In-House Counsel

Judges who become general counsel. The general counsel of Affymetrix, Barbara Caulfield, left the US District Court bench to become the top lawyer for that gene chip pioneer (IP Law & Bus., Vol. 6, Feb. 2008 at 9). Likewise, in a more prominent shift from bench to boss, Michael Luttig left the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to become the general counsel of Boeing (See my post of May 3, 2007: a judicial clerk moved immediately to become a general counsel.).

International Lawyers Network. Previous posts have identified at least 18 networks of law firms (See my posts of May 30, 2005: names a dozen; June 20, 2007: names three more; June 20, 2007 #2: one more; Nov. 18, 2007 #3: a Canadian group; Dec. 16, 2007: an Italian group; Dec. 19, 2005: more metrics; Nov. 11, 2005: skepticism on whether departments rely on such groups.). Another association of law firms came to light in Of Counsel, Vol. 27, Feb. 2008 at 3: the International Lawyers Network. The article describes it as the ?5,000 attorney, 69-country, 89-firm ILN.?

Additional proposal generators. Previously I noted three packages that law firms use to generate first-drafts of proposals (See my post of March 1, 2007 # 3.). From Law Practice, Jan./Feb. 2008 at 36, a survey completed by 183 law firms reports that 24 percent of them use Hubbard One, 5 percent use Saturno Web Proposals, and 5 percent use Thomson Elite. The flow of incoming RFPs can justify automation (See my post of March 17, 2006: effort set in motion by RFPs.). [Note, I am a consultant employed by Thomson, which owns Hubbard One and Elite.]