JD Journal » legal department

Google + is Changing Corporate Legal Management

jim — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:00:09 +0000

Google+ (also sometimes written as Google Plus) is a fairly new social networking that was meant to be Google’s direct competition to other social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Google+ is software that is installed on to a computer. It is very easy to access once installed and is extremely easy to customize to a person or a company’s specific needs.

Because of the ease of use of the software, many companies are using Google+ to help their company perform basic daily functions within the company. So how is Google+ changing the world of corporate legal management? How are they showing other businesses how to use Google+ to a company’s advantage?

What is corporate legal management exactly? It is the job of the legal management, or in-house lawyers to deal with all the in-house legal matters that come in to a corporation at any given time. It is their job to sort through large amount of information and to give the “okay” for a legal based decision. It is also their job to give a “no” if there are possible legal ramifications

These are not easy tasks to perform for one person but for a large group of people it can become very complicated. Prior to Google+ they were able to complete these tasks using email, presentation software and word processing software. . With the invention of Google+ corporate legal teams are able to perform this entire task in one secured location, where everyone is one the “same page” literally.

What makes Google+ different than other social networking sites? As already discussed a huge advantage Google+ is the ease of use and its ability to be customize for each individual company. What makes Google+ so wonderful for company’s especially large ones lies in its “circles”? The Circles as they are called are small groups of people you are subscribing to all in one place. If you are a corporate lawyer in charge of a small group of other lawyers, you can manage them on in one place instead of communicating with them each separately.

A task that may have taken hours to communicate can now only take seconds. This is saving not only time but also can save a company money. Need an approval of a project or need to know the legal ramification of something? With Google+ you can ask your “circle” to help you with the task and they can get right on researching the topic or giving approval. In the age of time equals money, a person can easily understand why a corporation would use Google+.

It is easy to see why a company that is in charge of micro managing a team of corporate lawyers and who are also in charge of micro managing tasks–would use a wonderful invention like Google+ to their advantage.

Survey: Legal Department Spending Took Rare Drop in ’09

joshua — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:56:15 +0000

Law departments reduced their total legal spending for the first time in 10 years in 2009, according to the 2010 Law Department Survey from Hildebrandt Baker Robins.

According to the survey, the main cause for the drop was the reduction in use of outside counsel. In fact, more than 60 percent of those surveyed trimmed their use of outside counsel; while at the same time, slightly increasing internal legal spending and staffing.

“The survey results confirm what we are seeing every day in our consulting practice with law departments of all sizes, sectors, industries and locations,” said Jonathan Bellis, who chairs Hildebrandt Baker Robbins’ Law Department Consulting practice. “As shown in our survey last year, law departments began to adopt a wide range of management practices to reduce and control internal and external legal costs. These efforts have continued, resulting in an overall decrease in total legal spending for the first time in the past 10 years of the survey.”

Hildebrandt Baker Robbins said reducing the use of outside counsel, which makes up nearly 60 percent of total legal spending, is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

“We expect that efforts to reduce spending will continue, particularly with outside counsel spending, which makes up nearly 60 percent of total legal spending,” said Lauren Chung, survey editor.

Total legal spending in 2009 was down 1 percent in the U.S. and 2 percent worldwide from the previous year. The median total legal spending was $24 million in the U.S. and $33 million worldwide. Total legal spending as a percent of revenues worldwide was 0.4 percent.

According to Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, the 2010 survey achieved an all-time high in participation. The survey is designed to provide comprehensive data on legal spending, staffing, organization, compensation and management practices. The 2010 survey also reports information on management practices that law departments have adopted in response to the current economic environment.

In-House Lawyer Layoffs at Wells Fargo

Erik Even — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:21:25 +0000

Wells Fargo has partially confirmed online rumors, that the bank is laying off some of its in-house counsel.

Online rumors say that the bank, which recently merged with Wachovia, is cutting up to 20% of its legal department. The bank would not confirm the numbers, but characterized the percentage affected as “small.”

Founded in New York in 1852, San Francisco, California-based Wells Fargo & Co. is the 4th largest bank in the US by assets, and the second largest bank by market cap.