Many leading GCs feel that heads of legal are ideally placed as influencers in their corporation to encourage policies and processes that foster diversity of thought – and to move away from the stereotype of a corporate world filled with middle-aged, straight, white males. Continue reading “Doing it differently”

Luis Alvarez is CEO of BT Global Services, one of the global market leaders in managed network IT services for businesses. Luis joined BT in April 1999 as multimedia and internet director, then as country manager for BT’s Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American operations. Continue reading “What I want from my general counsel – a CEO’s perspective”

As with a number of start-ups, there’s an anarchistic bent to GitHub – flirting as it does between open-source hosting, building a community among software engineers and generating profits. Continue reading “From client to colleague: why lawyers should become more like coders”

Recently, one of my colleagues who works in Kolmar’s treasury department asked me whether I liked being a lawyer. I found it curious that the question did not contemplate working in a legal capacity or doing legal work, but instead, being ‘a lawyer’ as if it is a thing. Continue reading “Welcome to lawyerland”

Ten months ago Tim Slotover became the master of his own destiny, creating his own legal services business in the Hedge Fund space. flexGC promises bespoke in-house general counsel services to asset, hedge fund and investment managers on a flexible, as-needed basis. Sound familiar? Continue reading “Flying solo”

GC: Some of the issues faced by a company such as yours are literally untested – how do you begin to tackle questions where there might be no (or very little) legal blueprint? Continue reading “The linkedin legal department – pushing the boundaries”

Once upon a time in New Mexico, there was a lawyer who was really, really good, or really, really bad, depending on your view of things. His name – or, at least, one of his aliases – was Saul Goodman, and he worked very hard for his clients to help them grow a small start-up into a business empire using the raw ingredients of over-the-counter medicine, stolen lab equipment, a dying chemist and a young punk with a memorable way with a swear word. Continue reading “Learning how to be good from the ‘bad’ guys”

In the Middle Ages, map makers would often depict a place where ships could sail off the end of the world. The dangerous straits of uncharted territory were marked by pictures of ferocious sea monsters, vividly suggesting the terrible fate in store for the unwary sailor who tried to go where there were no instructions for the journey. Continue reading “Here be dragons: starting a legal function from scratch”

Most of you can shut your eyes and easily visualise the moon. You’d be able to ‘see’ the ‘face’, the distinctive features that make our moon so recognisable to us. We all know what the moon looks like. But how often have you looked at the other side of the moon, the ‘dark side’? Continue reading “The dark side of the moon”

People go in-house for a variety of reasons, such as wanting to be more involved on the business side, and a desire for greater control over their schedule. The notion of in-house lawyers clocking off at 5pm went out with the dodo, but many in-housers report less fetishisation of the jacket-on-the chair culture than in private practice. Continue reading “In-house got talent? Bay area GCs on hiring”

Building structure

Catherine McGregor: How does department structure impact on the motivation and incentives of your staff and direct reports? Continue reading “Playing it forward: team structure and motivation”

My team primarily provides legal services to the largest-scale commercial transactions, bond and securities issues, divestitures, joint ventures and M&A. There’s obviously an imperative to avoid litigation, or situations that could lead to the potential for litigation. CNOOC considers a huge number of opportunities, so we get exposed to many potentially high-profile deals, but we only look at about 5% of all the opportunities we’re offered seriously. Continue reading “In-house life – Leslie Zhang Cnooc”