August DuPont, as in proud DuPont, for its management initiatives

DuPont – big, big legal budget, and big on operational improvements, is the company most written about on this blog. Averaging a bit more than a half dozen posts each year, the ideas, innovation, and ink of Tom Sager’s team have been abundant (See my post of April 2, 2005: litigation metrics; July 16, 2005: data about resolution payments equaling about three-quarters of outside counsel spend; Aug. 27, 2005: large and dedicated IT staff; Sept. 5, 2005: DuPont's nine-part application when a firm requests rate hikes, and non-equity partners; Oct. 17, 2005: honored for technology prowess; Oct. 10, 2005: offshore drafting of patent applications; and Nov. 24, 2005 #2: not adding staff to deal with Sarbanes-Oxley.).

The next two years kept up the drumbeat (See my post of Feb. 8, 2006: collection efforts; March 15, 2006: savings from early case assessment; April 2, 2006: the Wilmington wave and convergence; June 19, 2006: with GE on contracts; June 30, 2006: the marketing of law departments; Sept. 18, 2006: investment in offshore resources; Sept. 18, 2006: survey regarding minority firms; Dec. 8, 2006: surveys of its 38 Primary Law Firms; Dec. 12, 2006: publicity for its key law firms; Jan. 18, 2007: legal extranet; March 24, 2007: Sager criticizes effects of law firm mergers; June 4, 2007: knowledge manager position; Dec. 10, 2007: recoveries of class action settlements; Dec. 11, 2007: EDGE capabilities; and Dec. 11, 2007: selects Interwoven.).

Nor did the pace slow during 2008 and in the first half of 2009 (See my post of Jan. 30, 2008: asbestos recoveries; Feb. 13, 2008: five-year spend on settlements and judgments; March 1, 2008: metrics such as 7 lawyers per billion; June 6, 2008: total litigation spend as a percent of profits; Sept. 21, 2008 #2: teaming with Wal-Mart on diversity; Dec. 5, 2008: contributions to Minority Corporate Counsel Association; Feb. 7, 2009: laptop security; April 6, 2009: Sager as one of 20 most influential GCs; April 15, 2009: public relations firm; and May 4, 2009 #4: Six Sigma usage.).