While the holidays are top of mind for most people right now, arguably the latest installment of the Star Wars saga – Star Wars: The Force Awakens – is a close second. Whether you have seen the film one, two or ten times, as our colleagues in Thomson Reuters IP & Science found, some of …
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FindLaw Playbook – Legal Marketing 103
For most small law firms, the conventional wisdom is that a website with a great design and optimized content will be sufficient to attract potential clients. Get the basics right, and in theory, your phone will ring. But with today’s modern web user, a website is just a thread in a detailed web of online …
- December 28, 2015
- Alex Cook
Zero-sum Game: Hourly Billing, Productivity and Profitability
Law departments and law firms are not locked in a zero-sum game. Law departments can get higher quality work at lower cost while law firms increase profitability. In a flat-fee environment, the dynamic is obvious—cost reductions via productivity gains from investment in process and technology outpace price reductions. But even under the reign of the …
- December 23, 2015
- Alex Cook
Corporate Counsel Leadership Forum Sessions – “Let’s Talk”
“Do more with less” may be a common refrain in today’s business environment. But for corporate legal departments, it may be “Do a lot more with less” – and many are rising to meet the challenge. At the inaugural Corporate Counsel Leadership Forum in New York earlier this month, leaders from global businesses met to …
- December 17, 2015
- Alex Cook
How Copyright Laws are Turning the Internet of Things into a National Security Risk: Part II
To read part I of this post, click here. Over the summer, Jeep and Chrysler made headlines when they mandated a recall of recent model vehicles when it was discovered that their operating systems were susceptible to a remote attack. Researchers were able to not only manipulate the car’s GPS and console, but essentially take …
- December 11, 2015
- Alex Cook
Let Data Be Your Guide to Improving
With people and pricing in place, process offers the most levers to drive continuous improvement. An excellent way for law departments to drive continuous process improvement at law firms is for law departments to actually speak to law firms about continuous process improvement in concrete terms. How? Data-driven conversations. My approach to structured dialogue is …
- December 9, 2015
- Alex Cook
How Copyright Laws are Turning the Internet of Things into a National Security Risk: Part I
For years now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and its spokespersons have fought for the ability of device owners to legally jailbreak owned devices in order to properly secure them from potential threat or outside manipulation. Never has this discussion been more germane than today as the devices most people carry now connect to the …
- December 8, 2015
- Alex Cook
Holiday Shoppers Tie a Big Ribbon on Cyber Monday, but Beware…
While there may be 20 shopping days left this holiday season, initial reports show that this past Cyber Monday already netted $3 billion in sales, up 12 percent from last year. But where are these enthusiastic consumers when they are scouring the Web for items on their holiday buying list? According to a 2014 FindLaw …
- December 4, 2015
- Alex Cook
Circuits split interpreting Supreme Court’s Johnson decision
It seems like a simple issue. The United States Supreme Court ruled last June that the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) is unconstitutionally vague, in violation of due process. The Sentencing Guidelines use the same language. Doesn’t that mean the similar provision in the Sentencing Guidelines is unconstitutionally vague? The Tenth …
- December 2, 2015
- Alex Cook
Warning Signs in the Inside/Outside Counsel Relationship, Part II
Read part one of this post here. When I moved from a large law firm to the law department of a large company, I was in unfamiliar territory. I was charged with managing outside counsel who were domain experts outside my personal niche. They were my subordinates in the narrow hierarchy of the corporation’s legal value …
- December 1, 2015
- Alex Cook