LEGAL
A month dedicated to legal department management
The month of June is dedicated to managing your legal department – from how to make you (and your colleagues) happier attorneys, to managing legal holds, to the challenges of the RFP process, and more. Also read what corporate counsel can do to help the disparaging billing gap between male and female law firm attorneys. Also be sure to check out the Westlaw® Corporate Twitter feed and the Legal Solutions Corporate Counsel blog for more in-depth articles and information on selected department management topics.
Who's getting the most and least from the RFP process
I noted in my last column that most in-house and outside counsel feel that their outside counsel retention guidelines and requests for proposals (RFPs) don't do much to improve their relationships, even though both sides agree that both are very important. Like outside counsel guidelines, RFPs are not well fashioned to achieve their designed objectives. This article focuses on the shortcomings of a legal department's RFP process
Read more
Driving transformation in your legal department
Whether you're a new GC in a legal department or simply looking to make a positive difference in your department, the process of change is never simple. The following are some keys steps to engage and communicate with your team in a meaningful way, define your goals and measure your performance, create a framework to identify changes to make, and manage a successful change in your legal department.
Read more
Best practices for executing legal holds
Any dispute carries the potential to turn into legal action. Failure to prepare for a legal hold is like not buying insurance – if you don't have it when you need it, it's too late, and the consequences can be very serious. Properly executing a legal hold need not be an overly complicated or intimidating process. What it does require, however, is thoughtful planning and preparation in order to protect the business.
Read more
Inequality everywhere: Can corporate counsel help bridge the gap in billing disparity between male & female outside counsel?
"Equality and justice are bedrocks of the U.S. legal system, but one doesn't have to look far to find injustices among law practitioners themselves. The new study released by Sky Analytics shows a gap on the most basic level, male versus female, when it comes to a subject near and dear to most lawyer attorneys' hearts: billing rates. Dr. Silvia Hodges Silverstein discusses the findings and the role corporate counsel can take in helping work towards equality.
Read more
Out of the dark ages: General counsel speak on the "low cost of going high tech"
Attorneys are known to be notoriously adverse to change, especially as it pertains to technology. They remain safeguarded from the seas of technological change, protected by their yellow legal pads, thick case notebooks, and manila folders brimming with legal research and multiple drafts of agreements. Fortunately, the law isn't practiced in some "dark age," but has continued to evolve, albeit slowly. The seas of change are set to bring new legal technologies to the practice of law.
Read more
Lost profits as general damages; telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation; poison pills and shareholder activism
Contracting parties should not rely on limitation of liability provisions for protection against claims for lost profits, plus a recent decision modernizes the concept of attendance and suggests that courts are more likely to find telecommuting to be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Also, public companies should take note of a recent decision that addresses the application of traditional takeover defenses against activist shareholders.
Read more
Top ten ways to become a more efficient (and possibly happier) in-house attorney
Going in-house means that your stress levels diminish, your hours working go down, and general bliss settles in, right? Turns out, the workload isn't necessarily lighter if you make the switch to in-house, nor is the stress level necessarily lower. One thing that does change immediately after going in-house: The word "efficiency" takes on an entirely different meaning. Here are 10 ways to pack more of what you need to do into your work time.
Read more
-->
