Transparency and collaboration are obvious keys to strong and smooth relationships between inside and outside counsel. Less obvious is the role budgets can play in facilitating such relationships. Here, Jared Applegate of Barnes & Thornburg and Justin Ergler of GlaxoSmithKline share best practices on using budgets as a conversational tool to build better relationships.
Continue Reading Budgets as Conversational Touchstones

Legal departments should consider service and methodologies, as well as the technology itself.

When corporate legal departments consider their options for enterprise legal management (ELM) systems and providers, it’s easy to focus on dazzling product demos. However, an ELM technology provider is more than just a software manufacturer.
Continue Reading Will It Be Easy to Implement and Upgrade Your ELM Solution?

The following lists are drawn from CLOC’s State of the Industry Survey. As the numbers show, almost 85% of corporate law departments have adopted an e-billing system, while only half have automated contract management. Most are not yet using an alternative or managed service provider.
Continue Reading In-House Service Providers

Jeffrey Martin and Paul Mastrocola are co-chairs of the business litigation and dispute resolution group at Burns & Levinson. Both are seasoned trial attorneys who know that litigation is sometimes the only option – but certainly not in every case. They often advocate meditation, arbitration or other forms of alternative dispute resolution, always with the goal of efficient and cost-effective outcomes that satisfy all parties involved. The interview has been edited for length and style.
Continue Reading Finding the Optimal Path to Dispute Resolution

Interview with Linda Hovanec / Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions

Linda Hovanec is a senior director in product management, global business intelligence and analytics at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions. Lately, she has been devoting a good deal of time to studying law departments’ billing processes. A recent survey that ELM Solutions collaborated on revealed that companies aren’t all that happy with the billing guidelines they use to manage their law firms, and they aren’t doing very much to make them better. As Hovanec sees it, they’re missing a big opportunity to simultaneously strengthen their guidelines and enforcement, while also improving their relationships with their law firms. Her remarks have been edited for style and length.Continue Reading What Law Departments Need to Know About Billing Guidelines: A survey suggests that many departments have plenty of questions and concerns

Interview with Mike Koehler / FCPA Professor Blog

 When I read The New York Times front-page article in 2012 about Wal-Mart’s alleged bribes in Mexico, I thought it was going to be the U.S. equivalent of Siemens in Germany. Before I ask you about that, can you bring us up to date on Wal-Mart’s FCPA investigation? What has happened over the past five years?Continue Reading Much Ado About…Little?: How a ‘garden variety’ FCPA investigation of Walmart grabbed the spotlight