Make or Buy in the Age of the Free-Agent Lawyer

At all stages of a company’s life cycle, leadership continually asks the classic “Make or Buy” question. When should a company hire and develop expertise internally, and when does it make more sense to outsource tasks and purchase professional services? When it comes to legal needs, every company has its…

Oct 26, 2011 1:51 PM CDT

GC Survey Finds High Contentment, Better Hiring Outlook Than in the Past Few Years

There is some upbeat news in a survey of chief legal officers by the Association of Corporate Counsel. These lawyers like their jobs, report Corporate Counsel and a press release. Ninety-two percent said they are satisfied with their chosen careers, despite expanding duties and changes in their roles. That compares…

Oct 25, 2011 6:07 PM CDT

Getting Better Means Getting Closer—and Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

One of the nice parts of being, along with Pat, the Wayne and Garth of the New Normal, is that I get pulled into more interesting conversations than I might otherwise, as happened to me last week in Washington, D.C. Mark Cohen and Bryce Arrowood are the two founders of…

Oct 19, 2011 2:10 PM CDT

Nearly Half of Surveyed Lawyers Gripe It’s Difficult to Find Skilled Professionals

Legal hiring is on the increase in both law firms and corporations, but lawyers who are benefiting are those with experience in hot practice areas, according to a new report by Robert Half Legal. The search for attorneys with the right experience has led to a tight job market and…

Oct 19, 2011 1:56 PM CDT

20% of Legal Departments Won’t Pay for Work by New Associates; Are Internships the Answer?

Corporations are increasingly refusing to pay law firms for work by their newest lawyers, raising questions about the traditional law firm model. Law firms give document review and research tasks to young associates, billing corporate clients for the work, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. But a recent survey…

Oct 18, 2011 2:51 PM CDT

Corporate Counsel Spent More on Outside Counsel in 2011 and Expect Trend to Continue, Survey Says

Good news for litigators: Businesses in both the United States and the United Kingdom spent more money on litigation this year than last, and they expect their legal needs to grow next year, according to a new report released Tuesday. Fulbright & Jaworski’s seventh annual Litigation Trends Survey (reg. req.)…

Oct 18, 2011 12:51 PM CDT

Corporate Legal Department Spend Increases 6% as Clients Boost In-House Capabilities

While companies worldwide are spending more on legal services, outside counsel aren’t being shown the money. Companies spent 6 percent more on their own in-house legal departments in 2010, up from 1 percent in 2009, and decreased the amount spent on outside lawyers by 3 percent in the same year,…

Oct 11, 2011 9:50 PM CDT

Open Secret: Cisco Site Shares Privacy Approach

Oct 1, 2011 7:40 AM CDT

Are Women Lawyers More Successful In-House Because Companies Value Their People Skills?

It’s a controversial idea. But some women lawyers are suggesting that female attorneys do better, overall, when working in-house at least in part because corporations value the people skills they tend to bring to the table more than law firms do. “Companies have tended to reward the kinds of skills…

Sep 30, 2011 11:13 AM CDT

The Point Man: Steven Berrent, WilmerHale

Forecasting where technology can take litigation and understanding the steps needed to get there are great strengths of Steven Berrent’s, say those who know the managing director of WilmerHale’s Discovery Solutions. The in-house document review program uses technology that searches and organizes information. “The old way of doing document review…

Sep 28, 2011 1:54 PM CDT

Adding Value and Forging Alliances with Non-Firm Firms

Paul Lippe recently wrote The Rise of the Non-Firm Firms. The post generated considerable favorable comment, with the majority of the comment agreeing with Paul’s premise that “non-firm firms” (NFFs) are challenging traditional firms’ monopoly on process-focused work like document review. The reality is that many NFFs perform this work…

Sep 28, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Former ACC President Frederick Krebs Joins Clearspire

The former president of the Association of Corporate Counsel will be working at the nontraditional law firm Clearspire. Frederick Krebs joins Clearspire on Oct. 1, where he will be strategic corporate counsel adviser, according to a press release. Clearspire is organized as two separate entities. Clearspire Law, the law firm,…

Sep 21, 2011 2:56 PM CDT

Some Corps Cut Costs By Hiring Law Grads to Work In-house Instead of Using BigLaw Associates

For years, corporations have complained about the high cost of using untrained recent law graduates hired to work as associates for BigLaw firms. Now some are trying an innovative cost-cutting technique, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). They are hiring BigLaw-qualified graduates themselves, straight out of law school, to…

Aug 12, 2011 12:03 AM CDT

Widow of Slain DC Lawyer, Robert Wone, Ready to Move On with Life After Lawsuit Settlement

A $20 million wrongful death suit that attorney Kathy Wone filed over the slaying of her husband, Robert, was primarily an effort to find out what happened before he was found stabbed to death in the home of a then-partner of Arent Fox and two other friends, she told the…

Aug 5, 2011 5:01 PM CDT

BigLaw Chafes at Online Reverse Auctions, Increasingly Used by Corporations to Cut Legal Bills

Large law firms are increasingly being asked to participate in online reverse auctions where corporations award business to the lowest bidder. The process is spreading to more complex projects, raising concerns among some lawyers, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Among the companies that pit law firms against each…

Aug 2, 2011 11:16 AM CDT