Pearson revisits adviser panel Pearson has elected to consolidate its legal adviser panels into new ‘general’ and ‘preferred’ rosters, moving away from specialised panels in a bid to reduce costs. Fourteen firms have won places on the preferred panel, which Pearson says will address ‘day-to-day requirements’, in addition to newer areas not historically covered by …
Leading a global legal team is a complex role and many general counsel could be forgiven for spending all their energy just trying to get the job done. Not so at Michelin. Despite overseeing a legal community of 200 members, comprising lawyers, patent engineers, paralegals and admin staff, spread across 20 countries, group GC Benoit …
‘A good general counsel should do three things,’ says National Grid’s Alison Kay: ‘Manage the legal requirements of the business, manage their people and manage their budget.’ But as managing the legal requirements of a large business becomes more time consuming, GCs are increasingly finding it difficult to pay adequate attention to costs and staff.
‘There’s a palpable sense of innovation in the legal industry,’ says Casey Flaherty, founder of legal technology consultancy Procertas. ‘But then,’ he adds, ‘there always has been.’
For general counsel struggling to manage the administrative and regulatory burdens of the role, a head of operations has become the must-have accessory. In the US, the growth of legal ops is demonstrated by statistics.
Nailing the issue of what makes a high-performing in-house function, with the emphasis on operational sophistication, has become the Holy Grail for general counsel.
Legal spend is the second-largest ‘cost centre’ for £21bn global banking giant Barclays. This tantalising statement is in the bank’s 2018 Request for Quotation document, sent to law firms ahead of its final panel review this year and seen by The In-House Lawyer. The document provides detail on what Barclays describes as this ‘sizeable’ legal …
Alex Novarese, The In-House Lawyer: How do people feel about the service from law firms? Simon White, Cognizant: There are a lot of individuals I like a great deal but as institutions, I struggle with law firms as a concept. Alex Novarese: Because? Simon White: I work at a company that has a large legal …
Corporate crises are on the upswing. A faster-paced R&D cycle, improved but riskier technology, 24-hour news… the list of triggers goes on. But our understanding of such events has not always evolved at the same pace. We speak of a crisis as a single incident but, in reality, a chain reaction will likely ensue – …
In April last year, US-based tech services provider DXC Technology was formed following the merger of The Hewlett-Packard Company’s enterprise division with Computer Sciences Corporation. It was the ideal opportunity for general counsel Bill Deckelman to sit down with senior management and establish what the legal function should look like. ‘To put things simply, it’s …
