As Part II of this four-part series illustrates, most C-suites and boards exempt the corporate law function from accountability for anticipating, preparing contingency efforts against, and decisively neutralizing — legal and regulatory dangers that have not yet mutated into full-blown lawsuits, agency enforcement actions, or some other catastrophe. In each…
Part I of this four-part series concluded: “So there is a gaping legal and regulatory hole in what should be a comprehensive shield of company-wide, managed compliance.” Without experienced business leadership taking charge and managing compliance across the enterprise, and overseeing the systems and processes this requires, Legal is not…
Corporate law functions engage with critical enterprise risk in the same spontaneous, one-off manner that most individual lawyers do their work: ad hoc, case-by-case reaction to what someone else has already put in front of them. And that typically after an incipient problem has become a full-blown lawsuit, agency enforcement…
Yesterday I was privileged to hear Jordan Furlong, a globally renowned expert on the legal profession, take up this question in addressing Canada’s National Legal Innovator’s Roundtable: How long does it take to make a competent lawyer? Over the years he’s asked accomplished attorneys just how long it took them…
The Point Too often the legal profession uses its power to regulate the competence of its service providers (a good goal) simply to protect lawyers from unwanted competition (a bad goal). Medical authorities have developed care specialties performed by professionals outside the category of licensed physician, who are highly trained…
The Point Primary responsibility for settling conflicts between your company and a party outside of it should lie squarely with the executive who runs the affected business unit or corporate function: “Businesspeople need to resolve the disputes in which they are involved.” “Give it to the lawyers” should be a…
The Point “B2B litigation is a sign of business failure”. So writes Patrick J. Lamb, a distinguished corporate trial lawyer, who, along with another prominent trial attorney, Nicole Auerbach, founded Valorem Law Group in 2008, now ElevateNext Law. Their innovation: Ditch the billable hour, and bring alternative fee arrangements to…
The Point An earlier generation was raised on the saying: “Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM”. It still holds sway among too many general counsels I’ve known in their strong prejudice favoring AmLaw 100 or AmLaw 200 law firms as a hedge against second-guessing if something goes wrong on…
The Point As I wrote in my previous post, the U.S. legal profession confines its formal training to a theoretical knowledge of law (J.D. from a law school) and an academic test of memorization (the bar exam). Licensed attorneys’ grounding in practical skills consists almost entirely of unsystematic, on-the-job improvisation.…
The Point Physicians and business lawyers: The work of both professions is consequential for those they serve. On the capabilities of the first group depend life and death of their patients — literal, personal health outcomes. On the capabilities of the second group depend — if not life and death…