Rees Morrison’s Morsels #67 – additions to earlier posts

In-house blogs and bloggers. Bill Heinze, host of IP-Updates, was formerly a Patent Procurement Counsel for GE Energy. The Patry Copyright Blog is hosted by William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel at Google Inc. (See my post of Feb. 20, 2008: other law-department related blawgs.).

More on general counsel who are bad managers. MIT Sloan Mgt. Rev., Vol. 49, Winter 2008 at 23, has an article that discusses bad CEOs. The article’s observations, however, also apply to general counsel (See my post of Oct. 12, 2006 on what happens if a general counsel is a poor manager; Aug. 10, 2007 on personality disorders; and Jan. 19, 2008 on managers who bully.).

Do billing rate increases these days build in expected discounts? Law departments might ask their major firms to give them information about effective billing rates (See my post of June 13, 2006 on the difference between blended and effective rates.). Just as lenders build into their interest rates their expectations of inflation in the future, managing partners may push rates higher in anticipation of later granting discounts.

Don’t forget memory-enhancing drugs. Cortex Pharmaceuticals “is attempting to develop a class of molecules known as ampakines, which facilitate the transmission of the neurotransmitter glutamate. Glutamate is one of the primary excitatory chemicals passed across the synapses between neurons. By amplifying its effects, Cortex hopes to improve the brain’s underlying ability to form and retrieve memories.” I'm glad I remembered this point from Natl. Geog., Nov. 2007 at 32, because someday soon it may be common for lawyers to boost their recall abilities with drugs (See my posts of May 30, 2006: so-called working memory; and Feb. 7, 2006: other drugs that improve memory.).

Balanced Scorecards. BSC Designer http://business-development-metrics.com is a program used to create balanced scorecard metrics. You can use it to create your own new metrics or modify existent. This site and descriptoon came to my attention via an email from Kelly Stuart stuartkelly35@yahoo.com (See my post of Feb. 26, 2008: balanced scorecards and references cited.).
http://lawdepartmentmanagement.typepad.com/law_department_management/2008/02/the-balance-of.html