Law Department Management Blog
Proportion of complex legal work in law departments is low and complexity does not equal high value (April 6, 2010)
As a quote suggests, a general counsel might look to offshore providers to dispatch routine work and hope thereby to elevate the amount of complex and valued work done inside.
Plurality of matters are handled by no more than one partner and one associate? (April 9, 2010)
More matters than we realize are probably thinly staffed, possibly more than half of all matters.
Irony: complaints about high rates of partners yet gripes about not getting enough of their time (April 12, 2010)
General counsel kvetch but often wish they could get more time from the very same, expensive partner.
Thoughts on how many law firms an individual in-house lawyer can effectively manage (April 16, 2010)
Between five and ten?
General counsel and their broadening role in the court of public opinion (April 19, 2010)
Public relations plays a crucial role when there is a crisis or harsh scrutiny in the press and an article makes a strong case for the top lawyer to be on top of the crisis.
Match the other party’s contract against industry (or your) standards, and software that may assist (April 20, 2010)
Software that claims to create a Reference Standard (based on a market standard or your firm’s best practices) to efficiently review contracts.
Get your tesseract together and visualize the four most important benchmark metrics (April 23, 2010)
Tesseracts are four-dimensional cubes that could convey the fundamentals of metrical benchmarks: numbers of staff, amount of spend, size of revenue, and category of industry. Get into the tesseract! Join 500+ other departments by clicking here to complete the short, confidential online survey based on your 2009 metrics.
Fee quotes that are much lower than comparables are double-edged (April 26, 2010)
If several law firms of roughly comparable cost structure propose to handle something and one of them falls considerably below the other amounts, it may be a reason to worry. But maybe not.
How management practices vary as they diffuse from law department to law department (April 28, 2010)
Academics refer to the spread of a management practice as “diffusion.” A thoughtful article frames an understanding of diffusion with the notions of fidelity and extensiveness.
Hard and disciplined work over an extended period makes much more of a difference than “innate” talent (April 29, 2010)
In-house lawyers can excel by dint of studied application, especially focused on weak areas, kept at with commitment and self-reflection.