Rees Morrison’s Morsels #63 – Additions to earlier posts

Law departments as profit centers. Corp. Counsel, Vol.15, Jan. 2008, at 111, notes that DuPont’s legal department “estimates that it has generated $630 million of revenue in the past three-and-a-half-year period” since the start of 2004. A large part of the most recent revenue came from a $92 million asbestos settlement with more than a dozen insurers” (See my post of Jan. 1, 2008 on attorneys fees and law departments as profit centers.).

A social and professional network for lawyers – LawLink. Just after my comments on LinkedIn and my invitation to readers of this blog to invite me to connect with them (See my post of Jan. 19, 2008.), I read in Bus. Law Today, Vol. 17, Jan./Feb. 2008 at 7, about LawLink.com. According to its founder, Steven Choi, the free site is open only to registered lawyers and aims at professional networking. Choi contrasts LawLink.com to Lawbby.com in that his site encourages members to “pose questions, seek referrals, post classified ads, and share information.”

Rationality, reason, and a clear-headed lawyer. To be rational is to draw conclusions from facts that are logically warranted. Someone is rational who step-by-step, concept-by-sound concept, reaches a conclusion. An in-house lawyer who thinks through a situation to a solution demonstrates rationality. Somewhat different is to reason. Reasoning often depends on trial and error experience as well as reflection on the past. It is less a mechanical process of syllogism and deduction and more a process of thoughtful cerebration. I think of it as the difference between logic and learning (See my post of Jan. 17, 2006 on irrational optimism.).

Calgary’s In-House Counsel Network (ICN). The ICN was established to meet the unique needs of sole in-house counsel or in-house counsel working in small legal departments. Here is the link to the ICN website which more fully describes the ICN, its membership and objectives.