Archive
Live From New York!
Christy Burke reports live from LegalTech 2012, Legal IT Professionals
Worldox’s President talks about their new release, GX3; faster, better user interface, mobile and with enterprise and cloud versions on the way. The enterprise version is right around the corner while the cloud version is coming in August. (hear the audio clip)
Knowing an Industry Icon.
Jason Emanis
Graduating from Harvard College in 1974 (magna cum laude), he earned his law degree from Columbia Law School (1978) and an LLM from New York University (1984). He was a partner at Thomson/Hildebrandt for six years, Altman Weil for five years, and Arthur Andersen for four years, before which he served as the Consulting Assistant to the General Counsel of Merck. I wonder, do you know him?
He was a Director in the Law Department Group of Price Waterhouse, vice president of two software firms, and an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges and two other law firms. I wonder, do you know him?
He is a Certified Management Consultant, a member of Scribes, a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, and has been on the Board of Advisors of Corporate Counselor, Law Department Management, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. A Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, he has participated in the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section and ACC’s Law Department Management Committee. I wonder, do you know him?
He’s been in the industry 24 years, now. He has given recommendations on nearly all aspects of law department operations like technology, and structure, including benchmarks for outside counsel spend and lawyer head-count. He’s published more than 100 articles and several compilations and has written books on law department benchmarks, client satisfaction for in-house counsel, and law department managers. Do you know him? He has hosted a blog on law department management since Feb. 2005, and often gives presentations on issues of management that concern internal legal functions. I wonder , do you know him?
That’s our industry icon, Rees Morrison. (read his blog) (get his survey)
Departments Demanding Efficiency from Firms with Available Tech to Help.
Staying Relevant – Part 4: Technology and the Bottom-line
Toby Brown, 3 Geeks and Law Blog
Cost-plus thinking. In a cost-plus world, firms react by draining the company of capital every December 31st. This mind-set does not view technology as an investment, but instead as a necessary expense. Worse yet, technology negatively impacts the number of hours and respective revenue generated by them. So why would a firm invest in it? (read the post)
Teaching Firms Business 101…It’s About Profit, Not Just Revenue.
Staying Relevant – Part 3: Competition Takes Many Forms
Toby Brown, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog
At one point in 2010, a law firm partner asked me if I could do one thing to restructure a firm for the future, what would it be? I gave a simple answer: Change the financial conversation from revenue to profit. Most of the challenges facing firms would come in to focus and receive the attention they need and deserve if that one criterion were in place. Every effort in a firm would shift from supporting a cost-plus model to the margin one that actually exists. (read the post)
Litigation Hold Know-how.
Technology: The who, what, where, when and why of crafting litigation hold notices Protecting discoverable data is one of the first steps counsel should take when their company is sued
Barry Shelton, InsideCounsel
This column presents practical, prudent actions to take upon learning the company is a defendant in state or federal court.
One of the first steps that in-house counsel should take upon learning of an action filed or threatened against the company is issuing a litigation hold, or preservation, notice. This is a written instruction to individuals and/or departments that are custodians, or potential custodians, of data in any form that might be relevant or responsive to discovery requests in the suit. (read the post)
Cold, Hard Reality of Law Department – Law Firm Market.
Staying Relevant – Part 2: The Initial Pain and Response
Toby Brown, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog
You may have noticed I did not refer to the economic shift as going to a buyers’ market. My sense is that the legal market is now in a traditional, competitive market; one where firms have to employ a broad range of business strategies and tactics. In the old sellers’ market, the only differentiator was that of perceived legal skill. Lawyers only needed to market their skills, resulting in clients sending them work. In a competitive market lawyers need to show clients an arsenal of differentiators. (read the post)
Law Department Operations Profile: Lisa Girmscheid at Rockwell Automation, Inc.
Law Department Operations Profiles: Lisa Girmscheid at Rockwell Automation
Jason Emanis
“I report directly to the General Counsel,” says Lisa. “Our Legal Leadership is made up of six practice group leaders: Litigation, Corporate Secretary, Intellectual Property, Employment, Compliance and Commercial, and myself- the one non-lawyer.” The practice leaders supervise other lawyers, paralegals and administrative staff. There are a few other professional positions in the department consisting of a patent agent, records manager and transaction specialist.” (read the post)
Who Cares About a 10% Discount When Large Firm Rates Dwarf Small Firm Rates?
Clear data on the rising rates of law firms as they grow larger
Rees Morrison, Law Department Management
For firms of 1-50 lawyers, the average was $270 an hour whereas for 51-200 lawyers the average rose to $414, a 53 percent uptick. At 201-500 lawyers the average was $506 (22% above the firm size below) and above 500 it rose another 26 percent to $636. (read the post)
Basic Economics of Law Firms and a Perfect Storm.
Staying Relevant – Part 1: The Perfect Storm of Change
Toby Brown, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog
Up through the mid-2000’s, lawyers across the market were raising rates on a consistent year-to-year basis. This action reflected the relative strength in the market they experienced as sellers. A relatively limited supply of lawyers, along with a growing demand for services, produced consistent growth in revenues. But then things began to shift, slowly at first, but truly at a foundational level. The changes materialized with clients asking for discounts on rates. (read the post)
Department Cost Cutting Slowing Down?
Facts & Figures: 6 sets of newsworthy data: An inside look at the numbers that count
Julie Beck, InsideCounsel
Altman Weil’s 2011 Chief Legal Officer Survey gathered information from CLOs on issues related to managing corporate legal departments. Perhaps unsurprisingly, CLOs said that their No. 1 priority for 2012 will be controlling costs. However, evidence suggests that in 2011, CLOs eased up a bit on cost cutting.
56% CLOs that increased their budget in 2011
46% Law departments that increased their outside spending
84% Law departments that use some form of non-hourly billing (read the article)
