In-house legal hiring and spending are on the upswing, surveys say

Two new surveys point to modest gains for in-house legal departments—in terms of hiring and legal spending. One survey found that corporate legal departments are hiring at a rate not seen since before the recession. The survey of 70 in-house legal departments found that 59 percent of respondents hired new…

Oct 2, 2013 10:35 AM CDT

Ex-lawyer and publicist for Insane Clown Posse sues for sex harassment, cites sexism culture

A fired publicist who also acted as a lawyer for Insane Clown Posse’s recording company has filed a suit claiming she was sexually harassed, belittled and mocked at work. The suit by Andrea Pelligreni says she was presented with a sex toy as a present, yelled at on a regular…

Sep 18, 2013 12:30 PM CDT

Is the ‘art of passing’ necessary for a Chinese American to survive in corporate law?

Chinese-American lawyer Helen Wan says she learned early on that “it was incredibly important to perfect the art of passing” while practicing corporate law. Passing, Wan explains in the Daily Beast, means downplaying or ridding oneself of “minority group” traits to fit in with mainstream corporate culture. Wan says a…

Sep 17, 2013 12:55 PM CDT

Yale law prof falls short in challenging Obama’s 2-year JD idea

The Washington Post just ran an op-ed by Bruce Ackerman, Yale Law School professor, dismissing President Barack Obama’s call for cutting the third year of law school as “dead wrong.” Let’s start by stipulating a few obvious things: • President Obama is a pretty smart guy, and he’s likely to…

Sep 11, 2013 10:53 PM CDT

Top in-house lawyers get paid a lot less when female, survey says

Women lawyers working in top in-house jobs make significantly less than their male counterparts, a recent survey found. General counsel and chief legal officers were paid average total cash compensation of $575,200, compared to $723,700 for men in the same position, says a survey by ALM Legal Intelligence. Deputy chief…

Sep 10, 2013 12:05 PM CDT

Kramer Levin partner to become Girl Scouts’ first general counsel

Girl Scouts of the USA has created its first-ever general counsel position and hired a BigLaw partner to fill the job. Jennifer Rochon, a litigation partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, begins her new job on Oct. 1, Corporate Counsel reports. Rochon, a third-generation Girl Scout, tells the publication…

Sep 6, 2013 1:32 PM CDT

Twitter GC steps down, says he’s ready for ‘goofing off a bit’

Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter’s general counsel, announced Friday that he would be leaving the company. The lawyer with the Twitter handle @amac shared the news in a tweet on the social media site, the Wall Street Journal’s All Things D reports. The article notes that Macgillivray’s departure is somewhat unusual in…

Aug 30, 2013 6:25 PM CDT

Attorney-client privilege should apply to law firms’ consults with in-house counsel, ABA House says

The ABA House of Delegates approved a resolution urging that attorney-client privilege apply to advice given to law firm personnel by a law firm’s in-house counsel—possibly on matters pertaining to work for the firm’s clients. The measure stems from the increasing complexity of regulation, rules of professional conduct and greater…

Aug 12, 2013 10:07 PM CDT

All is well for BigLaw? Not if you talk to clients and really crunch the numbers

I spent the last 10 days on vacation. I returned to these stories: • “Don’t bury Big Law just yet” (The American Lawyer) • “GCs unhappy with high firm rates, seeking AFAs” (Hildebrandt Institute) • “The last days of Big Law—You can’t imagine the terror when the money dries up”…

Aug 1, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Top-paid general counsel earned $10.9M in 2012, survey says

The top in-house lawyer at General Electric was the highest-paid general counsel in the U.S. last year, earning a total of $10.9 million in cash compensation. Brackett Denniston III also exercised another $2 million or so in stock options, explains a Corporate Counsel article reporting on the magazine’s annual salary…

Jul 17, 2013 9:10 PM CDT

Could you pass this in-house counsel’s tech test? If the answer is no, you may be losing business

Editor’s Note: In the ABA Journal’s Law News Now blog, there was a summary of Casey Flaherty’s audit program. After discussion in the comments, Flaherty was invited to more thoroughly discuss his program and respond to criticism. I am corporate counsel at Kia Motors America, Inc. I have developed a…

Jul 17, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Day starts at 5:30 am for top lawyers at two gambling companies

Tim Donovan and Brian Larson are top lawyers for two well-known gambling companies. Each starts the day at 5:30 a.m., partly in order to have time to focus on work before the day’s onslaught of email, phone calls and issues begins. But the phone still rings, with calls from those…

Jul 2, 2013 4:15 PM CDT

Shrinking legal spending: Corporate clients cut back on outside representation

Jul 1, 2013 7:29 AM CDT

Top regulatory counsel is off controversial case; four ‘reassigned’ lawyers are back on it

Following weeks of controversy over a disagreement between the general counsel for California’s utility regulator and four subordinate lawyers over the handling of an administrative case over a fatal gas explosion and fire in San Bruno, there has been a reversal of fortune. General counsel Frank Lindh, who at one…

Jun 27, 2013 6:30 PM CDT

ACC hails virtual law firm Axiom among its ‘value champions’

More corporate legal departments are cutting costs through greater use of nontraditional legal service providers and boosting in-house capabilities, the Association of Corporate Counsel reported this week. The ACC announced the 12 winners of its 2013 ACC Value Champion initiative, honoring innovative legal departments and in-house counsel/law firm client service…

Jun 20, 2013 9:06 PM CDT