Inside Straight
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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 […] -
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 […] - Sponsored
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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 […]
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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? […] -
General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Money
Inside Straight: Be An In-House Hero: Escheat Audits!
It’s not just the federal government that’s desperate for money. The states are, too. One way that states are looking to fill their coffers is by auditing unclaimed property on companies’ books — so-called “escheat audits.” This isn’t the world’s sexiest topic, but an in-house lawyer might serve a valuable purpose by double-checking corporate escheat […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Delivering Bad News
Several readers have sent e-mails asking for advice on how to deliver bad news to clients. Here’s proof that, if ye shall ask, ye may receive. Think first about the “bad news” that you’re delivering. You’re not a physician, so you’re not looking a person in the eye and explaining that he or she has […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Mergers and Acquisitions
Inside Straight: Compliance Due Diligence
It takes a big man to ignore a small issue. A lawyer who lacks self-confidence feels compelled to run down every issue, make every argument, and depose every witness. After all, if you choose to make an educated guess about the importance of a tangential issue, or whether to omit a plausible (but likely losing) […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: Lateraling Up
It’s tough to “lateral up” at a big law firm. Since I just invented the phrase “lateraling up,” I suppose I should define it: It’s when a fairly senior lawyer asks an older lawyer to help on a project. If you’re 40 years old and just landed a small- or medium-sized matter, it’s hard to […] - Sponsored
New Report - Are Small Firms Achieving Their Legal Tech Goals?
In this new report of more than 100 professionals at small and smaller midsize law firms, iManage and Above the Law shed new light on… -
Boutique Law Firms, In-House Counsel, Litigators, Small Law Firms
Inside Straight: Getting Business By Inventing Business
I recently had lunch with a guy who had worked at a law firm, gone in-house, and later returned to a law firm. (It’s actually more than that. This guy’s bio is: assistant U.S. attorney; associate at K&E; partner at Bartlit Beck; deputy general counsel at Bank One; and now at his own small firm. […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: Big-Firm Pitches
Over time (and it doesn’t take long), law firm pitches all begin to sound the same. “We save you money because we staff cases leanly. We send in the Navy SEALs, not the Fifth Fleet.” Do you really think the guy in here last week was saying, “We waste your money hand over foot. We […] -
In-House Counsel, Media and Journalism
Inside Straight: Sucking Up by Writing Down
Few folks use proposals for co-authorship to advance their careers. More should. What am I suggesting? Come up with a thesis for an article. Call somebody who matters to you, and propose that you write the article together. Write a first draft of the article, send it to your co-author to solicit revisions, and then […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues, Partner Profits
Inside Straight: How De-Equitizing Partners Can Undermine A Business Model
Last week’s Am Law 100 list revealed publicly a trend that partners at big law firms have been feeling acutely: The largest law firms have de-equitized partners in the last two years in an unprecedented way. In the words of one of the articles, “Equity partner head count alone slipped 0.9 percent last year, after […] -
In-House Counsel, Social Networking Websites, Technology, Twittering
Inside Straight: Empirical Proof That Twitter Doesn't Work!
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. I understand using blogging as a form of business development for lawyers. I did it when I was in private practice. It produced the sorts of returns you might expect from the endeavor. And […]
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New Report - Are Small Firms Achieving Their Legal Tech Goals?
In this new report of more than 100 professionals at small and smaller midsize law firms, iManage and Above the Law shed new light on…
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Mitigating M&A Cyber Risk: Pre- & Post-Acquisition Due Diligence
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The Ethical use of Generative AI
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Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Non-Lawyers As Clients
I never noticed this before I went in-house, because it never made a difference to me: When you’re an outside litigator, representing corporations in significant disputes, your clients are lawyers. This may not be true for all outside lawyers. If you’re representing a small business, the business may not have inside counsel, so you may […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: Hiring Law Firms Or Lawyers?
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. Can we just put this one to rest? At every conference, and in many articles, people pose the question: “As a client, do you hire law firms, or do you hire lawyers?” The clients […] -
Biglaw, Blogging, Free Speech, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Social Networking Websites, Technology
Inside Straight: Social Media Policies
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. Social media: They’re all the rage. And they should be. At a firm, if you could convince half of your lawyers to write intelligent, substantive blog posts twice a week in their areas of […] -
Associate Advice, Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: On Outer-Directedness
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. Law firms, and in-house law departments, should be outer-directed. I realize that I just invented the word “outer-directed,” and sensible people might choose to call this concept being “client-focused.” But “outer-directedness” is broader than […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Partner Issues
Inside Straight: Managing Up
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. The Harvard Law School career services office recently asked me to record a podcast on the subject of “managing up.” This got me to thinking: What the heck is “managing up”? Fortunately, the woman […] -
Biglaw, General Counsel, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Managing People
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. Managing people at big law firms is easy: You don’t! First, you don’t have anyone to manage. As an associate, you have a secretary. That’s it. And you share your secretary with other people, […] -
Biglaw, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: On Lawyers' Garnitures
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. Lawyers in private practice collect things. The lawyers use those collections to adorn professional biographies that appear on firm web pages. The garnitures generally include (1) experiences (which are trumpeted in the form of […]