Ten Things: Legal Blogs You Should Check Out (2016 edition)
December 2016
As you have probably noticed, there are more blogs than there are lawyers… okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but I think you get the point. There are, however, a lot of …
Ten Things: Preparing Outside Counsel Guidelines – The Keys
November 2016
Managing your relationship with outside counsel can be challenging. The good ones work hard to make it easy but, even so, there are times when you and your outside lawyers …
Ten Things: An Index to All the Posts – November 2014 to November 2016
November 2016
I published the first “Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel” blog about two years ago this month. It all began after my talking with a group of young in-house lawyers …
Ten Things: How to Plan a Legal Department Offsite
October 2016
A common tool used by businesses to develop strategy, refine plans, set goals, energize the team, enhance teamwork and cooperation is the offsite, i.e., where a group in the …
Ten Things: The Search for the Perfect Arbitration Clause (or at Least a Really Damn Good One)
October 2016
If you have ever been involved in civil litigation in the USA as an in-house lawyer you know that it is expensive, intrusive, slow, and often leads to unsatisfactory results, …
Ten Things: How to Create a Great Legal Department Website
September 2016
In my last post I discussed how to “market” the Legal Department to the business. One of the items I mentioned was the need to have a really good Legal Department website …
Ten Things: How to Market the Legal Department to the Business
September 2016
It sucks being a cost center. While a good General Counsel can argue all day long about how much value the legal department is adding to the company, at the end of the day …
Ten Things: How to Delegate – The Essentials
August 2016
It’s 5:30 a.m. and no one is up. You figure if you get up early you can get ahead of the emails and do some productive work. It’s lunch time. You figure if you eat at your …
Ten Things: Litigation Financing – A Primer for In-House Counsel
August 2016
It is a common refrain in legal departments all around the globe: how do we get enough money to do the things we need to do to protect the company? There are always more …
Ten Things: ‘Cool Tech’ for In-House Lawyers (2016)
July 2016
On August 12, 2016, I will be one of the lunch-time speakers at the State Bar of Texas 15th Annual Advanced In-House Counsel Course in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. I will be …
Ten Things: Ten Habits of Highly Effective In-House Lawyers
July 2016
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I have written posts on the keys to being a successful in-house lawyer and the steps to take if you are interested in …
Ten Things: Spotting, Analyzing and Managing “Risk”
June 2016
It’s difficult to be part of any business and not hear about “risk.” It’s everywhere. Risk is the new black. It’s on the lips of every CEO, CFO, and board member, as it should …
Ten Things: How to Negotiate – Practical Tips for In-House Counsel
June 2016
One of the most valuable skills an in-house lawyer brings to a company is the ability to negotiate. In-house lawyers negotiate contracts, M&A transactions, litigation …
Ten Things: Index to All the Posts (November 2014 to May 2016)
May 2016
It has been about 18 months since I published the first “Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel” blog post. I have to admit that I continue to be surprised by the …
Ten Things: Europe’s New Data Privacy Law – What You Really Need to Know
May 2016
Over the past six months you have probably been bombarded with data privacy articles, questions, and concerns regarding the European Union (“EU”). Given the sheer volume of …
Ten Things: Dealing with the Board of Directors
April 2016
I want to continue my effort to post a few articles about basic corporate law issues. Last time I wrote about about corporate governance. This week, I’d like to discuss dealing …
Ten Things: Basic Corporate Governance for In-House Counsel
April 2016
I have not spent much time in this blog on the “corporate” side of the in-house world. Over the next few posts, I will discuss some key issues regarding basic corporate law. …
Ten Things: Settlement Agreements – Making Sure it’s Really Over
March 2016
There are few things as wasteful and painful as litigation. And that’s from someone whose career started as a litigator and, after a long tenure in-house, now works for a …
Ten Things: What In-House Lawyers Really Want from Outside Counsel
March 2016
My friends who are outside lawyers are always interested in what is was like to be in-house counsel. Besides being envious of the fact that I did not have to keep track …
Ten Things: Writing Skills for In-House Counsel (It’s Different In-House)
February 2016
As general counsel I saw a lot of writing. Emails, memos, policies, correspondence, etc. Most of what I saw produced by my team was well written. Some of it was not. Wait, …
Ten Things: A Yearly “To Do” List for In-House Counsel
February 2016
I was in-house counsel for over 20 years. One of the hardest tasks I recall was the yearly process of “setting of goals” for the Legal Department, both as a member of the …
Ten Things: Record Retention – Policies, Programs, and More…
January 2016
January is a great time to think about reducing clutter. Many of us start the New Year with a personal plan to get organized, throw out stuff that no longer matters, and to …
Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel® 