October 2018:
► Innovation brings reward for global brands who are adapting to the new world
► Gender plays a role in which law firm Partners would most like to work for
► Empathy is an essential skill for the most exceptional lawyers
No two legal departments are the same. Each faces a unique set of legal challenges and to meet them will draw on legal resources in different ways. But most legal departments now have two things in common: they are under increasing budget scrutiny at a time when the demand for legal work has never been greater; and they have had to find ways to work smarter and make their money go further.
Last summer, we embarked on a joint project with Marcie Shunk at the Tilt Institute to create a benchmark for how law firms are using competitive intelligence today and capture best practice.
Last week, Lisa Hart Shepherd and Steve Blundell presented at The Alternative Tech & Innovation Leaders’ Summit: Professional Service conference, an event bringing together the largest firms in law, accountancy and consultancy to examine innovation now and in the next five years. The session revealed how large corporations are buying professional services and how clients are reacting to the pressures of their changing world by demanding changes from their advisors, drawing on the latest results from our annual GC survey, Sharplegal.
A few highlights:
June 2018:
►Sharplegal interviews 2,000+ GCs globally every year, including Matt Fawcett
►27% global gender pay gap for equity partners
Last month, Jo Summers presented at the Janders Dean ‘Break The Law – Make The Law’ conference, an invite-only gathering of ‘disruptors, innovators and fire starters’ from across the legal ecosystem. The topic was a reality check for law firms and a window into the world of in-house technology and innovation, drawing on the latest results from our annual GC survey, Sharplegal.
A few highlights:
By Steve Blundell, June 5, 2018
The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium, maybe better known as CLOC, has developed a list of Legal Operations Core Competencies. At the 2018 Annual Corporate Legal Operations Institute, a workshop focused on three of those core competencies: financial management; vendor management; and data analytics.
By Steve Blundell, November 22, 2017
Fans of the Terminator movies may recall Miles Dyson. Like his real life namesake, Dyson is a passionate genius. But instead of vacuum cleaners, the fictional Dyson’s passion is developing technologies that will enable computers to learn, develop and communicate with one another at an exponential rate – his brainchild becomes SkyNet – a monster which, instead of serving humans, decides to eliminate them altogether.
When analyzed across the world the trend is consistent in key geographic markets except in the Asia Pacific region where female GCs earn 26% more than their male peers.
The biggest pay gap was seen in Canada where female GCs earn 31% less than male GCs in similar organizations.