It makes sense to me that lawyers in large departments tend to specialize more. They see more examples of any given issue than do Jill-of-all-trades generalists in small departments. The more experience you accumulate, the quicker and more skillfully you can handle a new variant, which is another wa...

One week after this blog unveiled its first poll (See my post of Feb. 26, 2009: first blog poll.), I thank each of the dozen or so readers (as of yesterday) who took a moment or two to answer. The question was “If you reviewed bills submitted by law firms over the past six months, what do you esti...

Memory Loss & the Brain, Vol. 8, Winter 2007 at 4, points out that “some studies suggest that you can improve your own learning abilities by 20 to 30 percent, just by choosing the right time to do your learning.� When you feel most wide-awake and alert, tackle your tough project or your knot...

Robert Sutton, a Stanford professor of management science and engineering, offers his advice on a case study in the Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 86, March 2009 at 40. His comments enlightened me about the insidious, under-estimated costs of large-scale terminations and the knee-jerk reaction to lop off the...

As I understand a recent article, heavy hitters in the banking world have agreed some conflict of interest rules that more realistically adapt to current realities. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, March 2009 at 62, explains that Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, UBS and JPMorgan Chase, among other banks, “are...

Polar diagrams. Florence Nightingale used a polar diagram, similar to a pie chart, to depict illnesses and injuries, according to Gregory Berns, iconoclast: a neuroscientist reveals how to think differently (Harvard Bus. Press 2008) at 43. A polar diagram shows the magnitude of a quantity in several...

Techniques exist to encourage people to speak out in meetings (See my post of May 8, 2008: instant feedback after a meeting.). These ideas are most constructive in staff meetings where members periodically convene. Remind senior lawyers and big mouths before the meetings start not to dominate conver...

The website of LegalMaster lists approximately 131 companies and what seems to be the e-billing system their law department uses. After some scrubbing of that data, I can pass on below the number of users for two dozen packages and their percentage of the website’s group. CSC Litigation Advisor 34...

Alex Arato, associate general counsel of CA Inc., recently described his law department’s RFP process. As reported in InsideCounsel, Jan. 2009 at 58, Arato solicits around five to seven firms for proposals on individual matters. That number makes sense (See my post of Oct. 26, 2007: seven tips for...

An in-house mind is a terrible thing to waste. On this I cogitated, ergo I blog (See my post of Jan. 24, 2006 about the half-life of law department knowledge; and (Sept. 22, 2006: factors that erode the rationale choice of a law firm.) Attorneys who work for corporations start with a mix of inherite...