Law Department Management

An example of a secondment to be a company’s corporate secretary

The supplement to the ACC Docket, May 2012 at 8, charts the career of Brigitte Catellier, Vice President, Legal Affairs and Secretary of Astral Media Inc. Early in her career, while at a large Canadian firm, she was asked by...

When profit margins of big firms are five times those of big companies, why not try to reduce fees a smidgeon?

An excellent article in the ACC Docket, May 2012 at 32, describes the Litigation Investment Model of Reckitt Benckiser. Essentially, the model puts law firms at risk for their profit margin when they represent that company. And, those profits are...

Compensation of in-house attorneys in Brazil, Dubai, and the United States – a need to adjust for income tax levels

As my General Counsel Metrics benchmark survey now collects compensation data, I pay more attention to findings from that realm. For example, "In Brazil, lawyers can expect to receive an average basic salary of $279,600 – 21 percent higher than...

Rees Morrison’s Morsels #167: the long and the short of it (in brevia veritas)

In-house counsel app. Thomson Reuters has released what it believes is the first iPad app delivering corporate counsel specific information. Called GC Advisor, the app offers information, technology and legal research tips, as well as articles and CLE classes. There...

Part LXIX in my series of collected metaposts embedded in other posts

1. Attorney-client privilege II (See my post of Feb. 28, 2012: attorney-client privilege with 13 references.). 2. Boards and GCs (See my post of May 13, 2012: general counsel and boards of directors with 9 references and 1 meta.). 3....

An initiative underway to resolve e-commerce disputes online without someone from the company being involved

Alternatives, published by of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, May, 2012 at 120, mentions ongoing work on a site that will enable certain kinds of disputes to be resolved on the internet. Specifically it explains that the...

Four surveys with data-based findings regarding alternative dispute resolution

Those who follow the field of alternative dispute resolution can find a trove of recent empirical research described in Alternatives, the newsletter of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, May, 2012 at 118. The issue summarizes four research...

Tension between quarterly or semi-annual budgets and the requirement of Finance for an annual budget

Realistic in-house counsel accept that the accuracy of a law firm’s budget declines precipitously the farther out it goes (See my post of Aug. 4, 2009: use a funnel metaphor for budgets; Oct. 22, 2008: build for flexibility rather than...

Activity budgets compared to cost budgets, and the final touch to both

On a panel recently, a speaker urged the attendees, all from law departments, to request from their outside counsel what he called an “activity budget.” Rather than a money projection of what the firm’s services were expected to cost for...

Pay data obtained mostly from large law departments makes lawyers in smaller departments feel bad

Organizations that collect compensation and benchmark data gravitate toward large law departments. They want to boast about the impressive number of lawyers among their respondents, the gargantuan revenue they support, and the league-table rankings of their participants. The downside of...