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Internal budgets of legal departments, a catch-up metapost

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Having just put up two posts – yesterday and today – with 29 costs that some legal departments bear (or might bear), I wanted to compile my most recent writings on internal legal department budgets. Internal budgets figure in other posts, but not necessarily specific expenses (See my post of Jan. 2, 2009: advantages of zero-based budgets; Jan. 4, 2009: multiple cost centers for some departments; Jan. 21, 2009: JDS Uniphase elaborate operating plan; March 29, 2009: five steps toward realistic internal budgets; May 6, 2009: “budget” compared to “forecast”; Aug. 10, 2009: operating costs of law departments compared to law firms; Aug. 11, 2009: four methods of budgeting; Feb. 19, 2010: DuPont’s double budgets; and Sept. 30, 2010: interplay between benchmarks and budgets.).

Many posts address unusual expenditures and I listed them in the two previous posts (See my post of Oct. 11, 2008: legal budgets should not include purchases of fakes; Dec. 7, 2008: perhaps for reimbursement of flights on the corporate jet; Dec. 26, 2008 #2: charitable gift matches not included in law department budgets; Jan. 23, 2009: personal concierge and childcare at reduced rates; Jan. 15, 2009: local units provide support; Oct. 11, 2009: some tasks and costs handled by HR and not charged to legal; April 20, 2011: metapost on capitalized expenses; Jan. 12, 2011: Arizona to Nevada weekly commute; Sept. 12, 2010: what budget should include compliance expenditures; May 8, 2011: frustration of responsibility for costs but no control over internal investigations; Jan. 18, 2011: GlaxoSmithkline lawyer’s defense paid for; Dec. 23, 2008: administrators lack budgets, except some for facilities; Jan. 29, 2009: rental costs imputed; and Feb. 25, 2009: data of $17,000 per year per lawyer for facilities costs; Jan. 20, 2009: lawyers supervise staff outside the legal department; Sept. 12, 2010: speculations on SEC filing costs; May 4, 2009 #3: BEA termination packages; May 12, 2009: HP arrangements for those let go; and June 7, 2010: departing Schering-Plough GC got $12 million.).