Law Department Administration

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By Metropolitan Corporate Counsel

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2016 Law Department Management Report has a bit of a good news-bad news flavor to it.

The good news is that law departments continue to gain “greater access to the inner sanctums where decisions are made,” as ACC puts it in its executive summary. The bad news is that their hard-won seat at the table derives, first and foremost, from the perception that a law department is cost-efficient.Continue Reading Backstory: Reconnect Redux

By Shamir Colloff, FRONTEO

When you are looking for a needle in a haystack, the addition of more hay does not alter your objective, only your approach. The same is true when searching for relevant information. Although we live in an era of exponentially increasing data volumes, the reality is that the material that matters most remains constant. This was true 10 years ago, when the FRCP changed to include electronically stored information as a codified information source, and it’s true today: Just because you have more documents doesn’t mean you have more relevant documents. Those with the tools to sort, compile, analyze and apply the details they gather, rather than simply review them, have a valuable competitive advantage.Continue Reading Distinguishing Data That Matters Most: Survey says: Users want easily accessible metrics

By Carolyn Casey, AccessData

Ninety-three percent of companies consider their general counsel a member of the executive management, up from 55 percent in 2010, according to Equilar’s General Counsel Pay Trends 2016. GCs have moved beyond solely advising on technical legal issues in large-scale organizations. GCs have long been at the table for strategic planning, compliance, risk management and cyber concerns. The more strategic influence of the chief legal officer is reflected in a median total direct compensation of $2.1 million at S&P 500 companies, per the Equilar 2016 study.Continue Reading Will 2017 Be the Year of the GC as Mega-Risk Officer?: As new threats loom, companies are more dependent than ever on the legal department’s risk oversight

By Bill Sowinski, David Moran, Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions

Legal bill reviewers are specialists who can help in-house counsel keep a close eye on the bottom line without spending all day poring over detailed invoice line items. Below, two legal billing and technology veterans, David Moran and Bill Sowinski of ELM Solutions, discuss the obvious, and not so obvious, advantages of third-party legal bill review. Their remarks have been edited for length and style.Continue Reading It’s All About That Bill: Invoice review specialists explain why managing the bill improves relationships with providers

By Iohann Le Frapper, Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)

The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) recently elected a global board of directors, with Iohann Le Frapper, general counsel of industrial financing firm ChetWode, named chair. Le Frapper is a truly global in-house professional with stints in the EU, the Middle East and Asia across multiple industry sectors. He discusses below the ACC’s strategic priorities, global reach and educational and networking opportunities for in-house lawyers around the world. His responses have been edited for length and style.
Continue Reading ACC Global Chair Pursues Global Priorities: In-house group seeks cross-border perspective on legal issues

By Robert Max Crane, Peter G. Verniero, Beth S. Rose, Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.

Sills Cummis & Gross recently celebrated its 45th anniversary with a gala reception featuring political commentators David Axelrod and Michael Murphy as befits the firm’s commitment to government service and civic affairs. Sills Managing Partner, Max Crane, and two of its practice leaders, Peter G. Verniero and Beth S. Rose, recently spoke with MCC about the event, the firm’s roots and its future. Their remarks have been edited for length and style.
Continue Reading Sills Celebrates in Civic-Minded Fashion: Firm anniversary brings together law, business, government and policy

By Metropolitan Corporate Counsel

Median compensation for general counsel increased slightly between 2014 and 2015 at companies ranging from under $1 billion in revenue to more than $15 billion, according to “General Counsel Pay Trends 2016,” a new survey from Equilar, which collects information on 150,000 executives and board members of public companies. The healthcare sector delivered the highest median total direct compensation for GCs at $3 million, as compared to an average of $1.2 million for the S&P 500 as a whole.Continue Reading Backstory: GC Comp: Doing More with . . . a Little More

By Karen Rubin, Thompson Hine

Introduction: Karen E. Rubin, Counsel in the Cleveland office of Thompson Hine LLP, has been co-editing the firm’s ethics blog, The Law for Lawyers Today, since it began in 2014. The blog publishes extensively about legal ethics and professional responsibility and was most recently named one of the ABA Journal’s top 100 law blogs of 2016. Ms. Rubin is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association’s Ethics Committee and teaches legal ethics at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. As part of a continuing series of interviews focused on top bloggers on the LexBlog Network, MCC spoke with Ms. Rubin about the focus and relevancy of her blog to an in-house readership, touching on ethical pitfalls and traps the in-house community can safeguard against.Continue Reading Blogging About The Law of Lawyering: A look into murky ethics issues and risk management territory

By Lloyd M. Johnson Jr., Chief Legal Executive LLC

For in-house counsel, convincing colleagues in the C-suite —or in the rest of the company, for that matter —is rarely a simple matter of saying, “Do it. I’m the lawyer.” Influence and persuasion require strategic thinking, a deep understanding of a company’s objectives and culture, credibility in the organization, and a keen sense of timing.
Continue Reading Influencing the C-Suite: Advice for in-house counsel on the fine arts of influence and persuasion

By Bernadette Bulacan, Thomson Reuters

Multiple factors, from emerging technologies to the use of legal process outsourcing, are transforming the practice of law. But few factors directly influence the changing face of the profession as much as the unprecedented generational shift that is occurring as baby boomers retire and more millennials join the ranks of corporate counsel.
Continue Reading Before the Millennial Deluge: Corporate law departments are overwhelmingly unprepared for a seismic generational shift