Good news that should mean more jobs for paralegals: "More than 25 percent of in- house law department leaders indicated that they will increase their use of outside counsel in the coming year, according to the Association of Corporate Counsel's 2006 Chief Legal Officer Survey . "This is a significant increase from 2005 when only 16 percent of respondents anticipated an increase in the...
So far, corporations aren't following Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson's suggestion that they boycott firms representing Guantanamo detainees: "It’s a rare day when law firms get called out for their pro bono work. "But that’s exactly what happened when Pentagon official Charles “Cully” Stimson rattled off a list of firms representing Guantánamo Bay...
All I have to say about this trailblazer is "You go, girl!" Electronic discovery is not that easy for non-techies to grasp: "It was June 2000, and Laura Kibbe, then an associate at Kaye Scholer's New York office, had to deal with e-discovery for the first time. Her client, Pfizer Inc., had just acquired a company whose diabetes drug had been pulled off the market and was being...
Seems to me that senior paralegals (see task list) can help manage legal projects, although I doubt many firms do this formally now: "Managing a legal matter, whether it’s a transaction or a dispute, can be equally as important as executing the actual legal work. Attention to both management and execution will help to ensure that client needs and expectations are met in a cost-effective...
Good news -- more jobs for corporate paralegals (at least in Minnesota!): "A new survey found that 95 percent of in-house attorneys in Minnesota are satisfied with their jobs. "The highest paid in-house lawyers worked for health care companies, and attorneys in public companies were better paid than those in private corporations. The average salary for all in-house lawyers responding to...
Congrats for this career news! "Crosshair Exploration & Mining Corp. (TSXV:CXX) has made two executive changes. Greg Davis has been promoted to VP of business development. He has been with the company since December 2004. Julie Bolden has been appointed VP of corporate affairs and corporate secretary. She has worked at a number of Vancouver law firms as a securities paralegal since 1989....
Sounds like a very informative (& fun!) roundtable discussion: "This summer, an employee of the Coca-Cola Co. made news when she -- along with two others -- allegedly attempted to steal trade secrets from Coke and sell them to PepsiCo Inc. It's not every day that a company goes public when someone tries to loot its intellectual property, but Coke's decision to do so garnered national...
Good news! More pro bono activity usually means more work for paralegals: "In 2000, the Pro Bono Institute formed the Corporate Pro Bono Organization in collaboration with the Association of Corporate Counsel to advocate for and promote corporate pro bono efforts. At that time, 'corporate pro bono was an oxymoron,' said Esther Lardent, president of PBI. 'People looked at you like it was...
Fantastic article about how AXA Equitable Life Insurance hired paralegals to save time, money, & turnover in attorneys. Like, duh...... "It’s a question many a CEO has asked his or her general counsel—Can we reduce legal department spending by bringing more work in-house? "When AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. CEO Christopher Condron posed the question last year, he didn’t...
See Who Should Direct Your Company's Next Case? "Litigation has become part of the business landscape for most companies. Companies that once faced little or no litigation now find themselves defending against "bet the company" litigation. Often the in-house attorneys are stretched too thin to guide the day-to-day management and coordination of the voluminous litigation or, in some...