Law Department Management Blog
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch calmly deals with a rabid dog. He shoots it. Similarly, a number of statements quoted on this blog have triggered in me a metaphorical desire to do the same. After telling off another quote I disagree with (See my post of Feb. 15, 2009: critical legal issue is reducing business risk.), I unearthed other quotes that irked me and prompted me to level my rhetorical rifle at them.
“Delaying resolution [of a lawsuit] spreads defense costs into next year’s budget. A case with a defense cost of $75,000 per year for three years actually looks better than a case resolved in one year with a $100,000 defense cost” (See my post of Feb. 20, 2008: GCs do not deliberately prolong litigation.).
“In many cases, management has no idea how law departments spend money” (See my post of Jan. 23, 2009: GCs should be ashamed if they fail to educate executives about activities and expenditures of law department.).
“The best marketing I can do is to work myself silly on that case and do as good a job as I can” (See my post of Feb. 21, 2008: a partner’s self-serving view on how to get more clients.).
“In many areas of law it is possible to put out some sample cases to external law firms so that you have a benchmark of external cost. You can compare the cost of handling it inside to the cost of handling the sample cases outside” (See my post of March 25, 2008: no one pilots matters with firms to develop comparative cost data.).
“Any chief executive or chief financial officer with access to a fully comprehensive guide to a legal market could quickly undermine one of the chief roles of a general counsel – the selection of outside counsel” (See my post of April 4, 2008: guides to a legal market won’t replace a lawyer’s experience and judgment.).
“Having a law firm’s client call [a general counsel] with a personal recommendation was the type of ‘marketing’ that he could appreciate” (See my post of April 20, 2008: no top lawyer wants gratuitious praise for a firm.).
“Most [lawyers] are trained to see conflicts and competitions in terms of right (who deserves to win?) and wrong (who deserves to lose?)” (See my post of May 29, 2008: disappointing advice to keep lawyers out of strategy meetings.).
“Our focus has been on reducing litigation lifecycles because that is really the best way to manage cost” (See my post of Sept. 28, 2007: cycle time is dubious as key cost saving method for litigation.).
“Flat fees tend to encourage clients to demand more than they’re paying for…” (See my post of May 16, 2006: disagree with flat fees being abused by clients.).