“On average, lawyers spend 60 per cent of their time drafting documents. If there is a tool that allows them to do that faster and better, then it is an obvious choice.” Thomson Reuters / Catherine Bamford … Catherine Bamford is a UK real estate lawyer (solicitor) who entered the…
Prolific reporting on artificial intelligence (AI) applications in business can be intimidating. Especially for those of us who lack hands-on expertise in the use of machines to perform cognitive functions. For business leaders trying to control corporate legal costs I find that a concrete example can help to by-pass the…
Yesterday a prestigious global law firm showcased the baffling combination of brilliant legal expertise and management dysfunction that drives business clients to distraction: A “2018 Innovation Hours program, which recognizes up to 50 innovation hours toward billable-hour targets for fee earners”. This announcement expressly recognized that the attorneys involved in…
In Part V of this series I offer the last of my guiding observations as you consider consultations with legal counsel: 4. In some circumstances here in the U.S. you may be better off consulting a lawyer in outside, independent, private practice rather than in-house counsel — because of the way…
In Part IV of this series I offer the next of my guiding observations as you consider consultations with legal counsel: 3. Be aware of which legal systems might be used to seek access to information that you want protected. Application of the attorney-client privilege — or its non-U.S. counterparts —…
In Part III of this series I offer the next of my guiding observations as you consider consultations with legal counsel: 2. Once you’ve got the attorney-client privilege, take care to avoid losing it through “waiver”. While in Part II I stated that applying this privilege to a specific situation…
In Part I of this five-part series I wrote that business owners and executives need to take the lead in protecting their companies’ proprietary information — and their own as individuals — from the legal system. And that opposing litigants, criminal prosecutors, and government agencies are all too ready to access…
This five-part series is an extended plea to business owners and executives: Protect your company’s proprietary information — and your own as an individual — from the legal system. Two key points: 1. It’s your job to initiate the conversations with the right lawyers that will secure the protections of…
Last week — when I read that its General Counsel Jeffrey Carr was calling the shots for the law function in targeting 50% savings in Univar’s legal spend — I took notice. I believe that the single most important success factor in the ElevateNext / Elevate Services / Univar collaboration…
The bold collaboration I described in Part I of this series among Univar’s General Counsel Jeffrey Carr, the law firm ElevateNext, and law company Elevate Services is just the latest chapter in legal innovation for each of them. Their respective lengthy and successful records of accomplishment in legal innovation are…