In-House Counsel

Rees Morrison?s Morsels #101 ? additions to earlier posts and short takes

By Rees Morrison

Time management training. Two speakers on a panel at the SuperConference www.insidecounsel.com/superconference said that they had arranged time management training for every member of their department (See my post of Feb. 16, 2006: solo lawyers in-house must particularly attend to how they use their time.).

No performance evaluations at Apple?s legal department! During a panel at the SuperConference, someone in the audience volunteered that Apple?s law department does no performance ratings. That company, or that general counsel, believes ratings are driven by the need to back up decisions to fire people, and otherwise are demoralizing and not useful (See my post of Sept. 21, 2008: annual reviews and evaluations, with 12 references.).

Sociology of law. In the words of Citizendium, ?Sociology of law is a diverse field of study which includes social scientific investigations of the institutions of law, the professionalisation of law and lawyers, the social construction of legal issues and systems, and the interaction of legal institutions, doctrines, and practices with other aspects of society.? I?m still not sure, but perhaps this blog is a small minnow in the vast school of legal sociology (See my post of Feb. 25, 2009: academics with 16 references.).

Ratio of non-US lawyers to non-US revenue. Marschall Smith, the General Counsel of 3M, said at the recently-concluded SuperConference that two-thirds of the company?s revenue comes from outside the US, while about 50 percent of its lawyers are outside. Over time the numbers for global companies will come closer to parity (See my post of Nov. 19, 2007: global law departments.).

Depict ideas and their relationships visually. Having spotted a number of posts on management maps, I can see clearly that several maps make eyes at ideas (See my post of Nov. 28, 2005: mind-mapping software; Jan. 6, 2009: visual presentation of ideas; Feb. 23, 2006: argument maps; Jan. 8, 2009: concept mapping with Clustify; April 27, 2005: knowledge maps; Sept. 25, 2005: learning maps; July 28, 2008: a method to map decision points and consequences; and Dec. 21, 2005 #1: software for mind maps.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).