Ten Things: Best Legal Blogs for In-House Counsel (2015)
December 2015
First, I want to wish everyone all the best for the holiday season and for a safe and prosperous 2016. Second, I thought I would keep this edition of “Ten Things” on the …
Ten Things: Becoming General Counsel
December 2015
The first substantive post I wrote for this blog in November 2014 was titled “How to be a Successful In-House Lawyer.” Over the past 12 months, I have heard from a number …
Ten Things: The First Year – An Index of Posts (November 2014 to November 2015)
November 2015
As most of you know by now, I retired from Sabre Corporation in November 2014 as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer. Shortly after that, …
Ten Things: Preparing for When “Bad Things” Happen
November 2015
Unfortunately, the world we live in can go from good to shockingly awful in a matter of hours. There is no starker reminder of this than the horrific events in Paris on …
Ten Things: How to be More Productive Every Day
October 2015
As in-house counsel one of the questions you frequently ask yourself is “how am I ever going to get all of this stuff done?” Don’t worry, you are not the only one asking that …
Ten Things: “Safe Harbor” Agreement Invalidated – What Should I Do Next?
September 2015
Earlier this year I discussed data privacy essentials for in-house counsel (click here to read). The post discussed a number of basic data privacy issues, including the 2000 …
Ten Things: The Attorney-Client Privilege – What You Need to Know
October 2015
You’re having lunch with someone from the business and talking about a project that’s not going well and could lead to unhappiness on both sides – your company and the customer. …
Ten Things: Insurance Law Basics for In-House Counsel
September 2015
Looking back, I realize I spent a good amount of time working on insurance-related issues as in-house counsel. Sometimes it was helping the insurance team figure out what types …
Ten Things: Common Ethics Issues for In-House Counsel
August 2015
I was in-house counsel for over 20 years and served as Chief Compliance Officer for a good part of that time. One of the challenges I recall for me and my legal team was finding …
Ten Things: Creating a Client Satisfaction Survey
July 2015
In January, one of my posts dealt with setting yearly goals for the legal department (click here to read). One of the goals was sending out a client satisfaction survey, i.e., …
Ten Things: Explaining Litigation to the Board and the CEO
July 2015
One of the first topics covered by this blog was entitled “Your Company Has Just Been Sued: Now What?” which dealt with the ten things you should do when a new lawsuit comes in …
Ten Things: Website User Agreements
June 2015
You’re reading through some notes for your meeting with the CEO later today when you get an email from your head of litigation: the company has just been sued for $25 million …
Ten Things: Index of Posts (November 2014 to May 2015)
May 2015
I retired from Sabre Corporation in November 2014 as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer. It was a great ride but it became clear to me that I …
Ten Things: Protecting Your Company’s Reputation and Brand
May 2015
It’s a nice spring Friday morning. You arrived at the office earlier than usual and are settling into your chair with a big cup of coffee. You are expecting a slow day and want …
Ten Things: Data Privacy – The Essentials
April 2015
As in-house counsel, you have probably been asked the following question by a panicked (or at least pretty stressed-out) CEO or CFO: “What are we doing about data privacy? …
Ten Things: Trade Associations and Legal Risk
April 2015
One of the most interesting questions you can get as in-house counsel is this: “Hey, I am going to a meeting with some competitors tomorrow, is there anything special I should …
Ten Things: Partnering with HR (1 + 1 = 3)
April 2015
One of the most important internal relationships for an in-house Legal Department is with the Human Resources team. Much of the HR department’s day-to-day work directly…
Ten Things: Trade Secrets and Protecting Your Company
March 2015
How’s this for a nightmare scenario: You get a call from the company’s Chief Operating Officer informing you that Ms. Smith is leaving the company to go to work for a …
Ten Things: Crisis Preparation 101
March 2015
As in-house counsel you can sum up your priorities in two categories: “Maximize Value Creation” (e.g., M&A) and “Minimize Value Destruction” (e.g., defending “bet the company” …
Ten Things: How to Run a Government Affairs Campaign
February 2015
If you are in-house counsel and are not paying attention to government officials and regulators (state, local, federal, international) you are making a big mistake. A company …
Ten Things: Increasing Efficiency in the Legal Department Through Technology
February 2015
One goal set out in my sample legal department goals for 2015 was to increase efficiency (and reduce costs) in the legal department. One of the easiest ways to do this is …
Ten Things: Running an Effective Staff Meeting
January 2015
Whether you run a small team of seven or you are in charge of a sprawling international-based 200+ legal department, you will need to have regular staff meetings. …
Ten Things: Effectively Managing Outside Counsel Spend
January 2015
Continuing with the theme of goal setting for the in-house legal department and my sample goals (see January 8 post), this week I will focus on this goal: “Meet Budget Target …
Ten Things: Simple Ways to Reward and Retain Your People
January 2015
As I mentioned in my last post (January 8), over the next few weeks I will dive deeper into some of the sample department “goals” I set out in that article. Today I will focus …
Ten Things: Setting Goals for the Legal Department
January 2015
The beginning of any calendar year is always busy with key administrative tasks for an in-house legal department. My next several posts will deal with such items. One of the …
Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel® 