Posts on ‘December 1st, 2008’

A review of the compensation of Southeastern chief legal officers who are listed among the top five highest-paid executives in their public companies’ most recent SEC filings reveals an average total package in the neighborhood of a million dollars. As the economy spirals downward, GCs may fare better than their law firm counterparts, but Robert T. Graff, managing partner of legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, says, “I think the numbers next year will look pretty different.”

While mobility affords the opportunity to compute remotely, it also carries a downside: the vulnerability of client and law firm data. The good news is one single word: encryption. If you are carrying sensitive data with you, encrypting your mobile device has never been easier.

Encouraged by President-elect Barack Obama’s talk of inclusiveness, and emboldened by the importance of the Hispanic vote to Obama’s victory, Hispanic groups are cautiously hopeful that finally the time has come for a Supreme Court justice with a Latino background. Almost every list of possible Obama nominees to the high court includes Hispanic candidates. “What more unifying appointment could there be than a Hispanic justice?” asks Carlos Ortiz, former president of the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Law schools and placement professionals frequently tout the versatility of a law degree as a path to alternative careers. But even in good economic times, the advantage of a J.D. in landing a job in another field may well be overblown. “Going to law school gives you a certain set of credentials that really aren’t valuable for anything other than practicing law,” says Stephen Seckler, of placement firm BCG Search. Seckler notes that “thinking like a lawyer” can be a problem in other careers.

For GCs, an important strategy for getting their work done within their corporate legal department budgets is to be able to pick and choose from a variety of sizes and types of law firms, from boutiques to giants. So, they’re watching law firm merger developments with cautious concern. Many in-house lawyers fear that mergers, like the recent one between Powell Goldstein and Bryan Cave, will place increased pressures on hourly rates and minimum requirements at the new, larger firms.

A former paralegal at a law firm in Raleigh, N.C., has been charged with taking nearly $200,000 from the estate of Duke University professor Kenny J. Williams, who died in 2003. Shaunesy Teresa Story left Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein in July, after which it was noticed the money was missing, a law firm partner said.