Discounted law firm rates could go a long way to reducing pressure on corporate law department budgets, but Altman Weil’s 2019 Chief Legal Officer Survey finds that asking for rate reductions is a sticky subject. In fact, 33% of CLOs say they avoid this line of questioning to avoid prejudicing their outside law firm relationship… Read More »
At the heart of every effective corporate law department is a commitment to collaboration. The shared expectation that in-house attorneys “do more with less” can unite the team, encouraging internal staff to share their knowledge and lend a hand when their bandwidth permits. Yet even with total in-house cooperation, there will still be situations where… Read More »
The American Bar Association (ABA) finds that within the entire legal profession only 15% of attorneys identify as racial or ethnic minorities and only 36% identify as women. The lack of existing diversity in the field makes it even harder for corporate law departments to cultivate varied backgrounds and perspectives within their organization. Consulting firm… Read More »
COVID-19 has accelerated the typical boom-bust cycle, imposing austerity on corporate law department budgets and compelling in-house counsel to do far more with far less. It’s familiar territory for those who lived and worked through the Recession (or if you’re showing your age, the Dot Com Bubble of the early 2000s), and budgets will rebound… Read More »
Corporate leaders have entered a new era of determining service delivery methods to clients. Historically, strategic planning of this nature included resource evaluation, budget considerations and technology utilization. Now, the global change in work dynamics has emphasized additional components: remote access, accountability and interconnection. Assigned Counsel is employing end-to-end remote placements of temporary attorneys —… Read More »
When you work with a temporary attorney, your team gains the experience of a lawyer who can help them understand unusual legal issues, meet key deadlines, or explain complex legal concepts. Integrating this attorney onto your team is an essential part of ensuring their success. Here are four tips for general counsel seeking to work… Read More »
Return on investment, or ROI, measures the impact of any business decision on the business’s bottom line. As with any part of a business, a legal department’s ROI matters to the business’s overall health. While companies often need legal departments, they also need their legal department to fit within the context of the rest of… Read More »
In a tight job market, attorneys and other legal professionals’ attention is at a premium. Job-seekers may skim job postings, passing over solid descriptions of work for which they are qualified simply because the job posting fails to grab their attention. If your job postings aren’t getting the responses you want, here are five ways… Read More »
To reach your law firm or legal department’s business objectives, placing one person in charge of decision-making isn’t enough. The organization needs each team member to be able to make sound decisions in line with the organization’s overall goals. Here are nine tools that law firms and legal departments can teach their team members to… Read More »
Shifting workforce demographics and rumors of an upcoming recession have injected a number of unpredictable variables into the hiring process for 2020. Corporate Legal Departments and law firms, however, can still make plans to ensure they have the skilled attorney talent they need to handle client matters effectively and weather any upcoming economic changes. Here’s… Read More »