Shell Malaysia and law-department initiative overload?

A June 2005 conference entitled “Corporate Counsel Asia,” sponsored by the Malayan Law Journal, has a session by Suflan Shamsuddin, the General Counsel of Shell Malaysia. Shamsuddin will describe the set of “strategic initiatives for implementation” by that Law Department in 2004. The brochure describes them as:
• Revamping of litigation management processes
• Review of external counsel panelship
• Risk management mapping and review
• Review and remediation of litigation files
• Knowledge Management initiatives relating to:
o Regulatory monitoring and updating
o Precedent database
o Legal awareness programs
o Competence matrix for lawyers
o SMART KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] [See my post on April 8, 2005 criticizing SMART objectives for lawyers]

Assuming the Law Department to have not more than 20-30 lawyers, this strikes me as an overly ambitious management agenda. Each initiative, done well, could take months of effort. Point two is that “risk management mapping” sounds innovative, but we have to await the conference transcript.