Welcome back to Inside Track! Earlier this week, Ernst & Young published a report which showed that over the next couple of years, most legal departments plan on reducing legal spend.

Because companies are reducing legal spend, they may miss out on implementing new legal technologies. Many of the respondents indicated that they wanted greater use of technology in their legal departments, 32% of respondents cited budget constraints for their inability to implement that technology. Thirty-six percent of respondents cited “ongoing business-as-usual pressures” for the inability to implement legal technologies.

The report says general counsel must first ask why a certain technology is needed and then make a case to the higher-ups from there on whether it should be implemented.

“Only when an evidential approach is taken to gaining a deep understanding of whether the function is doing the right work, with the right people, in the right place, at the right price, can the strategic view emerge of where investment in innovation and technology will deliver the best outcomes,” Rob Dinning, former general counsel at Barclays and now director of legal function co-sourcing at EY, said in the report. “Only then can a compelling business case be built to address the cost to achieve as well as the return on investment.”

What technology do find the most invaluable to your legal department? Let me know by emailing me at [email protected].

What's Happening

 

Dealing With Loneliness

Working in-house can cause a lot of stress. That stress is doubled when your job takes you out of the country you call home. Law.com reporter, Phillip Bantz, learnedhow to handle the isolation of going in-house at a new job in a new country.

Early in his career, David Oskandy, general counsel of Avanade, said lawyers who are about to move out of their native country to “prepare yourself for disappointments” as you would working any other job.

Socialization is key, clinical psychologist and lawyer Andy Benjamin said. He said lawyers, and people in general, do not want to feel like tourists when visiting another country. However, acting like a tourist gives you an opportunity to meet and interact with people; even if those people are not people you become lifelong friends with. Benjamin said in-house lawyers may be more susceptible to feeling isolated because legal departments are traditionally isolated from the rest of the business.

This story is part of ALM's Minds Over Matters initiative of reporting on mental health issues affecting lawyers.

How Housing Is Slowing In-House Hiring

Law.com reporter Caroline Spiezio found in-house recruiters in the San Francisco Bay Area are having a hard time finding in-house attorneys for many of the tech startups in Silicon Valley because “the rent is too damn high.”

Elisabeth Fabiani, a legal recruiter at Robert Half International, said the biggest impact she's seen is on support staff who average less than $60,000 a year. Meanwhile in places like Menlo Park and Palo Alto, the average home costs $2 million. She said legal executives may be offered high compensation packages, however those packages do not go as far in Silicon Valley as they do in other parts of the country.

Carol Warren Simon, a recruiter at Major, Lindsey & Africa, said many candidates have expressed their concerns over the cost of living in the area. She said in years past, candidates showed that concern but were willing to come to the West Coast because of the opportunity to work for exciting companies. However, in the last year, she said there has been more hesitancy about it.

What I've Been Reading

In an interview with Democracy Now!, the former general counsel of the New York Times, James Goodale, said before the Pentagon Papers he was battling the administration of President Richard Nixon in court. He said the Nixon Justice Department asked a NYT reporter to give up his sources and he had to find a way around Supreme Court precedent to make sure reporters would be able to protect sources.

Mark Cohen, a Forbes contributor, wrote this week that the legal industry is slow to use data at its own detriment. He believes the reason for this is the law's traditional labor-intensive approach is antithetical to change. Data, he said, is critical to rapid decision making and that lawyers need to play catch-up in the effective use of data.

Vivek Narayanadas, associate general counsel for Shopify, told The Canadian Lawyer, that working as a privacy professional is, in part, being able to predict the future. Even though he works for a Canadian company, he said he is keeping an eye on California and its developments with the California Consumer Privacy Act. He said his company's policies on data usage have made it easier to comply with the different laws popping up.

Don't Miss

 

Thursday, July 4 – Global Leaders in Law will be hosting a “What Keeps You Up at Night?” event at Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin, Ireland. On Saturday, July 6, GLL will be hosting a GC to CEO event at G Hotel in Galway, Ireland. GLL is an invitation-only membership group offering general counsel a global platform for in-person collaboration to exchange ideas and receive advice and guidance from peers. For more information, contact Meena Heath at [email protected].

Tuesday, July 9 – The New York Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel will be hosting a program on Drafting Agreements and Avoiding Unnecessary Litigation at Three Bryant Park. Topics will include limitations of liability, indemnification provisions and choice of law provisions. Kathleen Masey and Neil Steiner, partners at Dechert, will be speaking.

Thursday, July 11 – Global Restructuring Review will be hosting its Fourth Annual Latin Lawyer Restructuring for in-house attorneys. Speakers will include Jennifer O'Neil, director at BlackRock; Alejandro Sainz Orantes, a partner at Cervantes Sainz; and Michael Fitzgerald, partner at Paul Hastings.

On The Move

 

 

✦ Leafly ✦ Yoko Miyashita has been named the first general counsel of the cannabis information company. Before joining Leafly, she served as the top attorney at Getty Images. She has also worked as an associate at Perkins Coie.

✦ ABB ✦ Maria Varsellona will be leaving her role as the chief legal officer of Nokia in November to take the general counsel job at ABB. Varsellona replaces Diane de Saint Victor, who will remain in the top legal position during a transition period and then focus her efforts on board mandates.

✦ Rent-A-Center ✦ Dawn Wolverton was made interim general counsel when Christopher Korst resigned on June 5. Wolverton previously worked as the company's assistant general counsel and began working with the company in 2004. Before working at Rent-A-Center, she worked as a shareholder at Winstead.