Tax policies, employment laws, and cultural predispositions discourage companies in some major countries from growing much. In Spain, according to Fortune, July 23, 2012 at 16, and as holds in Italy I believe, very small firms are disproportionately represented as compared to the United States. It is much easier for…
A third of VF’s revenue comes from international sales, according to Corp. Counsel, July 2012 at 38, and five members of its 18-person legal department are stationed outside the United States.” VF Corp. is the world’s largest apparel and footwear company. It makes sense that a company that does business…
The law department of United Technologies has approximately 275 in-house lawyers. Aside from those based at the company’s headquarters in the United States, approximately 250 work from 79 locations and 20 countries! This information on geographic spread comes from GC Insights: What Multinational General Counsel Value Most (ACC 2012, supplement…
Let me propose a metric to show a law department’s value, based on the degree to which its lawyers are based in countries in proportion to the revenue from that country. In that regard, during the past two years, this blog has commented on several law departments with many locations…
Deloitte’s Global Corporate Counsel Report 2011 shows a chart, based on data from nearly 900 in-house respondents around the world, of the “Responsibilities of Corporate Counsel.” The data pertains to the various functions general counsel oversee. For each of eight areas of responsibility, the percentage of respondents who have the…
The veteran consultant Richard Stock wrote a column for the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s quarterly, Leading Corporate Counsel, Fall 2010. Summarizing some of the action tips put forth in a metrics study, the ACLA-CLANZ Legal Department Benchmarking Report, Stock cited one on alignment. “Rotate lawyers’ alignment away from half of…
Deloitte’s Global Corporate Counsel Report 2011 presents data from almost 900 in-house counsel in 10 countries. Only 49 were from the United States. Of that subset, 86% are a member of the company’s senior management team (at 6). Evidently a much lower percentage holds for counsel outside the U.S., since…
In the portfolio of John Chou, general counsel and secretary of AmerisourceBergen, fall four groups. The law department includes 21 lawyers and 24 other members. Those 45 are less than half of his total complement because it also includes government affairs, regulatory affairs, and corporate security. All told, the “law…
From GC Insights: What Multinational General Counsel Value Most (ACC 2012, supplement to ACC Docket) at 27, we learn about the law department of Ford Motor. It has 146 lawyers and 215 other staff. Among the 361 total people are Ford’s tax lawyers as well as internal audit. It is…
An item in the ACC Docket, March 2012 at asian briefings 1, notes that the Asian region of Deere & Company’s law department has grown from two to 20 legal department employees in the past five years. The lawyers for that global company are increasingly placed to match the footprint…