Resource Library

After much consideration and research, my predictions for the hottest legal trends in 2021 are below, recognizing that there is carryover from last year’s list and their critical status has only increased.

Over the past couple of years, the mantra for corporate counsel has been to understand the business. This seems to be a late reaction to the common practice over a decade ago when the legal department was often seen as the “department of no.”

As GC for MetLife, Stephen Gauster has focused his energy on building up the company’s greatest assets: its people.

While serving as senior safety, health and environmental counsel for a multinational specialty chemical company, a vice president named “Jim” came to my office and spoke the magic words that always get a corporate counsel’s attention: “I think we have a big problem. We need to talk.”

There are countless articles outlining the best ways to evaluate outside counsel. Many of them gloss over a major characteristic: the personalities of lawyers and of the companies they represent. This article addresses the role of personality in outside counsel selection.

Today, as with any business function in an increasingly data-driven and accessible world, the legal task of reviewing your enterprise’s contracts can be more systematic, objective, and effective, provided that legal department leaders can understand, assess, and strategize about their contracts on a macro-level — and adapt accordingly.

Law department leaders are continually being asked to do more with fewer resources, which often means seeking to reduce expenses, implement efficiencies, and use data analytics and technology to drive value-enhancing legal advising.

The inaugural Legal Ops Brief column defined legal operations and its purpose. Now it’s time to discuss the composition of this transformational team.

As in-house counsel, we all understand the importance of a well-run and well-managed legal department. It is essential that we show the business our value, while controlling costs, continuously improving and constantly innovating.

Lawyers, whether working in-house or for a firm, tend to operate from the mindset that legal work is protected and always confidential. That does not mean, however, that privacy laws do not apply to legal work. Nor does it mean that law firms or lawyers are invulnerable from attacks.