In-house Counsel

25% Cut in In-House Legal Spending Translates to Even Deeper Cuts for Outside Legal Work

Editor’s note: The New Normal is an ongoing discussion between Paul Lippe, the CEO of Legal OnRamp, and Patrick Lamb, founding member of Valorem Law Group. Paul and Pat spend a lot of time thinking, writing and speaking about the changes occurring in the delivery of legal services. We hope…

Oct 27, 2010 6:30 PM CDT

Survey: Law Departments Cut Total Legal Spending for 1st Time in 10 Years

For the first time in 10 years, in-house legal departments have cut total spending, according to a new survey. And more than 60 percent of the 252 survey participants decreased outside counsel spending in 2008 and 2009, according to the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins 2010 Law Department Survey. Total legal spending…

Oct 19, 2010 6:35 PM CDT

More Gov’t Regulations Prompt More Litigation For In-House Counsel

In-house counsel predict an imminent boost in litigation as government regulations continue to tighten. The legal departments at banking, health care and energy companies are especially preparing for the legal fallout from recent health-care reform legislation and the overhauled financial services industry, the Blog of Legal Times reports. One-third of…

Oct 15, 2010 7:00 PM CDT

Humble Maine Home, Ex-Lender Lawyer at Epicenter of Storm Over Defective Docs in Foreclosure Cases

An unprecedented national furor over a deluge of defective filings in mortgage foreclosure cases largely centers on a single unlikely case. Nicolle Bradbury admittedly can’t afford to pay the $474 monthly mortgage on her humble Maine home after losing her job. But she won the mortgage foreclosure lottery when a…

Oct 15, 2010 3:45 PM CDT

EEOC Sues Port Authority, Alleges Women Lawyers Paid Less, Older Female Attorneys Fired

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a direct action against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, alleging that it pays women lawyers in non-supervisory jobs less than men who do substantially the same work and has fired two women lawyers in their fifties in order to…

Oct 6, 2010 9:26 PM CDT

City Attorney Exonerated in Criminal Probe re $15K in Work Monthly Sent to His Own Law Firm

The top lawyer in Chattanooga, Tenn., has been exonerated in a criminal probe over his reported practice of contracting out some $15,000 in legal and secretarial work to his own law firm. Although there were technical violations of state law, said District Attorney General Russell Johnson, of Kingston, Tenn., in…

Oct 1, 2010 2:59 PM CDT

Help Goes Corporate

In-house, outside firms link for pro bono work

Oct 1, 2010 6:40 AM CDT

Toyota Lawyer Drives Into Attorney, Loses $625K Case, Must Pay Her $125K Legal Bill + $5K for Appeal

It appears that attorney Granville Webster Burns simply didn’t see a fellow California lawyer when he drove into her as she was crossing a street on foot in Manhattan Beach. Burns, who works as an assistant general counsel for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. and was driving a company-owned SUV,…

Sep 22, 2010 7:57 PM CDT

Lawyer Faces Tax-Shelter Trial, Child-Exploitation Indictment & Arson Probe

An Idaho attorney is being held without bail in San Diego, Calif., where he also had an office, following a federal grand jury indictment last month on child-exploitation charges. Meanwhile, David Jacquot, 52, is also under also investigation in Bonner County, Idaho, where what authorities are saying a suspicious fire…

Sep 20, 2010 8:20 PM CDT

In-House Division General Counsel Saw Biggest Percentage Pay Hikes in 2010

The “middlemen” of in-house lawyers topped their corporate counsel colleagues by getting a collective 8.35 percent boost in median total cash compensation this year, a new survey reveals. The median salary for division general counsel was $226,400, the median bonus was $78,000, and the median total cash compensation $292,000, according…

Sep 15, 2010 4:48 PM CDT

Consultant Offers Demographic Reason to Abandon the Billable Hour

The graying of the profession is a good justification for abandoning the billable hour, a law firm consultant says. Lawyers tend to bill the most hours in their sixth and seventh year of practice, Altman Weil principal James Cotterman says in the consulting firm’s Report to Law Firm Management (PDF).…

Sep 15, 2010 10:30 AM CDT

EU’s Top Court Rejects In-House Attorney-Client Privilege

Lawyers had hoped the European Union’s top court would rethink its position on the attorney-client privilege in an antitrust case involving a Dutch chemical company. They were rebuffed today when the European Court of Justice ruled that communications between in-house lawyers at Akzo Novel NV and company employees were not…

Sep 14, 2010 3:09 PM CDT

Arbitrator: Crime-Fraud Exception Lets Ex-Toyota Counsel Use Privileged Docs in Whistle-Blow Case

An arbitrator has ruled (PDF) that a former in-house lawyer for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. may use documents that otherwise would be protected by attorney-client privilege because he has made a prima facie showing that a crime-fraud exception applies. While that does not establish that any crime or fraud…

Sep 13, 2010 8:13 PM CDT

Ex-Quellos Tax Attorney Takes Plea, Will Help Pay $7M, Speak at Law School

The former chief executive officer and tax attorney for the Quellos Group LLC hedge fund have accepted a plea agreement that will require them to pay the Internal Revenue Service up to $7M and cover the estimated $400,000 cost of their prosecution by the Justice Department. As part of the…

Sep 10, 2010 10:43 PM CDT

Gen’l Counsel Did His Job, Didn’t Fail to Supervise Rogue Broker, Judge Rules

A general counsel for an investment bank had some supervisory responsibilities concerning a rogue broker who admittedly participated in a market manipulation scheme at Ferris Baker Watts Inc. But Theodore Urban performed those responsibilities in a “cautious, objective, thorough, and reasonable manner,” a Securities and Exchange Commission administrative law judge…

Sep 8, 2010 9:19 PM CDT