data comes from PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, Jan.-March 2007 at 23. Of the respondents to the magazine?s 2006 survey, 18.3 percent....

Usefulness of IT applications supplied by law firms

Posted on August 15, 2008
PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, Jan.-March 2007 at 21, reports survey data about how a group of mostly European general counsel view technology offered for their benefit by law firms. A stacked bar chart describes seven applications according to whether...

To whom is the general counsel primarily responsible?

Posted on August 15, 2008
In-house counsel represent the company, not individual employees of the company. So runs the mantra, and it is true. A recent survey, however, published in Corp. Bd. Mbr., Vol. 11, July/Aug. 2008 at 86, extends the scope of whom the...

Law department management group on LinkedIn ? join it and invite me as a connection

Posted on August 15, 2008
If you belong to LinkedIn, consider joining the group I host there for in-house counsel. More than a score of members have joined since I started the group a few months ago and the group holds promise to offer benefits....

Eight tips on how to conduct a panel review

Posted on August 13, 2008
PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, Jan.-March 2007 at 17, lists eight suggestions for how to conduct a competitive bid (See my post of Nov. 11, 2007: ten more suggestions.). 1. ?Minimize box ticking,? by which they mean forcing the selection...

Law departments ask in RFPs about flexible working policies at law firms

Posted on August 13, 2008
From PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, Jan.-March 2007 at 15-16, comes survey data about how many mostly European law departments http://ld.practicallaw.com/2-214-7952 require information on ?flexible working policies? within the law firms they might retain...

Three litigation cost controls: motions, depositions, and attendees at court conferences and depositions

Posted on August 13, 2008
Two partners in a small litigation firm assert three steps law departments should take to control motion practice by their litigation firms. As published in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, July 2008 at 39, the steps are (1) permit no...

Total legal spending and its possible correlation with R&D spending

Posted on August 13, 2008
Consider one more contributor to the mystery why total legal spending as a percentage of revenue (TLS/Rev.) declines as companies grow larger. TLS/Rev is widely recognized as the preeminent metric in terms of reliability and importance (See my posts of...

Expertise and bench are the two primary reasons to retain outside counsel

Posted on August 13, 2008
Half of all the work that goes to external counsel goes because those lawyers know more about an area of law than does the law department. This finding comes from PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, Jan.-March 2007, at 15, based...

Part XII of a collection of embedded metaposts

Posted on August 13, 2008
Here are ten more embedded metaposts with URL links (See my post of July 27, 2008: Part XI.) along with the number of posts cited in them. 1. Associates, complaints about (See my post of May 11, 2007: associates and...

2009 Corporate Counsel World Summit

Posted on August 13, 2008
This gathering of in-house counsel from all around the world is organized by the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (Association canadienne des conseiller (�res) juridique d?enterprises). Another ten in-house groups support the gathering, to be held January 25-27, 2009 in Vancouver,...

Mistaken ideas about inside counsel as fixed costs at one-third the cost of outside counsel

Posted on August 13, 2008
A columnist in ACC Docket, Vol. 30, March 2008 at 20 (Ron Pol), confesses ?10 little secrets of working in-house.? His second secret begins with a sentence that I dispute -- ?You represent one of two choices for the business:...

General Motors drives the use of minority and women lawyers on its matters, with targets

Posted on August 12, 2008
?For its law firms, GM sets a target of 20 percent minority lawyers and 33 percent women lawyers of the total number of lawyers working on GM matters per firm it hires.? This quote comes from InsideCounsel, July 2008 at...

A quiz with a reward about unusual vocabulary on this blog

Posted on August 12, 2008
For those of you who enjoy unusual words and have read my blog attentively, here is a quiz. Anyone who emails me with three or more correct definitions will get a personalized prize! 1. Ampakines 2. Cogniceuticals 3. Haggis 4....

Incremental small steps to control costs are like kedging by sailors

Posted on August 12, 2008
According to Legal Technology News recently, to kedge a ship was to move it by dropping a small anchor ahead and hauling on it to pull the ship forward. For ships becalmed, this arduous process inched them forward until the...

Methods of training employees and Board members on compliance issues

Posted on August 12, 2008
In early 2007, 84 general counsel of companies mostly headquartered in Northern Europe or the UK and Ireland ranked five techniques to train people on compliance issues. The survey findings are in PLCLaw Dept. Quart., Vol. 3, April-June 2007, at...

Most frequently encountered legal risks for European companies

Posted on August 12, 2008
In early 2007, 84 general counsel of ?leading multinational companies,? largely companies with headquarters in Northern Europe or the UK and Ireland, ranked the legal risks they encounter in terms of frequency (See my posts of Nov. 5, 2005: legal...

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