Here’s a great tip sheet for all the work-from-home warriors out there (or those aspiring to be), from the founder of freelanship, Lauren err… Holiday.
Before you get the wrong impression:
“… don’t let this phenomenal benefit fool you, remote work is a lot of work. Not to mention, it’s a very different way of work. While awesome, working from home presents challenges around communication, productivity, and company culture.”
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Reese Arrowsmith, Head of Legal Operations at Campbell Soup Company, lays down (among other things) a great summary of the evolution of the legal ops function from its early beginnings in late 1990s to now.
In his words:
"According to the ACC Chief Legal Officers 2016 Survey, the percentage of GCs/CLOs reporting legal operations staff more than doubled between 2015 and 2016, reaching 48 percent last year."
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Couldn't quite pluck up the courage to post an update with an F-bomb in it, so you'll need to click for yourself.
But Legal 500's David Burgess pulls no punches in this post that polls various current and ex-GCs on whether they're actually seeing the much hyped innovation and tech collaboration spruiked by their own law firms.
Case in point:
"My law firm won an innovative award. The next day I rang it up to ask what new tech it was using. I was told - we don't have anything, just a really good bid manager for the awards"
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After a 15 month marathon, Australia's battered and bruised crowdfunding legislation dodged a DNF and passed the Senate yesterday as a late finisher.
A remarkable feat, depending on your view, considering the bill was missing a leg from the start. Something the Treasurer hopes to fix later on by making the scheme available to proprietary companies, that make up some 99% of Aussie companies:
"The government has asked Treasury to develop a framework for proprietary companies as a key priority, and I would expect that extension of the framework will be introduced through subsequent legislation in the near future."
But for now, it's only for public companies and those Pty Ltds that care to convert themselves and take advantage of a five year grace period from continuous disclosure, AGMs, auditing accounts and providing paper annual reports.
Don't get me started on the five day cooling off period...
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When a company like Goldman Sachs starts calling itself a technology company, it's starting to seem impossible for any financial services regulator/lawyer to rest on knowing the rules of the game, when the game itself is about to fundamentally change, if not already.
Speaking at Macquarie University's financial risk day (via the AFR), NYU Professor David Yermack, said:
"I think we are in for a long period of probably 10 to 20 years, where very radical changes are going to occur in the financial system and regulators all around the world are going to have great difficulty keeping up."
As for Goldman Sachs:
"If you asked them who are their competitors, it wouldn't be Morgan Stanley or Citibank: it would be somebody like Amazon or Google."
Perhaps it's about time firms rebrand their Banking & Finance practice groups to Technology, Banking & Finance.
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Here's a great write up chronicling Mastercard GC, Tim Murphy's work with the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF), where 20% of its panel are now certified diverse firms.
Their program goes beyond any minimum number, and includes specific onboarding, CLE and networking sessions for the Mastercard in-house team to get to know the NAMWOLF firms better.
Drawing on other examples of affirmative action, the article concludes with a list of 10 Things Corporate Law Departments Can Do to Promote Diversity Among Their Outside Counsel (although, there were only nine listed):
Make sure your in-house legal staff gets to know the diverse firms and their capabilities and areas of practice.
Pledge a significant percent (≥5 percent) of your outside legal spend with certified diverse suppliers.
Develop standards for those of your outside firms who are not certified diverse for recruiting and retaining diverse talent, and for staffing your matters with that talent.
Evaluate your outside firms on their commitment to recruit, retain, and staff your matters with diverse talent.
Put your money where your mouth is — make sure the firms that don’t demonstrate that commitment understand that there will be consequences.
Don’t make promises you don’t keep: if a firm doesn’t demonstrate the commitment, implement the consequences.
Hold your in-house staff to the same commitments relative to working with certified diverse firms and recruiting and retaining diverse talent.
[for US] Sign on to ABA Resolution 113.
[for US] Implement the ABA survey as a means of evaluating your outside firms along diversity lines.
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For iPad users, this app will take your review and note taking experience to the next level. I’ll let this 1 min video do the talking.
In the words of its CEO, Craig Tashman (via Robert Ambrogi’s review):
“Legal apps to date tend to use touch and pen the way we use a mouse and keyboard… [h]ere’s one of the first that really tries to rethink how the tablet, touch and pen can improve research, discovery, trial prep, etc.”
Might start saving for an iPad…
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Following sign off by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Standards Australia has released the Roadmap for Blockchain Standards Report.
In the words of Stone and Chalk Chairman and Chair of the ISO blockchain committee, Craig Dunn:
“We’re going to take a close look at relevant industry sectors like financial services, technology, logistics, and government services to assess what international blockchain standards are required to generate growth and to build efficiencies in these sectors.“ And it seems the light shines bright for blockchain in Australia, with Sydney playing host to the first international blockchain standards meeting next month.
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Here’s a neat 5-point recipe for combining the right mix of personalities to create a successful team.
The theory is that psychological team roles are largely a product of people’s personalities, and that you can mix and match depending on what’s most suited to any given team function.
Add the following personalities and stir:
As Suzanne Bell, who is working on the Mars project for NASA, put it:
“…We assume that astronauts are intelligent, that they’re experts in their technical areas, and that they have at least some teamwork skills. What’s tricky is how well individuals combine.”
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I’m a fan of articles that summarise books. And here is one to add to your weekend reading. It features “Deep Work” and “Flow” — two books that will help you achieve high-quality work and deep satisfaction through a state of flow.
And in this day and age, it’s needed more than ever.
In the words of Deep Work author, Cal Newport:
“The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.”
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"Best legal related snippets I have read/watched in ages."
— Caroline Ferguson, Business Transformation Manager at Simpson Grierson.
