General Counsel
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Biglaw, Billable Hours, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Money
Inside Straight: Inflating Your Own Outside Legal Spend
Years ago, I handled a pro bono case for a client unable to afford legal services. (I actually handled a fair number of pro bono cases, but I’m choosing to describe just one here.) The client was a very nice guy, and he desperately needed legal services. But he had no idea how to use […] -
Amy Schulman, Depositions, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Interview Stories, Job Searches, Litigators, Litigatrix, Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day: Litigatrix, Toppled
A story I often tell is about the first time I took a deposition. I got there early, and I thought that the most important thing was to control the witness. I didn’t realize the first time around that the way you control somebody is not by intimidating them. But I adjusted the chair that […] - Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms. -
Advertising, Career Center, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Money, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Career Center: 2011 In-House Salaries Are On The Upswing
While practically every attorney is familiar with the market rate for Biglaw salaries, not as much is known about salaries for in-house lawyers. Unlike Biglaw’s lockstep salaries, in-house salaries vary widely depending on a broad range of factors such as industry, size of legal department, years of experience, etc. Additionally, since in-house salaries are often […]
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American Bar Association / ABA, Back to the Future, Billable Hours, General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Things Will Not Return To Normal After The Recession!
Here’s a puzzle for you. What decade am I discussing in the following paragraphs? I’m doing something a little different here. The entire text of this column appears before the jump. I’ve hidden only the citations after the jump. Ponder while you read these paragraphs when the source materials supporting these words were written: The […] -
Conferences / Symposia, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Travel / Vacation
House Rules: The Mile-High Club
I recently spent a week in Denver over two days (“ba dum bum”). The day I arrived, the temperature hit a record high of 80 degrees, and it snowed several inches the next evening. I was supposed to be attending (and enjoying) the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Annual Meeting, but instead, I was frantically trying […] -
Drinking, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Letter from London, Media and Journalism, Racism, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Letter from London: Port, Nazis, and In-House Lawyers
To qualify as a lawyer in the U.K., you first have to eat 12 dinners. Seriously. OK, it’s only barristers (British trial lawyers) who must meet this requirement. And they have to pass legal exams as well as eat. But the essence of my slightly sensationalised opening sentence is true: no dinners, no qualification. Here’s […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Litigators
Inside Straight: What Would General Counsel University Look Like?
I posted last week about the idea of providing training intended to give lawyers wings — to teach lawyers the skills, and give them the experiences, they need to leave their firm or corporation and move forward on a career path elsewhere. If you thought that was a good idea — if you thought that […] -
General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Train To Stay, Or Train To Go?
It’s hard to create career paths for in-house lawyers. It’s easy to describe the career path for a junior lawyer at a law firm (even though the path may be illusory for many): Work hard and well and become a partner; work harder and better and become a richer and more powerful partner. Retire. Die. […] - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Job Searches, Law Schools, Money, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners
A Recent Law Grad's Attempt at Revenge on His Law School
The administrators at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles didn't think they were walking into a smackdown when they sent out an email to alumni asking them to update their employment statuses. But smacked they were, down on their heads, as one former solo practitioner's epic, slightly rambling response to the innocent request just tore up the school for its behavior towards recent graduates.... -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues, Rudeness
Inside Straight: The Rule of Equal Dignity
Years ago, I saw a memo written by a law firm partner who was renowned for mistreating junior partners, associates, staff, and lost children who wandered in the front door looking for their parents. But this memo showed a whole different personality. The memo was directed to a practice leader who had solicited comments about […] -
Amy Schulman, Biglaw, Conferences / Symposia, Feminism, Gender, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Minority Issues, Partner Issues, Women's Issues
Her Stories: The Evolving Role of Women in Business and Law
At the Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference, sponsored by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), there was a great lunchtime discussion called “Her Stories: The Evolving Role of Women in Business and Law.” It featured a panel of heavy hitters: two women currently serving as general counsel to Fortune 500 companies, and a third who […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Litigators, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: My Wistful Day
In-house columnist Mark Herrmann is fast approaching the two-year anniversary of his move in-house, and he doesn't often look back wistfully on his former life as a partner at one of the world's largest law firms. But last Tuesday was different. Last Tuesday, the general counsel of an international company called him, and he started to reminisce about his Biglaw days.... -
Books, Conferences / Symposia, Crime, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Richard Scruggs, Technology, White-Collar Crime
Dispatch from Amelia Island: Inside the Dickie Scruggs Scandal
We are just finishing up our first day at the Legal Technology Leadership Summit, our tech conference aimed at in-house counsel. So far it has been a great success. We’ve had no earthquakes or hurricanes — just a passing swarm of lovebugs (seriously), which are now lying dead on my balcony. This morning, we kicked […]
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The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms.
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Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
The rise of remote work has dramatically reshaped the relationship between Lawyers and Law Firms, see how Scale LLP has taken the steps to get…
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use.
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Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
If 2023 introduced legal professionals to generative AI, then 2024 will be when law firms start adapting to utilize it. Things are moving fast, so…
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Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm.
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Feminism, Gender, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, J. Michael Luttig, Money, Rankings, Women's Issues
Who Are America's Best-Paid General Counsel?
Who are America's most well-paid general counsel? Corporate Counsel magazine has just released its annual list - and women have made some major strides forward. -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Interview Stories, Job Searches, Summer Associates
Inside Straight: Biglaw Versus In-House Interviews
Is there a difference between an interview for an in-house job and an interview for a Biglaw firm? Of course there is -- actually, according to Mark Herrmann, interviews for in-house jobs matter more than interviews for summer slots in Biglaw. Read on for advice on how to successfully tackle an interview for an in-house job... -
Billable Hours, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Job Searches
Inside Straight: The Other Side Of Paradise
I’ve received a couple of e-mails from associates at large firms saying that these folks sit at their desks dreaming about having in-house jobs: One client instead of many competing for your time. More manageable workload. A broader range of work. Less stress. An opportunity to think strategically instead of wallowing in minutiae. No more […] -
Associate Advice, Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: A Disquisition On Pile-O'-Crap Syndrome
Pile-o’-crap syndrome: We’ve all been victimized by it. In private practice, it arrives in the form of four boxes of documents (containing about 2000 pages each) delivered to your door with a single handwritten note of explanation: “Here are the documents you’ll need to prepare Smith for his deposition on Wednesday.” What does that note […] -
Biglaw, Document Review, Federal Judges, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Litigators
Inside Straight: Clawback Agreements -- An Oft-Missed Trick
I recently heard a panel of judges speak about e-discovery issues. Their opinions on several subjects varied, but on one subject they agreed unanimously: Clawback provisions under Federal Rule of Evidence 502 are valuable tools in most significant litigation, but they remain rarely used. This piqued my interest, so I asked several in-house litigators (not […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Tasks Versus Projects
Success — at a law firm, in-house, or in any professional services environment — requires a certain mindset. The mindset is this: “My job is not to take an order from my client (or boss) and fill that order, but rather to achieve things.” Or, to put it differently, strive to execute projects, not simply […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Alternative Fee Agreements For Beginners
Egad! The General Counsel just announced that your target for next year will be to handle 20 percent of all outside legal spend on an alternative fee basis! What do you do? You can’t just do flat fee agreements! What happens if you agree to pay too much, and you’ve given away your client’s money? […]