The Head of Legal, and with her the whole in-house legal team, has three key functions: leadership, governance and service. Where all three are being performed, the value of the legal team is maximised and the Head of Legal is seen to be useful and effective. Where the functions become unbalanced to the extent that the Head of Legal is seen as fulfilling only one of these functions, there are problems – both for the organization and for the Head of Legal. She is not making the best of the job, may be damaging her standing and almost certainly will find the job less rewarding than it should be.What can she do about it? Continue reading ‘Plumber, Policeman or Politician: seeing ourselves as others see us - and then doing something about it’
Archive for June, 2005
Plumber, Policeman or Politician: seeing ourselves as others see us - and then doing something about it
Published 3 June 05 In-house , Managing the in-house legal department , Personal effectiveness 0 CommentsYou ain’t seen nothing yet
Published 3 June 05 CRM , Fees , Marketing , Pricing , Strategy 0 CommentsPricing is a strategic issue. If you can price a type of work accurately, you will win market share from those firms that through inexperience have to build in more of a cushion for contingencies. This work will then become part of your core business and will be a major factor in attracting clients. Choose the right work types and you will attract the right clients, as Christopher Stoakes explains
Sophisticated law firms are beginning to portfolio manage their client base and work types – firm-wide and department-wide – to develop a spread of work and clients that maximises reward while minimising risk: ideal risk diversification. But to do this you need:
- Track record: previous experience from which you have learnt
- Efficient service delivery: ability to manage matters to the agreed price
From turbo-props to rocket engines: on-the-job learning as key component of an ‘integrated learning’ strategy
Published 3 June 05 E-learning , Knowledge management , Learning and development , Training 0 CommentsFirms following an integrated learning strategy need to consider not only when to use on- and off-the-job learning but also how to make learning on the job even more effective, says Barry Dean. Such effectiveness can be improved by a combination of knowledge management and e-learning provided this is not at the cost of human interaction
Managing the in-house legal function
Published 3 June 05 In-house , Managing the in-house legal department , Personal effectiveness 0 CommentsThe Sherwood in house team have been active in the first few months of 2005 in delivering a range of leadership programmes. Gwyn Price of Sherwood’s In-House Group explains.
Our programmes are presented very much in the Sherwood style, relying less on formal presentations, and more on interactive sessions and case studies, designed to bring out the wealth of experience of our delegates.
The core programme is ‘Effective management of the in house legal function’, which is offered in association with Falconbury. Its aim is to provide the in house practitioner with a series of analytical and practical tools to help determine priorities, and enhance his or her performance as a leader.
Lawyers are poor at delivering difficult messages to colleagues. Here, Sally Woodward provides practical advice on how to get the message across effectively
It’s the time of year for ‘grasping nettles’ was how one Managing Partner described to me the task facing him and his team of Practice Group Heads as they were about to embark recently on the yearly round of partner performance reviews. ‘I want you to try to put some backbone into the messages, or perhaps I should say into the practice group heads who are to deliver them….the problem is that the underperforming partners still left in the firm are the nastiest nettles of all, which is why we have shied away from grasping them’.
Controlling the costs of the internal legal department
Published 3 June 05 Cost control , Fees , In-house , Managing the in-house legal department 0 CommentsWe are frequently asked by in-house lawyers how they can control their external legal spend. Des O’Connell of Sherwood’s In-House Group offers some practical suggestions:
Continue reading ‘Controlling the costs of the internal legal department’
Ten tips to make training more effective
Published 3 June 05 Learning and development , Training 0 CommentsSherwood recently ran Breakfast Workshops for senior managers with responsibilities for developing the learning function in their firms. Tony Reiss summarises the discussion
The purpose of the events was to explore developments in integrated learning. We were delighted to welcome as guest contributors to our workshops:
Des Woods, Head of Learning and OD at Linklaters
John Lucy, Head of Human Resources at Herbert Smith
Suzanne Fine, Head of Legal Training at Lovells
In discussions, we agreed that we were surprised that so many law firms failed to see that effective training was a potential source of competitive advantage.
