In-House Counsel

Blog posts on the next five largest corporations, and the regrettable absence of non-US departments

By Rees Morrison

Debuting on the stage of law department metrics, blog posts per trillion dollars of revenue will almost certainly have a short run (See my post of Aug. 25, 2008: five largest corporations in the world.). Always striving to advance research, however, I forged ahead, searched for posts about the next five largest corporations, and presents the results below.

Chevron = 5 (See my post of Jan. 30, 2006: how to integrate clients with litigation; March 4, 2007: split engagements with law firms; March 4, 2007: scrutinize costs as closely as fees; May 8, 2007: toughest GC position; and May 16, 2007: the meaning of a world-class legal organization.).

ING Group = 0

TOTAL = 1 (See my post of Aug. 26, 2006: approximately 300 lawyers.)

General Motors = 5 (See my post of Nov. 3, 2005: e-billing; July 21, 2005: law-department consortium; July 25, 2007: many functions of a software it installed; June 15, 2008: four patents for its legal technology; and Aug. 12, 2008: drives use of minority lawyers at firms.).

ConocoPhillips = 2 (See my post of April 2, 2005: metrics for litigation managers; and Sept. 28, 2007: litigation life cycles.).

What struck me from the two posts is the void this blog has of experiences from non-US law departments. Huge legal teams, such as the hundreds of lawyers at each of Royal Dutch Shell, Toyota, ING, and Total, have created barely a ripple on this blog. Sadly, language limitations are one reason for the lacunae. I doubt that vast non-US law departments have done nothing noteworthy on the field of management. To make the point with an intentional pun, for law department management ideas and experiences there is a whole world out there.

Full post as published by Law Department Management on August 27, 2008 (boomark / email).