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InCounsel Weekly #40: GCs Taking Stock, Jump Into #LegalTech, How to Diversify, Mo Money and A Mental Health Pledge

David Bushby

Bite-sized insights for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. If you like this content, hit the button below to get the email edition :)

Taking stock

If most of your GC salary is paid in stock, you’re most likely working for either a company with over $1 billion in revenue, or a tech company.

The finding in Equilar’s in-house counsel pay report, according to Above the Law editor Elie Mystal, puts GCs at wealthy companies in a bit of a bind:

Making the jump

Here’s ex Magic Circle lawyer, Mary Bonsor on making the jump from legal practice to #LegalTech founder.

Her story:

How to diversify

Over 100 companies have signed ABA Resolution 113, urging the industry “to expand and create opportunities at all levels of responsibility for diverse attorneys”.

Microsoft, Google and HP have put diversity programs in place with their externals, so how can you do it too?

Some next steps:

  1. Take a stand and set a goal.
  2. Request data from your firms to set a baseline for where you are now.
  3. Measure compliance with fulfilling the data requests.
  4. Add billing rules, such as reductions in payment amount or rejection of invoices from firms not providing the data.
  5. Share the results and your goals internally and with your firms.

Mo money

To which entrepreneur and law professor Mark Cohen retorted:

“… yes, because a profound change in the buy-sell dynamic propelled by technology, the global financial crisis, globalisation, and social media has disrupted multiple industries and that process is underway in legal delivery. Those forces are far too powerful for law to combat."

He then listed the factors dictating the pace:

  1. the separation from the pack by a few of The AmLaw 200; 
  2. a recent report by ALM Intelligence revealing that law firms now account for only 25% market share; 
  3. changed customer expectations–‘faster, better, cheaper’ and 'more with less’; 
  4. new competitors–notably the BigFour, in-house departments, and legal service providers; 
  5. the sustainability of the partnership model for economic, cultural, structural, and succession reasons; and 
  6. the emergence of legal operations–CLOC and its ACC counterpart—and the distinction between legal practice and delivery.  

A pledge for mental health

Meet Chris O'Sullivan.

He’s one of the best software developers I’ve worked with. But it’s his leadership on issues such as mental health that sets him apart.

This is his pledge on behalf of Lexoo to mark World Mental Health Day – we’re incredibly proud.

In his words:

The End

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