Inadmissible

The Texas Supreme Court is accepting public comment about a new judicial-administration rule that allows trial courts dealing with unusual, complex cases to ask for more staff attorneys, courtroom technology or other resources. The high court on Dec. 12 adopted a new rule for the Texas Rules of Judicial Administration that explains what types of resources are available, what kinds of cases are eligible for them, the procedures lawyers or trial courts must follow to secure the help, and how the Judicial Committee on Additional Resources decides the requests. The State Bar of Texas Task Force on Additional Resources for Complex Cases submitted a draft of the rule to the high court in October. Osler McCarthy , public information attorney for the high court, says the nine justices only made minor language changes to the draft. He says the court doesn’t expect to receive much public comment because the rule is noncontroversial, but some people may take interest because “there’s nuance in [the rule] that may affect some judges, and that may affect litigants.” Anyone who wishes to give feedback must submit written comment to Marisa Secco , rules attorney for the Texas Supreme Court, by Feb. 29. The new rule, possibly with revisions, will take effect in May.

Crystal Ball

Priority one in 2012 for chief legal officers is controlling costs. That’s according to results of the Chief Legal Officer Survey conducted in October by consulting company Altman Weil. A total of 176 chief legal officers at U.S. companies responded to the 12th annual survey, which was made public Nov. 29, 2011. Of those 176, 67.2 percent work at public companies, with the rest employed by private companies, partnerships, nonprofits and government agencies. Those responding did cite some other priorities for 2012, including efficient delivery of legal services, support for business goals of their company, quality legal service, compliance, risk management, lawyer staffing and managing outside counsel. While they said they want to control costs in 2012, 55.8 percent of the chief legal officers who responded to the survey said their legal department budget was higher in 2011 than in 2010; that’s compared to 50.6 percent who reported last year that their department’s budget increased in 2010 compared to 2009. Also, 45.8 percent of the legal departments increased outside counsel expenditures in 2011, the chief legal officers reported. In one area to watch, 10.3 percent of chief legal officers said they sent some legal work offshore in 2011, and 12.6 percent used offshore vendors for some work they may have given to firms in the past, such as e-discovery, document review, due diligence and legal research.

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