Speaking of China, while touring a job fair in Tianjin last week, China’s President Xi Jiping answered his own question to a local official as to what the critical ingredients of good Communist leaders are. “Intelligence quotient and emotional quotient – which is more important?” the president evidently asked. When the official answered “both,” it was reported that … Continue Reading
Above the Law columnist Susan Moon, an in-house lawyer at Wyndham Worldwide, gave our The Unique Psychological World of Lawyers a nice plug last week, just hours after much of the data in it was discussed at a presentation at Yale Law School. An older article (since updated) and a "bit on the dry side," … Continue Reading
Here is the third and final installment on some of the highlights from this year’s Futures Conference of the College of Law Practice Management held at Georgetown Law School at the end of last month: What General Counsel Want From Their Outside Law Firms The panel’s top considerations reflected the same ones outlined in the ACC’s GC Value Insights, prepared in cooperation with a number of … Continue Reading
While it’s unlikely that anyone would attribute all of Research in Motion’s troubles to corporate geography, it’s worth noting that RIM’s two chief executives, both now gone, were located over the last few critical years in offices about a 10-minute drive apart. And, according to former RIM executives, meetings with both of them present were rare. In the … Continue Reading
The words being thrown around were trust, intimacy, empathy, vulnerability, honesty, transparency, communication, emotional intelligence, teamwork, forgiveness, feedback, collaboration, connectedness, courage, relationship-building. It would be understandable if you thought that you had walked into a marital counseling conference or some new-age event. In fact, the setting was Georgetown University Law Center’s March 9th conference entitled "Welcome to the … Continue Reading
In addition to establishing metrics for demonstrating, for instance, who in the firm does what and how for project management or other purposes, there are metrics out there that track what individual firms charge for various units of work, so that inside counsel can compare value among firms in a more finely calibrated way. A survey by CT TyMetrix Inc. … Continue Reading
Muir will speak on Law Practice in the 21st Century: What It Means for You at the Women Lawyers Alliance annual meeting in Chicago on Friday, May 20. Muir will review the massive changes that law practice is undergoing globally in this new century and what it means to individual lawyers and their law departments and firms in … Continue Reading
At this year’s Annual Meeting of over 2000 general counsel and senior in-house counsel, the Association of Corporate Counsel continued its promotion of the Value Challenge–i.e., making sure outside counsel understand what corporate counsel expect from them. So far, over 5000 lawyers have been rated on their competence in six critical areas. And ACC hopes to double that number soon. … Continue Reading
It was my great pleasure–something I don’t often say about a conference– to attend this invitation-only gathering last week, March 21-23, of both august and up-and-coming law industry professionals as they prognosticated the future of our practice and what that might in fact look like up close for a broad array of providers and clients. While I will digest and relay over the … Continue Reading
Now is the time to really get to know your clients. What are their budgetary constrictions? What are their priorities for the next two years? What do they want more of and less of from their outside counsel? What keeps them awake at night? Do you not only know the answers to all of these and other questions but are … Continue Reading
This is the time of year when many of us take stock of our direction and goals and make plans to step up our effectiveness. This particular year, 2009, many lawyers are facing an extremely difficult once-in-a-century marketplace for which no one has been truly prepared. So we may also find ourselves questioning our ability to successfully grapple with the challenges ahead. How to acquire … Continue Reading
Lawyers are introverts, big time. According to Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) results, almost 3/4th of lawyers, compared to only 1/4th of the general public, are introverts. That means they go inward to charge their batteries– preferring internal introspection to external interaction. On the Caliper Profile personality test, lawyers also rank astonishingly low in the sociability trait–which measures how comfortable a … Continue Reading
The use of assessments worldwide is rapidly expanding and lawyers are still lagging at the back of the pack–way back. An article by Lisa Belkin in yesterday’s New York Times notes that there are 2,500 "profiling instruments" that companies rely on more every year when deciding whom to hire or promote. Sixty-five percent of companies surveyed reported using … Continue Reading
What’s the route to higher efficacy and productivity? Might that be by staffing with "messy" groups? So suggests a recent book entitled The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools and Societies by Scott E. Page, professor of complex systems, political science and economics at the University of Michigan. Using mathematical modeling, Dr. … Continue Reading
In a report released October 1st, Catalyst, a New York consultancy, found that Fortune 500 companies with at least three women on their boards strongly outperformed those companies with fewer or no women. Based on a study of four years of corporate results, the correlation was found to be so direct that the more women who … Continue Reading
What is the most important attribute to be looking for as you groom your young lawyers for management? A 2006 study reviewed in the Leadership and Organization Development Journal assessed the relationship between emotional intelligence and managerial effectiveness, confirming what you might expect. A total of 38 supervisors (37 males and 1 female) and 1,258 subordinates from … Continue Reading
"We evaluate ‘courage’ as a behavioral characteristic of our lawyers, and we link this evaluation to compensation," says John P. Donahue, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Rhodia Inc., in the July 2007 issue of InsideCounsel. Rhodia has "embraced professional objectivity of its in-house lawyers as a core value" and Donahue wants to make sure that "our … Continue Reading
