In-house Counsel

Generation X’s impact on the legal industry | A blogger shares his wife’s lung cancer struggle

“There is a generational shift taking place, and very few people are talking about it, nor the impact it is having on our sales culture, nor our business culture,” Heather Morse, director of marketing for Barger & Wolen in Los Angeles, writes at The Legal Watercooler. Members of Generation X—like…

Feb 28, 2014 2:50 PM CST

Canadian lawyer leads team to gold medal in Olympic curling event

A 39-year-old Canadian lawyer was jubilant Thursday after leading her team to a gold medal in the women’s curling event at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, the Star reports. “We’re Olympic gold medalists,” said Jennifer Jones. “It’s something that you dream of for your entire life. It’s what every…

Feb 21, 2014 12:00 AM CST

Police department lawyer is jailed by own client on suspicion of drug and weapon crimes

A lawyer for the Salt Lake City police department has been arrested on suspicion of drug and weapon crimes by employees of his own client. James Wesley Robinson, 50, was arrested and jailed along with two adult sons after a search of his home Tuesday, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.…

Feb 20, 2014 7:42 PM CST

NY Giants, Eli Manning, team lawyer face civil RICO suit in claimed sale of fake ‘game-worn’ items

A collector and reseller of sports memorabilia has filed a civil racketeering suit in state court in New Jersey against the New York Giants, star quarterback Eli Manning and the team’s general counsel William J. Heller, Newsday (reg. req.) reports. The suit (PDF) contends they and other defendants, including a…

Jan 30, 2014 8:00 PM CST

General counsel takes plea in $39M foreign bribery case

A U.S. lawyer who formerly served as general counsel to an oil and gas company based in the Virgin Islands has pleaded guilty and two former top executives face charges in a federal foreign bribery case made public this week. Attorney Gregory Weisman, 42, pleaded guilty on Nov. 8 in…

Jan 7, 2014 7:35 PM CST

Former Dewey chairman lands a new job

Former Dewey & LeBoeuf chairman Steven Davis has a new job that should help him pay off his $511,000 settlement with the defunct firm’s bankruptcy trustee and liability insurer. Davis will become the top in-house legal adviser for the government of Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. The…

Jan 2, 2014 12:38 PM CST

Pfizer’s GC is leaving; no explanation is given

Pfizer has announced that general counsel Amy Schulman is leaving the company, without giving a reason for the departure. The “sudden announcement” of the “surprise split” came in a press release, Corporate Counsel reports. Schulman had been slated to become president of a new Pfizer division on Jan. 1, but…

Dec 18, 2013 3:12 PM CST

Plagued by prosopagnosia, corporate lawyer can’t recognize his employees

Lawyer Mark Herrmann supervises about 150 employees in his role as vice president and chief compliance officer at Aon, but he rarely recognizes them—in the visual sense of the word. Herrmann suffers from prosopagnosia, the term for an inability to recognize faces. He does recognize his own face, as well…

Dec 16, 2013 12:40 PM CST

The 1980s were great years if you were law firm associates—but if you were clients, not so much

Both Indiana University law professor Bill Henderson at the Legal Whiteboard and Ohio State University law professor Deborah Merritt at Law School Cafe examined the state of the legal profession in this country a generation (or more) ago. Henderson crunched some data that he says tells “an absolutely remarkable story.…

Dec 13, 2013 2:49 PM CST

Former general counsel takes new job as student tour guide

After nearly 30 years as a general counsel working for telecommunications and financial companies, Jack Friedman lost his job in 2008 when his employer reorganized. Like many other lawyers, he found looking for work in the legal industry in the midst of an economic crisis a tough gig. So, with…

Nov 26, 2013 8:35 PM CST

BigLaw mergers don’t necessarily impress GCs; are some McKenna partners also balking?

Several BigLaw firms are in merger talks that could produce BiggerLaw Firms—with the aim of producing seamless legal services for their corporate clients. But some general counsel interviewed by the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) question the value of megamergers. “Some top legal officers at Fortune 100 companies say the…

Nov 11, 2013 3:11 PM CST

How GlaxoSmithKline changed the way it buys legal services (video)

Silvia Hodges Silverstein, adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, and Heidi Gardner, assistant professor at Harvard Business School talk with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about how pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline introduced procurement practices into its retention of outside counsel. Silverstein describes GlaxoSmithKline’s sourcing room events, which firms are invited to after…

Oct 24, 2013 5:00 PM CDT

Transparency in corporate legal bills is more important than the lowest price, CLO survey finds

A survey of more than 200 chief legal officers for corporations found that “transparent pricing” in legal fees is more important than lowest-price or guaranteed legal bills. Asked to choose which pricing option they preferred among four choices, 36.4 percent of the chief legal officers said they wanted “transparent pricing”…

Oct 23, 2013 6:38 PM CDT

Survey says half of in-house law depts have outsourced legal work, most were happy with results

More than half of the corporate law departments that responded to a recent survey said they have outsourced legal work, and over two-thirds said they were satisified or very satisfied with the results. Nearly another third said they were somewhat satisfied. But there was some potential good news for American…

Oct 22, 2013 9:45 PM CDT

Reed Smith’s global managing partner leaves to become PNC general counsel

Reed Smith’s global managing partner Gregory Jordan is leaving to become general counsel of PNC Financial Services Group, a key client of the law firm. Replacing Jordan as global managing partner will be Alexander “Sandy” Thomas, the global chair of litigation at Reed Smith, according to a press release, the…

Oct 4, 2013 2:02 PM CDT