In-House Counsel
InhouseBlog - News and Jobs for Inhouse Counsel 
News items and job listings for in-house counsel.
Post Frequency: 0.9/day Last Entry: November 20, 2009 at 03:01:44 Recent Entries: 303
By Geoff Gussis
Go to InhouseBlog - News and Jobs for Inhouse Counsel, find other In-House Counsel blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Search
Posts
The 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers
Posted on November 20, 2009Reid Trautz has done it again – for the fifth year in a row. Spread the word – the Holiday Gift Guide is out!! Reid My Blog!: The 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers * Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse.com *
Google Gets into Legal Research
Posted on November 19, 2009The blawgosphere is abuzz with the news – Google has entered the legal research game. Learn more about the news by reading a recent post at Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites and then head over to Google Scholar to check it out. * Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse...
Mastering Outlook to Increase Productivity
Posted on November 16, 2009Microsoft Outlook isn’t perfect, but there is more to its e-mail and calendar functions than meets the eye. By combining some of Outlook’s best undiscovered features with a little ingenuity, lawyers can reduce their stress levels and perhaps add a bit of leisure time to their schedules...
70 Sizzling Apps for Lawyers
Posted on November 15, 2009So you have a BlackBerry, iPhone or other PDA and can’t live without it. Whether it is checking emails or making a quick call to the office, your smartphone keeps you up to date on what is going on back at the office, the latest sports scores or helps you find a restaurant in [...
Are you Covered? New Liability Policy From The Hartford Protects In-House Attorneys
Posted on November 12, 2009Think malpractice insurance is only for attorneys in private practice? Think again. The Hartford recently launched an insurance package that can help cover risks for in-house attorneys. Read on for more information about the areas of coverage – and don’t forget to read a prior post on the issue...
Using Web 2.0 to Advance Your Career as an In-House Counsel
Posted on November 11, 2009Looking to maximize your in-house career opportunities? Leveraging Web 2.0 tools can help as Mike Evers points out in a recent article at InsideCounsel. [via Using Web 2.0 to Advance Your Career.] * Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse.com *
New ALM Study Reports on In-House Compensation Trends
Posted on November 10, 2009ALM’s latest report on in-house compensation trends is out – and it shows a mixed bag depending on whether you are a CLO or a rank and file in-house attorney. Check out the summary of the results in ALM’s press release. [via New ALM Study Reports Chief Legal Officer Compensation Increases Have Moderated; Other in-House [...
November?s Featured In-House Counsel Jobs
Posted on November 07, 2009Looking for an in-house counsel position? Head over to GoInhouse.com’s Job Board to take a look at their listings. Here are a few featured in-house counsel job openings: General Counsel – Women’s Professional Soccer, San Francisco, CA Licensing & Transactions Counsel – Broadcom Corporation, Irvine, CA (San Jose) Corporate Counsel – Global Pharmaceutical Company, Tri-State Area ISDA Attorney [...
Pressure Builds for In-House Attorneys
Posted on November 04, 2009More work. Lower pay. Less help. That’s what in-house lawyers have been dealing with as struggling companies figure out where to tighten the belt financially. “I can say that a majority of people looking to change jobs are doing so because they’re overwhelmed by the workload at their current job, says Elaine Kaiser, managing director [...
Wal-Mart to Require Outside Law Firms to Have Flextime Policies
Posted on November 02, 2009Wal-Mart has been known to throw its weight around with manufacturers and suppliers – and it appears that this extends to the law firms it uses. Wal-Mart is now requiring that law firms that it utilizes have flextime policies. For rank and file attorneys at outside law firms there was much rejoicing...
In-House Lawyers Talk Tough on Getting Firms to Mind the Bottom Line
Posted on October 21, 2009For the first time in three years, in-house counsel say that reducing outside legal spending is their first priority, according to a study released at the ACC meeting in Boston. Jeffrey Carr, GC of FMC Technologies, talked about how companies can start doing more alternative fee arrangements...
In-House Pay Increases on Hold?
Posted on October 15, 2009Looking for an update on the latest in-house salary trends? Head over to an interest article at the ABA Journal – they’re reporting that in-house counsel may not see the increases that have been so routine in the past: “Do I think that lawyers overall are making less?? Chung said...
Scalia: ?We Are Devoting Too Many of Our Best Minds to? Lawyering
Posted on October 05, 2009Yes, you read that correctly. The WSJ Law Blog has done a great job digging up this nugget from a recent interview given by Justice Scalia. Head on over to read his full comments. Scalia: ?We Are Devoting Too Many of Our Best Minds to? Lawyering – Law Blog – WSJ...
Go West, Aspiring In-House Counsel
Posted on September 27, 2009If you have at least 7 years experience with exposure to litigation in real estate, title, insurance, or similar practice area, and are looking for an in-house counsel position, now may be the time to head West (ok, maybe East, depending on where you are)...
Lawyer?s ?Poor? Stapling Provokes Motion?s Dismissal
Posted on September 26, 2009In a case of first impression — no pun intended — a New York judge has thrown out a tort action because, in part, the plaintiffs attorneys stapled the complaint in what he said was a dangerously negligent manner. “[T]he poor stapling of the papers was so negligent as to inflict, and did inflict repeatedly, [...
Intel GC Steps Down in Executive Shuffle
Posted on September 16, 2009As part of a management shakeup at Intel, general counsel D. Bruce Sewell has resigned “to pursue other opportunities,” according to a company statement released Monday. Patrick Gelsinger, a manager in Intel’s digital enterprise group, also opted to leave the Santa Clara, Calif...
It?s Time for a Lone-Star Pay Cut
Posted on September 15, 2009Think in-house lawyers are different? Think again. Texas general counsel?among the highest-paid executives at the state’s largest corporations?weren’t immune from the effects of the economic downturn. [via It's Time for a Lone-Star Pay Cut...
Corporate Counsel Launches New Web Site with Daily Online News Coverage for In-House Attorneys
Posted on September 14, 2009Corporate Counsel is extending its coverage – and providing new features and content that will help keep you up to date: In addition to highlights from leading worldwide blogs and access to full-content archives from Corporate Counsel, new site features include: A weekly poll on hot topics of interest to in-house counsel “From [...
Email Management Tips for Lawyers
Posted on September 12, 2009If your email inbox looks like a war zone, you may want to take a look at this post from the Legal Ease Blog. It provides tips and links on how to effectively manage your email. Legal Ease Blog: Email management tips for lawyers * Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse...
Three New Web Sites Target Legal Pros
Posted on September 01, 2009Attorney Robert J. Ambrogi reviews three noteworthy new Web sites that target legal professionals. The first is a networking site for lawyers and other professionals. The second helps manage legal transactions. The third is an information hub for corporate legal resources...
Outpacing PACER now a Reality?
Posted on August 31, 2009Maligned for years for its access fees and clunky system, the PACER system may be in for a bit of a shake-up, courtesy of a new third-party extension for the popular Firefox web browser: A team led by CITP director Ed Felten has devised a novel means of boosting the availability of PACER documents outside of [...
Latest In House Counsel Jobs (8/23/09)
Posted on August 23, 2009Check out these featured in house counsel jobs courtesy of GoInhouse.com. Many more are available at GoInhouse.com’s Job Board. Staff Attorney – Thomson Reuters , Jersey City, NJ Assistant General Counsel – JP Morgan Chase, New York, NY Associate General Counsel Transaction Products – UBS, Weehawken, NJ Senior Corporate Counsel – Pharmaceutical – Princeton Legal Search Group, [...
Who Represents Americas Biggest Companies ? and How
Posted on August 20, 2009For years, corporate counsel have been saying that they want to tear up the old model of doing business with their law firms. This year, they may finally start to make good on their threats. The recession is forcing corporate legal departments to rethink the concept of legal services in general...
GCs Say Law Firms Have Little Cause for Complaint
Posted on August 12, 2009If law firms are hoping that announcing their worst financial results since the early 1990s recession will cut them more slack with cost-conscious clients, they had better think again. From discussions of clients’ impressions of profits generated at major U...
Have You Really Come a Long Way, Baby?
Posted on August 06, 2009A few weeks ago, Jack Welch let loose with his view that women, to make it to the top of the corporate food chain, must let work consume their lives and forget work-life balance — as in: Don’t even think about it. Some likely think that’s very Gordon Gekko of Welch, says attorney Michael P...
Featured In-House Counsel Jobs for August 2009
Posted on August 02, 2009Check out these featured in-house legal positions courtesy of GoInhouse.com. Many more are available at GoInhouse.com’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. Claims Counsel – Zurich North America, Dallas, TX Commercial Counsel – Motorola, Plantation, FL Asst General Counsel – Securities – Time Warner, Inc...
How Law Departments Can Do More for Less
Posted on July 30, 2009These days, little is of more concern to a company’s legal function than its ability to control the cost of outside legal services. The person who serves as the top manager of a company’s outside lawyers and law firms is often the law department business manager...
Private practice lawyers stealing in-house jobs down under?
Posted on July 29, 2009In a report from the land down under, it appears that private practice lawyers are snapping up plum senior in-house jobs – to the detriment of existing in-house counsel rank and file. Is this a trend that will spread – or is it already here? “There has been an almost surge of appointments of senior [...
eDiscovery Plain and Simple (New Book)
Posted on July 28, 2009Looking to get up to speed quickly on e-discovery issues? You may want to check out the following recently released book: E-Discovery Plain and Simple discusses Information Technology through the different viewpoints of two national experts in this field...
In-House Counsel Assist in Preparing ?Best Practices in Preventing Fraud and Corruption in a Global Business? by LexMundi
Posted on July 24, 2009Hot off the presses is LexMundi’s latest publication which should be of interest to corporate counsel in global companies: Responding to the challenges confronting corporate legal departments today in ensuring global anti-corruption compliance, Lex Mundi has compiled and published Best Practices in Preventing Fraud and Corruption in a Global Business...
ESPN Lawyers Seek Erin Andrews Videographer
Posted on July 23, 2009The Twitter GC isn’t the only one having an eventful July. If you haven’t been following the news, ESPN’s lawyers are busy tracking down the videographer(s) involved in the making of surreptitious videos of Erin Andrews, an ESPN sportscaster...
myCorporateResource.com
Posted on July 23, 2009Both Rees Morrison and Bob Ambrogi (two recognized masters of the legal web) have picked up on a new site, myCorporateResource.com, that aims to add some order to the chaos of law firm bulletins and alerts. According to the site, it is: designed to empower corporate professionals with the latest in legal and commercial information [...
A Job Jolt Could Change Life For the Better
Posted on July 22, 2009Stressed about the economy or your job? Maybe it is time to take a step back and gain a little perspective: Economic meltdown, thousands of lost lawyer jobs, big-firm careers teetering on the brink: What could be worse for an attorney trying to build a successful and balanced life? Or, really, what could be better? [...
2009 GC Compensation Survey: Immune No More
Posted on July 21, 2009Through previous recessions, general counsel stayed largely untouched. Indeed, the past decade shows a nearly unbroken string of pay raises. No more. While some indexes of GC pay rose, the basic trend was nearly flat. Why? Because executive pay has become inextricably bound with corporate performance...
Corporate Counsel Are Reducing Ranks of Secondary Outside Firms, Survey Reports
Posted on July 21, 2009Corporations are using fewer law firms because short-staffed corporate legal departments have little time to manage outside firms, not just because consolidating work is cheaper, according to a new law firm survey by BTI Consulting Group. Also, companies’ increasing demands for flexibility in billing, staffing and communicating create opportunities for smaller firms, and BTI research [...
Twitter?s New GC Has an Eventful First Week
Posted on July 20, 2009Do you remember your first week of work? Twitter’s General Counsel always will: Last Friday, Twitter named Alexander Macgillivray as its first General Counsel — apparently not a moment too soon. Just a few days later, reports the BBC, Twitter was in touch with its legal counsel trying to assess the fallout after hundreds of its [...
10 Provocative Law Department Management Posts (by Rees Morrison)
Posted on July 16, 2009Rees Morrison, the nation’s leading law department management expert and publisher of the Law Department Management Blog, has graciously shared a list of ten of his most provocative posts from the month of May. If you are involved in law department management issues, you should subscribe to Rees’ blog...
Featured In-House Jobs from GoInhouse.com
Posted on July 16, 2009Check out these featured in-house legal positions courtesy of GoInhouse.com. Many more are available at GoInhouse.com’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. Contracts Attorney/In-House – Abelson Legal Search, Philadelphia, PA Associate Senior Cousel – Pharma – Edge Consulting, Northern NJ, NJ In-House Counsel RB1AL10234G – Confidential, Birmingham, AL Counsel [...
What Corporate Defendants Can Learn From the Barry Bonds Case
Posted on July 15, 2009Although the underlying facts in the cases against executives differ from those against athletes, executives can gain some valuable insights into their own risks, and into ways to protect against those risks, by reading about the prosecutions of athletes, especially the highly publicized prosecution of Barry Bonds, says attorney Michael J...
U.S. News to Rank Law Firms
Posted on July 14, 2009The news is out – U.S. News will begin ranking law firms this year. Will these rankings be as controversy-free as their law school rankings? The U.S. News/Best Lawyers Law Firm rankings will evaluate more than 3,000 law firms across the United States using a wide range of objective data as well as individual assessments [...
Motion to Compel Defense Counsel to Wear Appropriate Shoes at Trial
Posted on July 13, 2009Yes, you read that correctly. It’s another installment of the weird, wacky and funny – this time courtesy of the Palm Beach County court system. Head over to Holier Than Thou: Motion to Compel Defense Counsel to Wear Appropriate Shoes at Trial to see the motion...
Drafting Clearer Contracts (Webcast on July 14)
Posted on July 12, 2009Ken Adams, the nationally recognized contracts guru and author of the AdamsDrafting blog, is presenting the sixth in a series of acclaimed webinars on contract drafting on July 14th. It consists of a conversation between Ken and Bryn Vaaler, a partner in the corporate group of Dorsey & Whitney LLP, about why contract language [...
Practical Considerations for Forming LLCs in New York and Delaware
Posted on July 08, 2009Corporate attorney Amy E. D’Agostino is often asked, “What is the difference between forming an LLC in New York and Delaware?” Procedures in the two states are similar, but New York has a publication requirement, which adds significant costs...
Creativity and the Law: Duets Blog
Posted on July 05, 2009Trademark lawyers and marketing lovers take notice, there is a new blog on the scene. DuetsBlog is published by Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. and “was born out of the chasm that can divide legal and marketing types”: Sometimes this separation can be explained by the difference between left and right brain dominance...
San Diego ACC Schedules Brown Bag Trademark Discussion (July 9)
Posted on July 03, 2009The San Diego ACC chapter has scheduled a brown bag program titled Trademark and Trade Name Clearance: Cost Saving Measures in Trademark Registration for Thursday, July 9, at Fish & Richardson, 12390 El Camino Real in San Diego. Speakers Lisa Martens of Fish & Richardson and Michael Cantania of Callaway Golf will address the necessary steps, [...
Tenets of a Global GC
Posted on July 03, 2009In between the rush and flow of working as general counsel of global computer company Lenovo, Mike O’Neill realized that there are some basic principles that guide his work. He calls these tenets — some of them he’s learned along the way, and some he is still learning every day...
Legal Week Corporate Counsel Forum 2009 (Sep 15-16, Hampshire, UK)
Posted on July 03, 2009Who needs an excuse to attend a conference at a Four Seasons? Now in its seventh year, Legal Week?s Corporate Counsel Forum has established itself as the premier European event for leaders of in-house legal departments. This two-day event will provide delegates with practical insight into the critical issues set to impact in-house counsel over the [...
In-House Counsel Not Buying Talk of ?New Legal Model?
Posted on July 02, 2009A recent post at the ABA Journal indicates that Chief Legal Officers are not buying into talk of a “new legal model”: The CLOs were asked to give firms a score ranging from a low of 0 to a high of 10 to indicate how serious they think they are about changing their legal models, according [...
Employment Risks to Consider in a Challenging Economy
Posted on July 01, 2009Companies operating in these challenging economic times might have to navigate a number of pressing issues in order to weather the storm. Before making hasty employment-related decisions, companies would be wise to analyze the legal ramifications of such decisions, especially when it comes to reductions in force...
Bringing Mediation In-House Is Cost-Effective in More Ways Than One
Posted on June 30, 2009Limited resources can inspire corporate legal departments to think creatively and invest in programs that save money, effectively utilize in-house counsel and improve customer service. Alternative dispute resolution, as opposed to litigation, is one way that a corporation can save money, says Chaton T...
Former Lehman Lawyer Uses Company?s Bankruptcy to Launch Practice
Posted on June 29, 2009Who said bankruptcy is all bad? There can be a silver lining, as one in-house counsel recently found out: Lehman Brothers Inc.s bankruptcy last fall was a nightmare for Larry Bortstein, the company’s global head of technology law. But it also presented him with the opportunity to realize a dream...
On Legal Fees and Dead Frogs
Posted on June 25, 2009Legal fees and dead frogs? Another installment of the weird/wacky/funny for you. Head over to WSJ to read the full post. Law Blog 8-K Footnote of the Day: On Legal Fees and Dead Frogs - Law Blog - WSJ.
Rio Tinto in Legal Outsourcing Deal to India
Posted on June 22, 2009For those tracking legal outsourcing deals, another entry for your books: Jersey-based CPA Global are providing a team of 12 Delhi-based lawyers to handle tasks such as contract review, drafting and legal research - in a move projected to reduce Rio Tinto's annual legal spend by 20%...
In-House Counsel Preparing for New Emissions Regulations
Posted on June 20, 2009In April the Environmental Protection Agency started a process that will allow it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles, and it’s expected to soon do the same for emissions from factories, power plants and other industrial facilities...
10,000 UK Lawyers Could Lose Jobs Within 2 Years
Posted on June 19, 2009Just when some are seeing positive signs in the US economy, we get the following news from across the pond: In another signpost of the sea change that seems to be occurring in the legal profession, a major United Kingdom newspaper is predicting that more than 10,000 lawyers there could lose their jobs over the next [...
Anatomy of an Arbitration Disaster
Posted on June 17, 2009A Los Angeles Superior Court judge last month affirmed an arbitration award in a wrongful termination suit of more than $4.1 billion, sending shock waves through the labor and employment bar. Alston & Bird partner Michael D. Young spoke to The National Law Journal about the lessons to be learned from the outcome in this [...
Shopping Around for International Patent Protection
Posted on June 12, 2009Filing a patent application in the United States starts the process for protecting an invention in the U.S. But it does nothing to protect it overseas. Patent applications must generally be filed on a country-by-country basis to secure foreign patent protection, but filing applications in all of the world’s patent offices would cost close to [...
Basic Bankruptcy Issues: A Primer for In-House Counsel
Posted on May 26, 2009If you need to get up to speed on bankruptcy-related issues, check out Basic Bankruptcy Issues: A Primer for In-House Counsel, which was written by Carmen H. Lonstein, Esq., of Baker & McKenzie LLP. Carmen covers a lot of ground in the document including the following: - Types of Business Bankruptcy Cases And Key Players - [...
Cutting Costs Is a Way of Life for In-House
Posted on May 21, 2009How one in-house counsel approaches outside law firms may very well summarize the state of today’s legal economy. “I have to personally reduce outside counsel costs,” said Michelle L. Meiselman, assistant GC for Akzo Nobel. “If I don’t, then it comes out of my bonus — if there are bonuses this year...
Featured In-House Counsel Jobs
Posted on May 21, 2009Best wishes for a great Memorial Day weekend from InhouseBlog.com. If you’re looking for an in-house counsel job, check out the featured job postings below - many more are available at InhouseBlog’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board...
Best Legal Department of 2009
Posted on May 20, 2009In this year’s Best Legal Department competition, you might say that everyone’s a winner. Overstatement? Sure. But it sums up the hard choices Corporate Counsel judges faced. In tallying up the final grades, there wasn’t a whole lot separating the leading contenders...
Tweets Create Legal Issues for Lawyers and Employers
Posted on May 19, 2009Just when you thought you could tweet in peace, the lawyers got involved. Can “tweet” insurance be far behind? Although the social networking phenomenon is so new that best practices are still being developed, Twitter “tweets” are a potential litigation minefield for attorneys, their employers and other businesses...
Offshoring Legal Services - The Latest from Rees Morrison
Posted on May 18, 2009Considering using offshore legal talent? Head over to Rees Morrison’s Law Department Management Blog to read his recent article on the topic. Rees also provides links to additional information. Law Department Management: Three Major Benefits for Departments that use Offshore Talent and Three Major Concerns.
21st Annual General Counsel Conference (June 9-10, New York)
Posted on May 18, 2009Get up to speed on all things in-house at Corporate Counsel’s 21st Annual General Counsel Conference on June 9 - 10 at the New York Marriott Marquis. Topics include: - The Impact of the Obama Administration - The Future of Antitrust Law - Financial Regulation - IP and the Global Economy - Labor and Employment Beyond [...
Learn the Rules on Fax and E-Mail Ads
Posted on May 17, 2009Unlawful direct advertising through e-mail and fax promotions can lead to significant financial penalties. Federal laws governing e-mail and fax promotions regulate the content of advertisements and to whom they may be sent. To learn more, read Learn the Rules on Fax and E-Mail Ads at Law...
Get Your Free Case Law on the Web
Posted on May 11, 2009Free is good. But free is not necessarily equal. Attorney Robert J. Ambrogi clicks on 10 sites (and more) on the Web that provide free access to case law. Each has its peculiar strengths and weaknesses. Which is right for your research project? The answer depends on what you need...
Study Projects Growth in Corporate Legal Spending
Posted on May 08, 2009A new study projects growth of about 5 percent in corporate legal spending over the next six months, but corporate lawyers say that fixed legal budgets preclude most increases and that any higher legal spending that is tied to the economic crisis is temporary and unsustainable...
60 Sites in 60 Minutes from the ABA TECHSHOW
Posted on May 07, 2009Want to get up to speed on the latest and greatest websites for lawyers and legal professionals? Check out the ABA Techshow’s latest installment of “60 Sites in 60 Minutes” which features great web resources on legal technology, practice management, research and ethics, and they toss in some practical and fun stuff, too...
Tough Calls - Ethical Decisions for In-House Counsel
Posted on May 06, 2009Drawing the line on ethical issues can be tricky, as a recent article at InsideCounsel points out. Read on at Tough Calls. ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Generate a Venture Capital Term Sheet Online
Posted on April 28, 2009Working on a venture capital term sheet? If you are, you may want to take a look at a new online term sheet generator from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The tool has numerous options so even if you’ve done dozens of VC deals, it will be interesting to see what WSGR’s tool can [...
Law School Rankings Released by US News and World Report (2009)
Posted on April 23, 2009The law school rankings are out! Head over to Best Law Schools - US News and World Report to get the details. ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Plan Now for the Impact of the Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on April 23, 2009The Employee Free Choice Act, which was introduced on March 10 in the House and Senate, dramatically modifies the National Labor Relations Act on how employees select unions and how unions and employers negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Attorney Michael P...
New COBRA Subsidy Requirements Impact Employers, Insurers and Health Plan Participants
Posted on April 22, 2009The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is an unprecedented economic stimulus plan. ARRA contains a number of provisions designed to assist unemployed workers and their families, including federal tax cuts and credits, expanded unemployment benefits and federally subsidized COBRA premiums...
Advance Word on US News Law School Rankings (?!?)
Posted on April 21, 2009Multiple media outlets are claiming that the latest US News Law School rankings have been leaked. Some blogs are even showing scanned in copies of the purported rankings themselves. One thing is for sure - the real rankings will be officially out this week! Stay tuned, we’ll link to the actual results when [...
Top 3 ?Peeps in Law? Entries
Posted on April 17, 2009Yes, another installment of the weird, wacky and funny - and related to an earlier post at that. ABA Journal has posted their Top 3 “Peeps in Law” Entries. Head over to take a look. Yes, it’s Friday. Top 3 ?Peeps in Law? Entries | ABA Journal - Law News Now ** Find an In-House [...
Featured In-House Counsel Jobs for Tax Day
Posted on April 15, 2009Check out these featured in-house legal positions for Tax Day - many more are available at InhouseBlog’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. TRADEMARK ATTORNEY ? NORTH SUBURBAN CHICAGO - McCormack Schreiber Legal Search Inc...
The Upcoming Singularity
Posted on April 15, 2009No, it’s not something out of Scientific American or Star Trek, it’s an inflection point when in-house legal costs equal outside billing rates. Read all about it at Rees Morrison’sLaw Department Management blog and don’t forget to subscribe while you are there...
Dead Companies Can Tell Tales
Posted on April 07, 2009What happens to the attorney-client privilege when a corporation enters bankruptcy or receivership? As the current economic crisis spawns criminal investigations into sinking companies, corporate officers — and their counsel — need to remember that waiver of the privilege may ultimately be decided by a trustee or receiver and that prosecutors still have considerable freedom [...
The 20 Most Influential General Counsel
Posted on April 03, 2009Amid the pressure that general counsel face in today’s economy, a select group of in-house leaders has shown particular finesse in managing their departments, choosing outside counsel and remaining committed to diversity in their own ranks and those of the law firms they hire...
A blook ? blog book ? on management of outside counsel
Posted on April 02, 2009Rees Morrison, consultant and blogger, has compiled, organized, commented on, indexed, and back-referenced 471 of his thoughtful posts on outside counsel management. The 290-page PDF, which you can find much more about on his website, ReesMorrison.com, normally costs $75 but readers of InhouseBlog are entitled to a $15 discount...
Year Of Law School Now Mandatory For Nation?s 25-Year-Olds
Posted on April 01, 2009Another reason why Congress should read legislation before voting to approve it! Read more at Year Of Law School Now Mandatory For Nation’s 25-Year-Olds. ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
?Peeps? in Law
Posted on March 31, 2009It’s been a long time since we’ve had an installment of the weird, wacky or funny, but here is a new installment, courtesy of the ABA Journal. Enjoy. Peeps in Law | ABA Journal - Law News Now ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
Ten plausible consequences of axing in-house lawyers
Posted on March 30, 2009A recent post by law department management expert Rees Morrison points out that law department down-sizing may lead to significant adverse consequences. Head over to Rees’ Law Department Management Blog to read more (don’t forget to subscribe while you are there)...
In-house Counsel Layoff Protection
Posted on March 28, 2009If you are asked to leave, InsideCounsel’s career advice columnist suggests that you consider trading your severance package for a client service commitment. Read In-house Counsel Layoff Protection at InsideCounsel.com.
Layoff Pain Migrates In-House
Posted on March 26, 2009Law firms aren’t the only ones pushing attorneys out the door to shrink costs. U.S. companies, both large and small and across varied industries, are dismissing attorneys as they retool their law departments to cut costs and adapt to slowing U.S...
InsideCounsel?s SuperConference (May 5-6, Chicago) (Adv)
Posted on March 24, 2009Developed by General Counsel for General Counsel, InsideCounsel?s 9th Annual SuperConference is the premier event for legal executives seeking the latest tools, techniques, trends, and analysis on the most pressing issues in law. The two day, 12 CLE, multi-track program will feature legal industry luminaries David Boies and Robert Bauer as keynote speakers, a world-class [...
Spring Ahead with a New In-House Counsel Job
Posted on March 22, 2009Check out these featured in-house legal positions for Spring - many more are available at InhouseBlog’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. General Legal Counsel - The Body Shop, Raleigh, NC Attorney (General Counsel) — Major Corp & Startup - Strategic Legal Solutions, New York, NY Corporate Counsel - Confidential, [...
No In-House Haven From Layoffs
Posted on March 19, 2009While mass layoffs at big law firms have grabbed headlines in recent months, in-house attorneys also have had their jobs taken away. Relatively few lawyers are being let go as part of mass corporate layoffs, in part because legal departments aren’t that big to start with and because the bigger cost often isn’t a company’s [...
Employment Dangers Ahead for Companies
Posted on March 16, 2009It’s a new year, and there’s a new administration in Washington, which means there’s plenty of opportunity for challenges to your company’s employment practices. Attorney Lynne C. Hermle offers some ideas to help you avoid employment claims, including what to do if you’re plagued with downsizing, getting up to speed with the new administration, remaining [...
In-House Lawyers Feel Economic Pinch
Posted on March 13, 2009The economic downturn is pushing corporate legal departments to a new level of frugality, particularly when it comes to the cost of outside counsel, according to a group of in-house lawyers who spoke at the Leadership Institute for Women of Color Attorneys in Law & Business...
Eight Steps Companies Can Take to Prevent Whistleblower Liability
Posted on March 09, 2009As businesses face greater and greater economic threats and challenges, it may be tempting to cut corners or to turn a blind eye to potentially questionable practices. But the multifaceted doom that False Claims Act violations can invite is a stark deterrent...
Predicting the Unpredictable Future of In-House Legal Teams
Posted on February 02, 2009As the financial downturn grew in intensity through 2008, a number of high-profile general counsel took proactive steps in response to drive down costs, including renegotiating outside counsel fees. With the legal profession facing the most uncertain outlook for a generation, will in-house legal teams ride out the storm and drive innovations that prove their [...
Stage Is Set for Legal Labor Brawl
Posted on January 27, 2009Business calls it “Armageddon.” Labor says it’s “a modest step.” The Employee Free Choice Act, a proposal making the most dramatic changes in labor law in decades, is labor’s highest priority this year. Business and labor appear to stand on opposite sides of an unbridgeable gulf on the proposal, with neither side willing even to [...
How BNY Mellon?s Legal Team Weathered the Financial Meltdown
Posted on January 21, 2009The market meltdown saw 22 banks outright fail, but through it all, several major banks stood tall, and perhaps none taller than BNY Mellon. The bank ended the third quarter of 2008 with a profit of more than $300 million, despite a write-off of more than twice that sum — while other financial institutions posted [...
Minimizing the Risk That E-Discovery Failures Will Create Corporate Liability
Posted on January 15, 2009Judicial tolerance for shortcomings in e-discovery is on the decline, and litigants and their counsel are facing direct liability for such failures. Sensibly managing e-discovery is critical not only to success in the underlying litigation but to minimizing the possibility that e-discovery failures will become a source of liability themselves, say attorneys Kirby Behre and [...
Hot-Button Issues in Outside Counsel Guidelines
Posted on January 13, 2009Consultant Rees W. Morrison reviews five hot-button issues in outside counsel guidelines: charges related to travel time, conflicts of interest, changes in billing rates, disbursements and staff restrictions. These topics crop up all the time because for law departments they affect the budget; for law firms they concern quality of life, liability, profitability and management...
Latest In House Counsel Jobs (1/12/09)
Posted on January 11, 2009Check out these featured in-house legal positions for the New Year - many more are available at InhouseBlog’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. Counsel - Major League Baseball Advanced Media, New York, NY In-House Counsel - Autonomy, Dallas, TX Corporate Counsel - Confidential, New York, NY (Midtown) Pharmacuetical - Commercial [...
Law Still Far From the Worst Profession
Posted on January 10, 2009Woo hoo! The results are in and we did not come in last. Read the full details at Legal Blog Watch. ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Avoiding Danger to Business Secrets in a Bad Economy
Posted on January 09, 2009Bad economic times create opportunities for strong companies to poach good employees from a weakened competitor. Attorney David Walton offers steps that companies and their counsel can take to prevent trade secret theft and to act effectively if they believe a departing or new employee has stolen critical information...
Association of Corporate Counsel Offers Tips on Weathering Economic Storm
Posted on January 08, 2009The generation that lived through the Great Depression might now have an advantage when it comes to managing a budget for a corporate law department — or anything else, for that matter — according to Susan Hackett, general counsel and senior vice president for the Association of Corporate Counsel...
In-House Salary Survey Results
Posted on January 06, 2009Looking for in-house compensation stats? Head over to InsideCounsel for a ton of data from Hildebrandt’s 2008 Salary Survey. Salary Data at Inside Counsel ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Rees Morrison on Law Firm Billing Issues
Posted on January 06, 2009Looking for information on law firm billing issues? Head over to the Law Department Management blawg (by Rees Morrison) to learn more. Rees has collected a “hyperpost” with links to his prior posts and articles on issues ranging from bill auditors to e-billing...
Corporate New Year?s Resolutions in a Tight Economy
Posted on January 05, 2009This year, corporate leaders will have their work cut out for them. The tough economy will force them to work smarter, even with tightened belts and half-empty wallets. With this in mind, Corporate Counsel gingerly approached in-house legal advisers for their 2009 personal and professional resolutions...
Thirteen ?Corporate Law Department Blogs? on Justia?s BlawgSearch
Posted on January 03, 2009Looking to add some new blawgs to to your reader in 2009? Head over to Rees Morrison’s recent post for some ideas. Law Department Management: Thirteen ?Corporate Law Department Blogs? on Justia?s BlawgSearch ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
How Did Lawyers Enable the Meltdown?
Posted on January 02, 2009Put on your helmet and get ready for a wild ride in 2009…… In the game of blame that followed the deepest financial implosion since the Great Depression, bankers and money managers have borne their share of attention. But how much blame should lawyers bear? Plenty...
Will Tough Economy Push Companies to Outsource Legal Work?
Posted on December 22, 2008Offshoring has been widely adopted by many companies when it comes to back-office operations. But LPO — legal process outsourcing — is different. Despite the early hype, companies have not been as quick to sign up. Some are worried about the quality of the work, and cite cultural differences and security concerns as reasons for [...
By 2013, 20% or More of Legal Advice will Be Free Online
Posted on December 19, 2008Good news for in-house legal departments, bad news for law firms? Law Department Management: By 2013, 20% or more of the legal advice firms currently charge for will be free on the Web ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board...
How Can Lawyers Win Your Business?
Posted on December 17, 2008Law 360 wants to know! If you have any advice, Law 360 is working on an end-of-year article on how lawyers can put their best foot forward in these financially challenging times. If you have tips to share, please email them to Christine Caufield - you may just see your name in print...
In Your Facebook; Aussie Court Approves Service Through Web Site
Posted on December 16, 2008What’s next - service of process through Netflix? Law Blog - WSJ.com : In Your Facebook; Aussie Court Approves Service Through Web Site ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
InhouseBlog Makes ABA Journal?s List of Top Blawgs (Time to Vote!)
Posted on December 11, 2008InhouseBlog is honored to report that we were included in ABA Journal’s Second Annual Blawg 100 - their list of the top blawgs by lawyers, for lawyers. InhouseBlog has always been a big fan of ABA Journal’s web services - including their directory of legal blawgs and news feeds...
Scrutiny of Mergers May Increase Under Obama Administration
Posted on December 09, 2008Antitrust attorneys expect the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to ramp up merger scrutiny in President-elect Barack Obama’s administration and boost negotiation and document review work for lawyers. In that kind of climate, companies would need more help from lawyers to sell the merits of the deal to the government, said [...
Rutgers GC Sounds the Call for Diversity
Posted on December 05, 2008Rutgers University GC Jonathan Alger has built a reputation as a legal expert on affirmative action and an ardent champion of diversity. He also has a long-standing interest in employment law. As Alger recently told in-house lawyers at a seminar, their companies’ new employees may request accommodations on a smorgasbord of issues: mental conditions, religious [...
Pay Proves GCs Are Part of Elite Club
Posted on December 02, 2008A review of the compensation of Southeastern chief legal officers who are listed among the top five highest-paid executives in their public companies’ most recent SEC filings reveals an average total package in the neighborhood of a million dollars...
Reid My Blog!: 2008 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers
Posted on November 25, 2008Eagerly anticipated and long awaited - but wait no more, it’s here. Reid Trautz’ famous Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers has been released for 2008. Enjoy! Reid My Blog!: 2008 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
Pre-Turkey Day Thermogenesis (!?!)
Posted on November 24, 2008It’s confirmed - Rees Morrison’s guru status has extended from Law Department Management issues to weight loss. In a recent post on his blog he details a “neat” way to shed some pounds without really breaking a sweat. Perfect advice as we all prepare to gorge ourselves silly in a few days...
The In-House Year in Review
Posted on November 21, 2008InsideCounsel presents 20 stories that the in-house bar could not ignore. The Year in Review ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Protecting Yourself From and Surviving In-House Cuts
Posted on November 19, 2008The volatile stock market and struggling economy have intersected at various points that have significantly affected attorneys in private practice and corporations. This has triggered a fusillade of questions, a few of which include: “What can I do to protect myself in this environment?” “How do I know if my firm or company is any [...
GCs Worry About Law Firm Mergers
Posted on November 18, 2008For GCs, an important strategy for getting their work done within their corporate legal department budgets is to be able to pick and choose from a variety of sizes and types of law firms, from boutiques to giants. So, they’re watching law firm merger developments with cautious concern...
The ACC Announces New Chair and Six New Members to Its Board of Directors
Posted on November 17, 2008The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) announced its new chair and directors. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. The ACC is an incredible place for in-house counsel to learn more about issues facing corporate legal departments and is also a great way to network with other...
How Much Work Are Corporate Law Departments Paying For?
Posted on November 12, 2008What impact does a slow economy have on the amount of work corporate law departments send to outside firms? The answer depends on whom you ask. Two recent surveys offer different takes on how the lethargic economy is affecting the distribution of legal work...
Corporations as Victims, and Other Trends From the Credit Meltdown
Posted on November 11, 2008During his 12 years as a federal prosecutor in Chicago, Patrick Collins tried, and won, 20 criminal cases. Collins joined the corporate investigations practice at Perkins Coie’s Chicago office in March 2007, just about when the subprime mortgage market began unraveling...
Tour the Legal Web?s New Sites
Posted on November 07, 2008Want to learn about the latest and greatest legal web sites? Check out Bob Ambrogi’s latest column for Law Technology News to get the scoop. Legal Technology - Tour the Legal Web’s New Sites ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board...
Ideas for Wall Street?s In-House Counsel
Posted on November 03, 2008In-house counsel at Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG and many other companies have been directly impacted by the financial crisis. Career expert Mike Evers of InsideCounsel has some thoughts and advice for these attorneys. Ideas for Wall Street?s Inside Counsel (InsideCounsel) ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
Get Ready to Relearn the ADA
Posted on October 30, 2008Get ready to relearn the Americans with Disabilities Act — by Jan. 1, 2009. New legislation signed last month has defanged a common employer defense, and the changes are going to have real repercussions in the workplace. The critical inquiry under the amended law is whether covered entities have complied with their obligations to reasonably [...
New Survey Reports Chief Legal Officer Compensation Rose 13 Percent in 2008; IP Remains Best-Compensated Specialty
Posted on October 28, 2008Mixed in-house counsel compensation trends, according to a recent Incisive Media survey: U.S. chief legal officer total cash compensation (salaries plus bonuses) increased by more than 13 percent this year to $467,100, according to the 2008 Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey...
Standardized Work, Cost Cutting Alter GC Relationship With Outside Counsel
Posted on October 27, 2008Proof positive of the standardization and commoditization of legal services is in the behavior of corporate counsel toward their outside law firms: They are taking bids, asking for discounts, shopping around for lower-cost options and doing more work themselves — much the same way their operational counterparts make purchases from other vendors...
What In-House Counsel Should Know About ?Garden Leave? Clauses
Posted on October 24, 2008Long a staple of U.K. employment agreements, garden leave clauses are emerging as a more common tool for American businesses to minimize harm caused when employees defect to competitors. These clauses require lengthy advance notice of resignation, prohibit certain competitive conduct during the notice period, and specify that the employee will be sent home but [...
Corporations Spend More on In-House Lawyers, Less on Outside Firms
Posted on October 23, 2008There may be a silver lining for in-house counsel in this economic climate - more legal dollars are staying in-house: Corporations appear to be cutting back on fees to outside law firms as they beef up their own in-house legal staffs. A new survey highlights the shift...
October?s Featured In-House Counsel Jobs
Posted on October 21, 2008Check out these featured in-house legal positions for October - many more are available at InhouseBlog’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. Vice President and Associate General Counsel - Confidential, Washington, DC Commerical Real Estate Attorney - Axiom, New York, NY Temporary IP Transactional Counsel - Entertainment & Sports Company, [...
In-House Counsel See Litigation Spike in Next Year
Posted on October 20, 2008Corporate in-house counsel anticipate a litigation spike next year to reverse a two-year dip in lawsuits and regulatory proceedings, according to Fulbright & Jaworski’s 2008 Litigation Trends Survey. The results illustrate the shift from a long period of prosperity to the start of “a period of serious economic challenge that is likely to fuel litigation [...
In-House Counsel Win Battle in War Over Accounting
Posted on October 18, 2008In-house lawyers, legal organizations and law firms won the first round of a fight with the Financial Accounting Standards Board over a plan calling for greater disclosures of lawsuits and other loss contingencies on financial statements — but they’re girding for a longer battle...
Top Corporate Lawyers Are Split Between McCain and Obama
Posted on October 16, 2008Barack Obama and John McCain have been running a tight race among the country’s top corporate lawyers. McCain has a slight lead in total donations from general counsel at Fortune100 companies, which is “really striking,” according to Michael Toner, an outside counsel to McCain’s campaign, who points out that lawyers generally tend to lean left [...
Corporate Counsel?s Guide to International Arbitration
Posted on October 04, 2008I. When to Opt for International Arbitration One selects arbitration as the dispute resolution device in a contract for several reasons: (1) to reduce legal costs, (2) for the convenience of the parties in scheduling and presentation, (3) to keep the proceedings and the result confidential, and (4) to avoid trial of claims which could potentially [...
InHouse - Still Great Money If You Can Get It
Posted on October 01, 2008A recent post at AboveTheLaw reports on compensation trends for in-house counsel: Mock in-house counsel if you want to (and apparently many of you “want to”), but those jobs still pay great money. A new study says that the average pay for in-house attorneys is $236,000...
Boston-Area In-House Counsel See Slow Growth in Legal Spending Ahead
Posted on September 30, 2008Boston-area corporate executives and in-house counsel anticipate slow legal spending growth for Boston’s nearly $2 billion legal services market and pegged seven firms as practice area standouts, according to a new study. Based on their legal budgets, respondents anticipated that their outside counsel spending growth rate would slow to 3...
Latest In-House Counsel Jobs (9/29/08)
Posted on September 28, 2008Check out these featured in-house legal positions for September - many more are available at InhouseBlog’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. Consulting Co — Tax Attorney, Flex OK - Confidential, New York, NY Flextime Corporate Attorney — Hedge Fund - Confidential, New York, NY Staff Attorney - Atlanta Hawks [...
Yes, There Is a Blog for Everyone
Posted on September 25, 2008Just when you thought you’d never see a blog covering your practice area, yes, it’s the Furniture Law Blog from Womble Carlyle. The blog focuses on patent and intellectual property law in the furniture industry. Tip of the hat to Robert Ambrogi for the link...
GCs See Major Changes in Company Risk Management in Wake of Wall Street Meltdown
Posted on September 22, 2008Corporate general counsel expect increased company risk management and more regulatory enforcement in the wake of collapsing financial institutions, such as Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers and American International Group. State government regulatory oversight will rise with more attorney general probes, and federal oversight will expand in step with the next presidential administration, said some general [...
Prosecutors Seek to Simplify Backdating Case Against McAfee Ex-GC
Posted on September 17, 2008Two-and-a-half years after the stock option backdating scandal first rained down on Silicon Valley’s legal establishment, the first — and so far the only — lawyer to face criminal charges goes before a jury this week. From the Justice Department’s point of view, though, the case against former McAfee Inc...
Sunny Forecast for GC Jobs in Clean-Tech Industry
Posted on September 16, 2008As the hot, young clean-tech industry matures, companies are hiring and searching for general counsel that have the hard-to-come-by blend of energy business and startup lawyer skills. Ausra Inc., a solar company in Palo Alto, Calif., recently hired energy-industry veteran Debra Olson as its first general counsel...
Creative Counsel from InsideCounsel
Posted on September 11, 2008The fourth annual IC-10 issue from InsideCounsel showcases a variety of solutions from legal departments of all sizes in many types of companies: “Recruiting. Training. Outside Counsel Management. Risk Mitigation. Document Management. These are common challenges faced by legal departments everywhere...
Avoiding Commission Complications
Posted on September 09, 2008Ambiguity is an employer’s enemy when it comes to commissions, says attorney Jennifer Blum Feldman. To minimize the risk of litigation over commissions and to maximize the likelihood of success if there is litigation, employers should put all commission arrangements into writing, says Feldman, who offers a checklist of issues to address in a clear [...
Featured In-House Counsel Jobs for September
Posted on September 07, 2008Check out these featured in-house legal positions for September - many more are available at InhouseBlog’s Job Board and if you’re looking for Patent/IP Jobs, don’t forget Patently-O’s Job Board. Attorney - Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, CA (San Francisco) Attorney (Trademark) — Fortune 500 Co - Confidential, White Plains, NY Attorneys (Banking, Bond) — Internet [...
Did you miss Dilbert last week?
Posted on September 02, 2008Welcome back…… and don’t forget to check out Dilbert from last week. ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
ABA Gives Thumbs Up to Legal Outsourcing
Posted on August 27, 2008The American Bar Association has waded into the debate over legal outsourcing with an ethics opinion blessing the outsourcing trend as “a salutary one for our globalized economy.” Companies operating in India — the most popular destination for legal outsourcing because it has a common-law system and English is widely spoken — were quick to [...
In-House Counsel as Whistleblower: A Rat Without a Remedy?
Posted on August 22, 2008The legal profession has come a long way when it comes to in-house counsel blowing the whistle, says attorney C. Evan Stewart. Not only have we loosened our ethical obligations to clients, we have created the means by which we now can sue clients for discharge, using privileged communications against them...
In-House Attorneys for Yahoo, Google and Microsoft Take Shots at Each Other
Posted on August 20, 2008When there are fireworks at a Capitol Hill hearing, the lawyers sit next to their clients and, at each pause, whisper something that we can only guess is a variant of “shut up.” But the witnesses at a recent Senate hearing were the lawyers: the top in-house attorneys for Microsoft Corp...
Featured In-House Counsel Jobs for August
Posted on August 15, 2008Here are some featured in-house counsel jobs - many more are available at our Job Board (jobs.inhouseblog.com). If you are looking for patent or IP jobs, you should also check out Patently-O’s Job Board. Corporate Counsel (International Co.) - Robert Half Legal, Coral Gables, Florida Chemical Patent Counsel - Acushnet Company, Fairhaven, MA General Counsel - Senior [...
GCs Give More Scrutiny to Legal Bills, Spurring More Fee Disputes
Posted on August 14, 2008Is your law department in cost-cutting mode? Los Angeles lawyer Gerald Knapton has been there and done that. He’s an expert in fee disputes and cost containment, and in this economic climate, attorneys with his skills are in high demand: “I’m busier now than I have ever been,? Knapton told the Daily Journal (sub...
GCs? Pet Peeves
Posted on August 13, 2008By canvassing some current and former GCs, Michael C. Ross has collected some pet peeves shared by general counsel about outside lawyers involving quality, service, cost and relationship issues. In-house attorneys may recognize these complaints, such as lack of responsiveness or “arrogant” attitudes...
The Best End-of-Summer Books for GCs
Posted on August 11, 2008Attorney Michael P. Maslanka offers some reading suggestions for general counsel to cap off the summer or gird for the fall. And for those who lament that they have no time to read books that don’t produce immediate results, Maslanka says the value of a book, like that of a blind date, isn’t because it’s [...
WhoCanISue.com (?!?)
Posted on August 08, 2008Will a new online service unleash new hordes of potential claimants? We’ll see, as WhoCanISue.com is launching soon…. “We allow our users to find information about their potential legal claims and determine whether they are qualified for a particular claim without disclosing confidential information...
?Fortune? 500 Sees Growth in Female GCs
Posted on August 07, 2008A new survey by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association shows that the number of female GCs among theFortune500 has grown to 92, more than double the number when the MCCA started keeping track in 1999. “At a time when … the economy is creating difficult times for our nation’s top companies, it’s encouraging to see [...
The Lawyer Job Interview Translator
Posted on August 06, 2008Who said lawyers don’t have a sense of humor? THE LAWYER JOB INTERVIEW TRANSLATOR ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Top US GCs Stretch Pay Gap on Euro Counterparts as Bonuses Surge 17%
Posted on August 05, 2008US GCs have been taking some lumps lately - but apparently not in their wallets: The US?s top general counsel are widening the pay gap between themselves and their European counterparts, according to new research that shows soaring bonuses and stock awards driving remuneration for chief legal officers at US bluechips...
Most Valuable Players - 10 Rookie GCs who are Making Their Marks
Posted on August 04, 2008Who are the top rookie GCs? InsideCounsel has polled the veterans and prepared a list: We asked several veteran GCs to share their lists of outstanding general counsel who have been appointed to their first GC post within the past three years. Each provided a different list?showing just how many talented lawyers are stepping up to [...
A Hard Case - Five Law Department Experts offer Advice on Handling and Managing Litigation In-house
Posted on August 01, 2008Is managing litigation costs your responsibility? Head over to InsideCounsel to read a recent article that will help you handle the issues: Controlling litigation cost is among the most vexing problems general counsel face. A combination of soaring hourly rates, inefficient outside counsel and ineffective case oversight can send a law department?s budget out the window...
GM In-House Lawyer Helps Fund Mobile Legal Clinic for Veterans
Posted on July 31, 2008Chris Johnson, a top in-house lawyer at General Motors, believes strongly in supporting military veterans because he’s one himself. So when a Detroit law school wanted to expand a legal clinic for veterans, Johnson was ready to assist. By passing the hat among his fellow GM executives, Johnson raised $120,000 to help the clinic purchase [...
Steeplechase for the General Counsel who Takes the Position from Outside the Company
Posted on July 30, 2008Joining a company as GC can present a number of hurdles, as law department management expert Rees Morrison points out at his excellent Law Department Management blog. One of Rees’ recent posts lists a range of reasons why a newcomer GC confronts more obstacles to success than an insider...
NYU Students Seek Coveted Law School Classes, Will Pay Cash
Posted on July 29, 2008If you’re a law student, it may be time to take out additional student loans…. At least one administrator at New York University School of Law recently has put his foot down about the practice, threatening sanctions. But students reportedly are shamelessly buying and selling seats in coveted law school courses via the Internet, in what [...
In-House Counsel Given Wider Latitude in New Jersey
Posted on July 25, 2008In-house counsel with limited licenses to practice in New Jersey will be able to represent officers, employees and directors under rule changes adopted Tuesday by the state Supreme Court. But the court deferred action on more sweeping proposals toward deregulating the practice of law by out-of-state attorneys...
Beware Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Traps
Posted on July 24, 2008Companies in the United States often undertake extensive promotional activities to market and sell their products throughout the world. These efforts can include paying the expenses for customers to travel to company facilities. But there is the potential that the payments will run afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act...
Association of Corporate Counsel Annual Meeting (October 19-22 - Seattle, WA)
Posted on July 23, 2008Don’t forget to book your reservations for the Association of Corporate Counsel’s upcoming annual meeting in Seattle. If you haven’t joined the ACC, you are missing out on the leading international organization for in-house counsel...
GC Compensation Survey: Party Like It?s 2001
Posted on July 23, 2008Corporate Counsel’s 2008 GC Compensation Survey shows that top legal officers atFortune500 companies raked it in. And that was true even for those heading the law departments at financial institutions that are reeling after the collapse of the subprime mortgage market...
Corporate Push for Law Firm Diversity Enters a New Phase
Posted on July 22, 2008Wal-Mart, a leading corporate advocate of diversity in the legal profession, is deploying new software to keep a watchful eye on its law firms and make sure the attorneys working on its matters are diverse. The new software is an example of the evolving approach taken by general counsel to ensure more minorities and women [...
?I cannot open that document you sent me.?
Posted on July 21, 2008Has this happened to you recently when working with Microsoft Word? Head over to Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog for the solution. Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog: “I cannot open that document you sent me.” ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
National Association of Women Lawyers Hosts Fourth Annual General Counsel Institute (November 6-7, 2008)
Posted on July 18, 2008On November 6 and 7, attorneys from across the country will assemble in New York City for the fourth annual General Counsel Institute, a two-day program presented by the National Association of Women Lawyers® (NAWL®). The General Counsel Institute is targeted to women in-house counsel who want to build top-tier professional and management skills as well [...
Global Counsel Awards Announced
Posted on July 16, 2008The results of the 2008 Global Counsel Awards are in - head over to Legal Blog Watch for links to the results. Legal Blog Watch ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Wal-Mart Will Use Software to Monitor Diversity of Outside Counsel
Posted on July 14, 2008Law firms that aren’t focused on diversity will soon find Wal-Mart focusing on them - and potentially transferring their business to other more diverse firms. Wal-Mart Will Use Software to Monitor Diversity of Outside Counsel | ABA Journal - Law News Now
Free Web Seminar this Thursday on ?Using Discovery as a Learning Tool?
Posted on July 14, 2008News from the blawgosphere - and the kind you like (free!): Wired GC is launching a new series of web seminars entitled ?Off The Meter? about the changing nature of law and the legal services market. Every other month, legal industry leaders will provide insight into where the smart insiders are going and how they [...
How Ready Is Your Company to Respond to a Data Breach?
Posted on July 11, 2008Everyone is grappling with self-reported data spills. Organizations of every size, public and private, here and abroad, are feeling the fast-paced, disruptive economic sting of an unauthorized sensitive information leak. Attorney Harry A. Valetk says in-house counsel should plan ahead and think about how to respond before an incident occurs...
Global Growth Has the Greatest Impact on In-House Legal Departments
Posted on July 09, 2008The pace and scope of global corporate expansion has the biggest impact on in-house legal departments, according to attendees at a recent Association of Corporate Counsel Greater New York Chapter event. Of more than 100 senior corporate counsel polled at the event, 38...
Associate Life Survey: In-House Aspirations
Posted on July 08, 2008Make some room - AboveTheLaw’s recent associate life survey indicates a big jump in the number of law firm associates who want to go in-house “as soon as possible”. Above the Law - Associate Life Survey: In-House Aspirations ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
Firms, Legal Departments Are ?At War With Each Other?
Posted on July 02, 2008Changes in the business climate have created different kinds of management challenges for chief legal officers compared with those faced by law firm leaders — in some ways putting them at odds with each other — according to consultant Doug Richardson...
Shock Survey - Nearly 30% of Lawyers Fear Firing
Posted on June 27, 2008According to a recent ABA Journal article, fear is spreading at major law firms as the uncertain economy has some attorneys wondering whether they will hit their billable hour goals. Are things more secure in the in-house world? Stay tuned. Nearly 30% of Lawyers Surveyed Fear Firing | ABA Journal - Law News Now ** [...
Bad News for Law Firms, Good News for In-House Lawyers
Posted on June 26, 2008A recent survey does not bode well for outside counsel, as it indicates that many GCs may fire their outside counsel or decrease the amount of work that they give them. In other news, the number of GCs that say that they will hire additional in-house lawyers has increased...
GCs Get Help to Go Green
Posted on June 25, 2008The Association of Corporate Counsel Web site launched its “Green-House Counsel” feature on April 22 — Earth Day. Since then, the professional organization for in-house lawyers has been providing weekly tips, information, resources and Web addresses to help corporate counsel encourage their companies to be more protective of the environment...
GCs May Grouse About Cost But Do They Really Want Change?
Posted on June 23, 2008The debate is on - and already generating some heated discussions in the blawgosphere. Head over to Legal Blog Watch to read more and voice your opinion. Legal Blog Watch ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Featured In-House Counsel Jobs
Posted on June 22, 2008Here are some featured in-house counsel jobs to kick off the summer: Corporate Counsel (Brand Services) - Gap Inc., San Francisco, CA ERISA Attorney — Consulting Co - Strategic Legal Solutions, mineola, NY General Counsel - Care.org, Atlanta, GA Assistant General Counsel - Verizon Business, Chicago, IL Corporate Counsel - Amazon...
Craigslist: Attorney Needed?
Posted on June 20, 2008Craig Newmark created Craigslist in 1995 as a hobby. Over the past decade, Craigslist has enjoyed a magical ride along the information superhighway, making millions from its online classified ads. But in April the pavement suddenly got rough. Craigslist was sued by its minority partner, the Internet auction giant eBay Inc...
In-House Lawyers Discuss Pitfalls of Generation Gaps
Posted on June 17, 2008In-house lawyers who have grown from young upstarts to power brokers have started to notice generation gaps. The younger generation is “not going to respect you just because you are the boss,” said H. Eric Hilton, the 39-year-old GC of H.J...
A disappointing bit of advice: Keep lawyers away during gut-wrenching decisions
Posted on June 12, 2008If you didn’t hear the news, in-house lawyers took it on the chin in a recent Harvard Business Review article. Head over to Rees Morrison’s blog to read the details. Don’t forget to subscribe to his blog while you are there - Rees is the top law department management guru and a [...
Lawyer Bans Opponent from Hotel in Hard-Fought IP Case (ABA Journal)
Posted on June 10, 2008Forget writing that motion, finish drafting your restriction-laden contracts with all hotels, restaurants and meeting places in a 20 mile radius: Concerned that sensitive documents might be delivered to the wrong legal counsel, a corporate client in a hard-fought federal case reportedly contracted with the hotel at which its own attorney was staying not to [...
A Force Majeure Clause for the New Millennium
Posted on June 09, 2008Next time you review an onerous contract, make sure to include this force majeure provision in your mark-up. The Fine Print: Musings of a Corporate Contracts Lawyer: A Force Majeure Clause for the New Millennium ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
Advertise
Posted on June 07, 2008Want to reach an audience that is interested in in-house counsel issues? Consider advertising on InhouseBlog or through its weekly newsletter. Contact us for more information. ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Avoid Quick Fixes and Control the True Cost of Litigation
Posted on June 05, 2008How does a business enterprise in the United States reduce its litigation costs in an era when the country’s legal system, and especially the litigation process, involves profound dysfunction and spiraling costs? Joseph F. Speelman, associate general counsel at Lyondell Basell Industries, offers five tips for a holistic approach to tackling the issue...
Lessons From a Hotel Lobby: Ask Wise Questions Before Terminating Employees
Posted on June 04, 2008In 1975, Michael Maslanka dropped out of college and worked as a hotel desk clerk. Maslanka is an employment lawyer now, but he’s never forgotten the lessons he’s learned from his hotel boss. Here’s one of the lessons that will help corporate counsel when it comes to deciding whether to impose the equivalent of [...
In-House Counsel Under Scrutiny
Posted on June 02, 2008InsideCounsel reports on the results of aggressive federal probes that have snared a number of in-house counsel. Under Scrutiny - InsideCounsel Aggressive federal probes put GCs in jeopardy. ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board...
New Beginnings: Is There Life After In-House Land (ACCA Event in Los Angeles 7/23/08)
Posted on June 02, 2008Mark you calendars for a great event sponsored by ACCA’s SoCal chapter on July 23rd in Los Angeles at the Luxe Hotel. The event will kick off with a panel presentation titled ?Count Me Out: In-House Attorneys Who Have Pursued Other Careers?, which will be moderated by Stuart L...
Survey Finds That Firms Improve Diversity Efforts in Response to GC Pressure
Posted on May 27, 2008Under increasing pressure from GCs to diversify their personnel, law firms may find encouragement from a new survey showing they are making progress. Altman Weil’s 2008 Diversity Flash Survey shows that 58 percent of participating law firms have a designated diversity manager or director...
Top Legal Department of 2008: Qwest Communications
Posted on May 21, 2008Richard Baer and his legal team did more than rescue a badly managed company from the brink of bankruptcy. As Qwest Communications International’s troubles played out in the headlines, Baer and his colleagues transformed the legal department against the backdrop of investigators scouring Qwest’s records, looking for the kind of accounting fraud that destroyed [...
Fear and Loathing in Evidence Preservation
Posted on May 20, 2008Most in-house counsel know the types of inquiries that should trigger evidence preservation or collection protocols. Once there is reason to believe there will be litigation or investigation, the duty to preserve kicks in immediately. But what’s next? IE Discovery’s Stacy Jackson and Jennifer Scrafford provide 10 questions that in-house counsel should consider and [...
New Worries for 401k Plans
Posted on May 13, 2008The Supreme Court recently ruled inLaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Associates that an investor in a 401(k) plan can sue to recover losses from the plan’s breach of fiduciary duty. Although LaRue dealt with the mishandling of investment selections, other areas of 401(k) plans may be affected in the future, writes attorney Joseph Musher, [...
Shearman Eliminates General Counsel Post
Posted on May 05, 2008Shearman & Sterling has eliminated the job of its full-time general counsel, John Shutkin, who was one of the few law firm GCs brought in from outside the law firm world, part of a wave of hirings of in-house lawyers at The Am Law 100. Elizabeth Chambliss, a law professor at New York Law [...
Booming Markets Bring Risk, Says Home Depot GC
Posted on May 01, 2008Speaking at the State Bar of Georgia’s conference on the global rule of law, Home Depot GC Jack A. VanWoerkom offered a candid assessment of the risks of doing business in the world’s fastest-growing markets. VanWoerkom issued warnings about the Chinese economy, corruption in Russia, overburdened courts in India and personal safety in Brazil...
Featured In-House Counsel Jobs
Posted on April 25, 2008Looking for an in-house counsel job? Check out InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board and these featured jobs: Senior Counsel - Newegg, City of Industry, CA Counsel/ Sr Counsel- CommTransactions/IP - CIGNA Corporation, Philadelphia, PA Associate General Counsel - OfficeMax, Chicago (Western Suburbs), IL Attorney (Erisa/Employee Benefits) - Int’l Consulting Co, New York, NY FDA Regulatory Counsel - Confidential, Los Angeles, CA [...
Tip of the Week - Drink Caffeine in Small Doses Throughout the Day
Posted on April 25, 2008Law department management guru Rees Morrison points out a caffeine tip that should keep you super-charged throughout the day. Law Department Management: Drink to me only with thine caffeine ? ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board...
Business Busts Pose Risk for Lawyers, Accountants
Posted on April 23, 2008The past decade has seen a significant rise in lawsuits brought by bankruptcy trustees or receivers against an insolvent company’s former accountants and attorneys. Attorneys Rene D. Harrod and John D. Eaton review a sample of such actions and consider how courts and litigants are responding to them — including the in pari delicto [...
Survey Says: Most GCs Happy with Job - One Third Look to Hire Additional In-house Counsel
Posted on April 18, 2008Eight-five percent of chief legal officers and general counsel find their careers rewarding despite increased corporate governance demands and sometimes tense relationships with independent auditors, according to a new Association of Corporate Counsel survey...
Routine UK legal queries to be answered by HSBC bank?s offshore center
Posted on April 14, 2008Rees Morrison noted an interesting news item from the latest Corporate Counsel magazine - HSBC is now handling routine legal questions about UK law from its Malaysian offices. Is it time for you to provide advice to your company from its Maui or Punta Cana locations? Law Department Management: Routine UK legal queries to [...
No Jerks Allowed: How and Why GCs Can Stop Angry, Rude and Demeaning Workplace Behavior
Posted on April 09, 2008General counsel are tagged as custodians of their companies’ most crucial, yet most sensitive and volatile assets: their employees. GCs must learn to manage, motivate and inspire them. But work with a rude jerk and what happens? You become one as well...
N.Y. Law Firm Bans BlackBerrys at Major Meetings
Posted on April 08, 2008Next thing you know they’ll ban PlayStation Portables… N.Y. Law Firm Bans BlackBerrys at Major Meetings | ABA Journal - Law News Now ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Legal Salaries on the Rise (In India)
Posted on April 02, 2008Will Bangalore and Hyderabad become the new hot spots for in-house counsel job searches? Now in Demand, New Lawyers in India Get Higher Salary Offers | ABA Journal - Law News Now ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board...
Overtime 101
Posted on April 01, 2008The concept doesn’t seem all that complicated — non-exempt employees who work overtime are paid time and a half for their additional hours. So what’s the big deal? The big deal, says attorney Jennifer Feldman, is that many employers — including some of the nation’s largest — are improperly calculating overtime for their non-exempt [...
Career Path From In-House to Firms Becomes Round-Trip
Posted on March 27, 2008Until recently, the path from law firms to in-house departments was usually a one-way trip — but lawyers are increasingly finding that careers can go full circle. The image of in-house jobs as less demanding intermediary roles has faded, partly because the roles have evolved to become full-service functions central to major business decisions...
Former Top Lawyer Faces Life in Jail for Phony Deal
Posted on March 26, 2008Robert Graham, former associate GC at General Re Corp., could spend the rest of his life in jail. On Feb. 25 a federal jury convicted Graham and four other defendants for aiding a sham deal at American International Group. Graham’s conviction is further proof that in-house lawyers can’t do something that they suspect may [...
Salaries: In-House Counsel in Southern California
Posted on March 24, 2008SoCal in-house counsel, how does your compensation stack up with your peers? Head over to the ALMResearchBlog to find out. ALMResearchBlog: Salaries: In-House Counsel in Southern California ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board...
Check out your Broker and his Firm: Use FINRA?s BrokerCheck before you write a check
Posted on March 23, 2008by Bill Thomas, Guest Contributor Does ?free financial advice? sound like another oxymoron? Nothing is really free, right? Well, read on, McDuff: You can do a history check on your broker and his company, and all it costs you is a few minutes. There is no charge, no fee, no costs, no registration, [...
GCs and Law Firm Managing Partners to Convene Over Diversity
Posted on March 21, 2008More than 100 general counsel executives of Fortune500 companies and managing partners of U.S. law firms are convening next month at the Call To Action Summit in an effort to come up with specific ways to improve diversity in the legal profession. “The goal is to have a collaborative discussion between the general counsels [...
Lesson Plans to Help GCs Avoid ?Club Fed?
Posted on March 20, 2008Extensive research is not required; the media reports of corporate scandals continue apace. General counsel figure prominently in the governmental investigations and, more frequently these days, in the indictments and convictions or guilty pleas. Learning from others’ mistakes is far less costly than learning from one’s own, says former Safeway GC Michael C...
Brazilian boy, 8, passes law school entrance exam
Posted on March 08, 2008Does this mean that it is possible for one person to master both SOX and XBOX? Brazilian boy, 8, passes law school entrance exam | World news | The Guardian ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Six Articles on Law Department Efficiency
Posted on March 06, 2008Law department management guru Rees Morrison has bundled six of his articles on law department productivity into one tidy PDF package. Head over to his Law Department Management blog to download the package - it’s free! Law Department Management: An elegant set of recent articles on legal-department productivity ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ [...
Eight Legal Technology Trends for 2008 ? Good Times, Bad Times or Hard Times in Legal Tech? | LLRX.com
Posted on March 04, 2008Legal tech guru Dennis Kennedy shares his thoughts on legal tech trends for 2008 - read and share with your law department and MIS department. Eight Legal Technology Trends for 2008 ? Good Times, Bad Times or Hard Times in Legal Tech? | LLRX.com ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
Stage Is Set for More In-House Drama
Posted on March 03, 2008Recalling some of the drama, tragedy, intrigue and suspense involving in-house counsel in 2007, attorneys Gordon J. Calhoun and Susan F. Friedman address notable past acts’ ramifications, and lend insight into the potential exposures that will set the stage for the remainder of 2008...
Leap Into an In-House Counsel Job
Posted on February 29, 2008It’s Leap Day, so why not take a leap? Major Corporation - Litigation Attorney - Strategic Legal Solutions, Rye, NY Sr. Attorney - Walgreen Company, Deerfield, IL Counsel - AIG SunAmerica , Century City, CA Senior Attorney - Antigenics, Inc., Lexington, MA (Boston Area) Attorney - Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA In-House Counsel - Confidential, New York, NY Commercial Attorney - Publicly [...
ACC?s Corporate Counsel University(r) - May 21-23, 2008
Posted on February 28, 2008Are you new to the in-house practice? Do you want to you to learn how to perfect your game plus help you and your company succeed? Register now for ACC?s Corporate Counsel University® CCU. In its 6th year, CCU has become the gold standard for best practices for attorneys who are new to in-house...
Ruling Takes One-Way Street Approach to Attorney-Client Privilege
Posted on February 27, 2008Suppose a document is deemed responsive to a discovery request served on a company. The document is the company’s outside counsel’s confidential legal advice to the company, provided in response to an express request for the advice. Certainly, the company may withhold this document as privileged...
In-House Compensation Stats from InsideCounsel
Posted on February 25, 2008Hungry for in-house counsel compensation information? Head over to InsideCounsel for some new stats. Payday Bonus - InsideCounsel ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Angry In-House Counsel & The Perfect Storm of 2008
Posted on February 22, 2008InhouseBlog just stumbled upon a blawg that will be dear to the hearts of in-house counsel - D. Michael Grodhaus’ The Alternative Fee Lawyer blawg, which is described an “Ohio business lawyer’s reflections on alternatives to the billable hour in setting legal fees for business clients...
GCs: In-House Life Overloaded With Meetings, Bureaucracy
Posted on February 21, 2008Establishing trust with businesspeople is a key to success for a general counsel, according to a panel of GCs who offered advice and tips in a program for the Association of Corporate Counsel Georgia chapter last week. The program also included the results of a membership survey that found GCs enjoy the entrepreneurial spirit [...
Total Legal Spending Declines with Revenue Growth
Posted on February 20, 2008Head over to Rees Morrison’s Law Department Management Blog to read his recent article that explores why legal spending declines with revenue growth. Don’t forget to subscribe to his blog while you’re there - Rees is an internationally-recognized guru in law department management...
Steel City Blues: In-House Legal Jobs Lacking in Pittsburgh?
Posted on February 19, 2008When Pittsburgh attorney Doug Harhai was downsized out of a corporate counsel position last April, he decided to go out on his own, opening The Law Office of Douglas Harhai two months after he was laid off from Igate Mastech Inc. Harhai’s decision was influenced greatly by his perception of the lack of growth [...
2008 Corporate Legal Technology Trends
Posted on February 15, 2008Did you miss LegalTech? Read about what consultant Jeffrey Beard saw on his recent trip to the popular convention over at InsideCounsel. From e-discovery to automated document review, there is plenty of information that will help you embrace your inner nerd...
Silicon Valley Embraces In-House Track
Posted on February 14, 2008An informal survey shows that most, if not all, of the 18 venture-backed San Francisco Bay Area companies that went public last year have GCs with an in-house track record. This represents a shift from hiring from an outside counsel firm, a practice that corporate attorneys say was favored during the dot-com boom...
Democratic GC Ponders What?s Next for Race
Posted on February 13, 2008The deadlock between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has Michael K. Jablonski, the general counsel of the Georgia Democratic Party, imagining some unusual scenarios that could decide the race. Among the possibilities: Litigation over the fate of delegates from Florida and Michigan; the two candidates taking extraordinary measures to woo the 796 “superdelegates;” or [...
Company Sued Over GC?s $10M Bonus
Posted on February 12, 2008A $10 million bonus for Transmeta Corp.’s general counsel is “outrageous, illegal and unconscionable,” according to a lawsuit. The tiny chip licensing company agreed to give GC John O’Hara Horsley a large cut of a $250 million settlement reached with Intel in October...
Nine ways to Improve your Guidelines for Outside Counsel
Posted on February 07, 2008Rees Morrison (the law department management guru) has some tips to help your law department work more effectively with outside counsel: No self-respecting law department lacks its statement of principles and operating rules for its law firms…Here are ideas for how you might improve your guidelines...
How GCs Can Avoid Recession-Planning Pitfalls
Posted on February 06, 2008You don’t need a weather vane to know which way the wind is blowing, and you don’t need aWall Street Journal subscription to know we’re in a recession, writes attorney Michael P. Maslanka. So, what’s the smart general counsel to do? Recession plan now, not later...
Project Management May Leave GCs With Fewer Surprises
Posted on February 04, 2008For a GC reporting to a CEO and board, surprises are rarely welcome, especially when presenting the tab from outside counsel. One potentially valuable tool is project management, an established method for planning work, tracking progress and reporting status and changes...
Survey: For Higher Pay, GCs Need Larger Departments
Posted on January 31, 2008To earn top dollar, GCs need to supervise legal departments of more than 25 lawyers, according to a survey by Altman Weil. For GCs in one-lawyer departments, the average cash compensation was $200,000, according to the comparison posted on the consulting firm’s Web site...
Who?s Cuddly Now? Law Firms?
Posted on January 31, 2008If the New York Times is reporting it, it must be true (right?) - law firms are apparently becoming kinder and gentler. Will this lead to a mass exodus from corporate law departments? IN the last two decades, as working schedules became flexible, and even accounting firms, of all places, embraced the mantra of [...
Behold the Lawyers of the Round Table
Posted on January 29, 2008Lyondell Chemical has an unusual incentive program for rewarding its outside attorneys: knighting ceremonies, complete with swords and proclamations. Seventeen attorneys were inducted into the ten-year-old “Knights of the Lyondell Enterprise” at December’s event, where each was recognized for helping the Houston-based company score a major litigation victory...
Wanted: A Few Good In-House Counsel
Posted on January 27, 2008If you haven’t noticed, InhouseBlog’s Job Board is loaded with in-house counsel jobs - here are a few - if you know anyone who would be interested, please forward this post and encourage them to apply: Commercial Attorney - Publicly Traded Biotechnology Company, Northern New Jersey Senior Regulatory Counsel - Publicly Traded Pharmaceutical Company, Irvine, CA [...
GCs Embrace Outsourced Work
Posted on January 25, 2008High rates and the increasing bulk of e-discovery have pushed Scott Rickman, the associate general counsel at Del Monte Foods, to seriously consider using sources other than his outside law firm for the grunt work of litigation. “It doesn’t make sense to pay 150 or 250 dollars an hour at some of the larger [...
Poll: In-House Salaries in U.K. Climb 7 Percent
Posted on January 23, 2008In-house lawyers in the U.K. are earning more than ever before, according to new research that reveals salaries for corporate counsel in the U.K. are rising at an inflation-busting average of almost 7 percent. The annual bonus received by senior in-house lawyers was found on average to be worth more than a third of [...
Cisco GC Leads Charge for Fixed Rates, Patent Reform
Posted on January 21, 2008With his passion for legal productivity and patent reforms, combined with persuasive speaking talent, probably no GC in the country is more high profile right now than Cisco Systems GC Mark Chandler. Chandler has led the charge by the high-tech world for reform of patent rules to protect their innovations, speaking on the subject [...
Lawyers: GCs Need to Be Prepared in Case of Product Recalls
Posted on January 18, 2008If the past two years are any indication, more GCs will need to be ready for recalls. Experts advise corporate counsel to plan in advance for such eventualities so they can have a structure in place with an in-house team and outside lawyers who can be called quickly to manage a recall — investigating [...
Lawyer Goes From Adversary to In-House Counsel
Posted on January 17, 2008In his sixth year at Jones Day, Todd King spent a lot of time negotiating an acquisition for an important client, Flowers Industries Inc., which sold its Mrs. Smith’s Bakeries frozen dessert business to The Schwan’s Food Co. The deal closed in April 2003...
High Court?s ?Stoneridge? Ruling a Win for Business Defendants
Posted on January 16, 2008In the much-awaited Stoneridge case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday handed a solid win to third-party defendants in securities litigation — including law firms, accountants and bankers — by shielding them from broad “scheme liability” for their tangential role in corporate fraud...
Retire in Your 40s? Yes, at U.K. Megafirm
Posted on January 16, 2008The title says it all - will we see an exodus of in-house lawyers from the corporate world? Retire in Your 40s? Yes, at U.K. Megafirm | ABA Journal - Law News Now ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog.com’s Job Board. **
Going Public, but Not in U.S. Markets
Posted on January 15, 2008Foreign companies that decide to go public are shunning American equity markets, according to the findings of an ad hoc committee of academic and business leaders concerned that regulation and litigation are putting U.S. exchanges at a competitive disadvantage...
Boundary Flare-Up: The Supreme Court Revisits Constitutional Limitation on States? Power to Tax
Posted on January 15, 2008Tip of the hat to Tom Welshonce of Hull McGuire PC for a pointer to a recent post he co-authored with Julie McGuire on their firm’s What About Clients? blawg. The post discusses a corporate tax case (MeadWestvaco) that is pending at the Supreme Court - apparently this is the first case since [...
The GCs? Choice: Obama (?)
Posted on January 14, 2008Looks like Barack Obama is cleaning up when it comes to cash from in-house counsel - The nation’s best-paid general counsel have a clear favorite in the presidential race: Barack Obama. In the run-up to the primary season, the Illinois senator received more money from the in-house legal elite than any other candidate...
Top Cyberlaw Developments of 2007
Posted on January 13, 2008Eric Goldman has done it again - released his annual recap of cyberlaw developments. Head over to his excellent Technology & Marketing Law Blog for the full details. Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Top Cyberlaw Developments of 2007 ** Find an In-House Counsel Job @ InhouseBlog...
Cadwalader Laying Off 35 Lawyers
Posted on January 10, 2008The credit market turmoil is hitting law firms - good luck to those affected in finding new employment. In addition to InhouseBlog’s Job Board, the ACC’s Jobline is a good place to look for those seeking to make a move in-house. Law Blog - WSJ...
Do In-House Lawyers Lag Behind Outside Counsel in the ?Looks Department??
Posted on January 09, 2008If you’re still reeling from yesterday’s post about the law profession’s fall from grace, then you might not want to read on. The link below will lead you to a post by our friend (and law department guru) Rees Morrison, who has uncovered research suggesting that in-house attorneys may lag behind their legal [...
Has Law Lost its Allure?
Posted on January 07, 2008Geez…..couldn’t the NYT have waited until at least February to report on the demise of the legal profession? Apparently many lawyers now “feel they have slipped a notch in social status, drifting toward the safe-and-staid realm of dentists and accountants...
Road Map for In-House Counsel Insurance Coverage
Posted on January 03, 2008Did you leave insurance coverage off of your list of resolutions for the New Year? Well consider this a reminder, and thanks to Susan Friedman of the New York Law Journal, you’ve got a quick way to get up to speed: In the face of a myriad of new and existing exposures, potential corporate insolvency, [...
Reading List for 2008 - Publications for Law Department Managers
Posted on January 02, 2008Rees Morrison, law department guru and author of the Law Department Management blawg, has provided a list of publications that target in-house lawyers. If you’re looking to get new ideas and tips for your law department, you might want to consider expanding your reading in 2008...
Top Ten Ways Corporate Counsel can Achieve Good Legal Writing
Posted on December 27, 2007The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Top Ten list for December 2007 promises to help you improve your legal writing skills. Written by Professor Paula Colby-Clements of the Massachusetts School of Law, the Top Ten list runs through ten concepts that all corporate counsel should keep in mind when preparing legal documents...
Investigating Personal Web-Based E-Mail
Posted on November 30, 1999You suspect an employee is leaking inside information. An investigation reveals that the employee accessed a personal Web-based e-mail account from a company computer and that the login information has been recovered. Can you log into that account and read its e-mail content? Read all about it at Legal Technology - Investigating Personal Web-Based E Mail [...
Related Law Questions
Is a child fathered out of wedlock by an American diplomat to a foreign women on foreign soil entitled to US Citizenship by jus sanguinis?
This is a very tough situation your friend is in. It is difficult to know the ex...
Can I be fired for working a second job?
sadly you can be fired for anything thats not discriminatory, so yeah you can.
What can an independant contractor do if the hiring company files for bankruptcy after the job is completed but before payment is made?
As a trade creditor you will unfortunately be grouped with all the other parties...
What are theunique e-discovery problems faced by out side legal counsel?
Some of them could be;
* How do I craft robust, defensible search s...
Should I hire a lawyer if injured in a car accident even if the other party admits fault and their insurance company is agreeing to pay damages?
If the person that caused an accident admits to liability you don't really need ...
#1 Online Legal Resource
On 08-28 at 21:13PM
Ten months later, Fed must reveal names of emergency lending recipients #FOIA
On 08-25 at 19:02PM
Squeaky Fromme, would-be Ford assassin and Manson devotee, released from prison
On 08-14 at 15:19PM
Likely unintended consequence of cash-for-clunkers stimulus is dampening of 2010 spending
On 08-14 at 14:34PM
Palm seeks to halt Palm Pre Android theme on copyright and trademark ground
On 08-12 at 17:30PM
Congressional investigation demonstrates Karl Rove lied about his active role in US attorney's firing
On 08-12 at 16:20PM
Family of New York City swine flu victim to sue city for failure to secure school #nyc #swineflu
On 08-12 at 12:59PM
Real Network's DVD copying software deemed to break DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions
On 08-12 at 12:57PM
Prepaid funeral operators indicted for $100 Million fraud
On 08-12 at 12:53PM
NY Jets join Cincinnati, Dallas, Green Bay, Houston & Seattle #NFL teams offering branded state lottery games
On 08-12 at 12:43PM
Are you the author of this blog? Adding USLaw.com to your Blogroll increases relevance. You qualify to display a USLaw Network badge.
Suggest changes to this blog's description or nominate another for inclusion. Register for updates.
Is a child fathered out of wedlock by an American diplomat to a foreign women on foreign soil entitled to US Citizenship by jus sanguinis?
This is a very tough situation your friend is in. It is difficult to know the ex...
Can I be fired for working a second job?
sadly you can be fired for anything thats not discriminatory, so yeah you can.
What can an independant contractor do if the hiring company files for bankruptcy after the job is completed but before payment is made?
As a trade creditor you will unfortunately be grouped with all the other parties...
What are theunique e-discovery problems faced by out side legal counsel?
Some of them could be;
* How do I craft robust, defensible search s...
Should I hire a lawyer if injured in a car accident even if the other party admits fault and their insurance company is agreeing to pay damages?
If the person that caused an accident admits to liability you don't really need ...
 |
|
Contact Us | About Us | Celebrity Law Blog |
Our Partners | Disclaimer
| Law Blog Directory
| Law Jobs
| Law Tweets
| GoDaddy Hosting
All original material © 1999-2009 by USLaw.com. |