Part LIX in a series of collected metaposts embedded previously
Doggedly, I compile these monthly summaries of the elite, but does anyone care?
Most firms in survey say that law departments ask for UTBMS code billing but give no guidance based on codes (July 5, 2011)
Three-quarters of the respondents said clients remained mute regarding any conclusions they might have drawn from coded bills.
Previously, I collected my posts that have lists of 6, 7, and 8 items (See my post of Aug. 8, 2011: 44 posts with lists of six; Aug. 11, 2011: 34 posts with lists of seven; Aug. 19, 2011: 25 posts with lists of eight.).
Those posts with nine items number 19 in all, starting with the 5 my first three years of blogging (See my post of July 14, 2005: 9 roles of in-house lawyers; Oct. 30, 2005: 9 low-cost morale boosters; May 7, 2006: 9 diversity tools from GE’s legal departments; June 27, 2006: 9 obstacles for a technology project; and March 23, 2007: 9 arguments against offshoring.).
The following three years saw quite a few more niners (See my post of Feb. 6, 2008: 9 ways to improve outside counsel guidelines; Sept. 28, 2008: 9 insights a general counsel might share if invited to speak at a law firm’s partner retreat; Oct. 10, 2008: 9 reasons to ask firms to compete for your assignments; Nov. 21, 2008: 9 tips for dealing with change; Dec. 14, 2008: 9 technologies that enable remote work; Feb. 1, 2009: 9 applications of Web 2.0 for law departments; March 27, 2009: 9 myths held by inside lawyers; March 31, 2009: 9 more manifestations of bad behavior by managers; Oct. 12, 2008: 9 energy-saving ideas; Oct. 22, 2009: 9 reasons why law firms agree to volume discounts; March 16, 2010: 9 good-writing rules for good contract drafting; May 3, 2010: 9 advantages in-house lawyers see in their jobs; Nov. 29, 2010: 9 limits on your ability to change what is negotiated in a contract; and May 19, 2011: 9 propositions about value.).
Ideas for how to manage a law department better come from many sources. For me, as I read I note in the margins what I think of as “blog ideas” and later I go back and write those that still appeal to me. During the nine months since December 2010 the following 21 books that I read stimulated blog ideas that saw bloglight, so to speak. Most of them get credit for multiple posts.
John D. Barrow, 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know: Math Explains Your World (Norton 2008) (See my post of April 15, 2011: a way to detect manufactured time records.).
Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation (O’Reilly 2010) (See my post of Dec. 27, 2010: eight myths of innovation.).
Having scoured my posts for lists of six and seven, I conclude this obsession with my lists of eight. The first three years produced 10 of them (See my post of July 14, 2005: 8 methods to train clients; Jan. 17, 2006: Ethics Officer Association (EOA) and 8 global standards; Feb. 8, 2006: 8 measures of a country’s legal infrastructure; May 21, 2006: 8 methods to control legal costs; Dec. 11, 2006: 8 calculations you can do with the invoices of a firm; Feb. 25, 2007: 8 roles of inside counsel; March 20, 2007: 8 best-practice factors in procurement; Nov. 8, 2007: 8 suggestions for alignment; and Oct. 12, 2008: 8 modest recycling steps.).
Thereafter, 2009 was a banner year, with 12 pieces of eight (See my post of Jan. 30, 2009: 8 benefits of virtual deal rooms; Feb. 5, 2009: 8 cognitive traps; Feb. 5, 2009: 8 downsides of the recession; Feb. 13, 2009: 8 technology roles in law departments; March 23, 2009: when forced to reduce staff, 8 changes a law department needs from its clients; April 25, 2009: 8 ways law departments stick out compared to other staff functions; July 8, 2009: 8 benefits of having an in-house lawyer responsible for relations with a primary law firm; Aug. 10, 2009: 8 myths procurement professionals harbor about US legal departments; Sept. 5, 2009: 8 fundamental software packages for law departments; Sept. 21, 2009: 8 reasons why a relationship partner might not make constructive suggestions; Oct. 21, 2009: 8 ways to increase revenue per lawyer; and Nov. 10, 2009: tracking time, 8 pros and 6 cons.).
The pace has slowed since that year (See my post of June 21, 2010: 8 suggestions for cc’s on e-mails; Dec. 10, 2010: 8 myths of innovation; and Feb. 8, 2011: 8 suggestions for how to learn more about your client’s business.).
If you feel management of this $100 billion segment deserves recognition, by inside counsel and by law firm lawyers, a few minutes of your time would make a difference.
To quote from an e-mail I received from the ABA, “Use the Blawg 100 Amici form to tell us about a blawg … that you read regularly that you think other lawyers should know about.” After some caveats at the top, click here on the short form, which basically asks you to identify yourself and then recommend a blog.
Two years ago LawDepartmentManagementBlog first made the Blawg 100 list of the ABA. That was important recognition for all who practice law in-house.
Feeling compulsive after my marathon with posts that list 6 of something, I plucked out all the posts that give 7 reasons or suggestions or examples of something. I have organized them by the 18 in 2005-2008; and then the 16 in the remaining three years of this blog.
For the first three years (See my post of April 27, 2005: 7 common causes of team breakdowns; July 17, 2005: 7 good practices regarding metrics; Oct. 30, 2005: 7 flubs that get firms fired; Oct. 1, 2006: 7 methods of data visualization with charts; Dec. 1, 2006: 7 reasons why law firms don’t transfer knowledge to law departments; Dec. 22, 2006: 7 methods to deliver training; June 14, 2007: 7 mistakes law departments can make regarding performance metrics; Oct. 26, 2007: 7 tips for more effective RFPs by a law department; Nov. 27, 2007: 7 ways work arrives for an in-house lawyer; Jan. 27, 2008: 7 ploys that may appease losing firms; Feb. 25, 2008: 7 tips for how to do email more productively; Feb. 25, 2008: practice area benchmarks for 7 practices; March 25, 2008: 7 steps toward convergence; May 7, 2008: 7 more visual methods to portray law department data; Aug. 15, 2008: 7 tips on how to do competitive bids; Sept. 21, 2008: 7 obstacles to good management of talent; Nov. 19, 2008: 7 team building activities for retreats; and Dec. 2, 2008: 7 guidelines for when the legal department ought to be involved in contracts.).
For the past three years (See my post of March 15, 2009: 7 more cognitive traps in-house lawyers may fall into; March 20, 2009: 7 reasons why I question the infatuation with “best practices”; Feb. 19, 2009: 7 reasons why law departments do not take dramatic action against costs; May 13, 2009: 7 “maps” for managers of corporate legal departments; July 4, 2009: 7 suggestions for sourcing and procurement to get legal on-board; Oct 5, 2009: 7 recommendations for how to have successful technology projects in your department; Sept. 1, 2009: 7 similarities between contract management and matter management software; Nov. 17, 2009: 7 variations on rate freezes from the traditional choice of one or two years; Jan. 8, 2010: 7 profundities on quantification; May 31, 2010: 7 steps a general counsel might take to reduce gaming on matter budgets; June 1, 2010: 7 steps in the Puma law department’s program against counterfeiting; July 19, 2010: 7 commonalities between the constructs of “risk” and “value”; July 29, 2010: 7 koans on “legal risk”; Oct. 22, 2010: 7 ways of learning and relative efficacy; Oct. 31, 2010: 7 reasons why clients might perceive law departments to be slow; and Jan. 6, 2011: 7 essential practices of personal productivity.).
This blog, proud as I am of it and hard as I toil on it, still remains scattered, opportunistic, abbreviated, and idiosyncratic. Right, it’s a blog. Why don’t I craft a fuller, more thoughtful book instead?
As Amy Winehouse sang, “No, no, no.” Books inevitably push you to fill in the holes with blather. You can’t know enough so you pontificate or bloviate. Second, they consume huge amounts of time in the writing and more in the publishing and marketing. Who pays for books anymore or reads them if they do? I think this blog has more chance of making a difference. As James Joyce closed Ulysses: “Yes, yes, yes.”
In any case, many books about law department management already beckon the interested reader (See my post (See my post of Nov. 16, 2009: books about law departments with 8 references; and July 27, 2011: several more books.).
Part LVII in a series of collected metaposts embedded previously
Ten posts from June 2011 that struck me as the most interesting
Internal and external billing rates, combined with the ratio of internal to external spend, suggests one-to-one lawyer hours (June 2, 2011)
Some billing rate and spend calculations suggest one outside counsel hour for every in-house lawyer hour.
Law Department Management Blog