Unless you manage a multinational team, you probably don’t know that at 1:30pm in London it is 7:00pm in Bangalore and 7:30am in Milwaukee. For a small, crucial window of time, this is the most convenient hour or so in which everyone can come together. Continue reading “Time travel and the art of managing a remote team”
When I left private practice in 1992 there was a misconception that moving in-house was somehow a second division role, or an area where people could go for a change of lifestyle. An interesting thing I found was that I was working every bit as hard as when I was in private practice, but actually I resented it less because I could clearly see the purpose and was not being driven by billable hours targets or client retention. Continue reading “What I now know: Keith Ruddock, recently retired general counsel, The Weir Group”
First up on the agenda for our discussion was big data. Nick Maltby of Genomics England is general counsel for the 100,000 Genomes Project, a UK government initiative which collects DNA data from patients with rare diseases and cancers. Continue reading “GC Roundtable: the new frontiers of IP, London”
I’ve been advocating for some time that the ‘Trusted Adviser’ description of in-house counsel and GCs has the potential to encourage too much detachment between those lawyers and the organisations that employ them. While I condone some level of professional detachment, I equally encourage proactivity. Continue reading “Who do you think you are?”
Within a generation, Ireland has experienced two extremes of economic fortune. ‘The Celtic Tiger’ (a term referring to unprecedented and uninterrupted growth from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s) sickened before 2008, when Ireland faced a deep economic crisis after the property bubble – which the growth was predicated on – burst and consumer spending collapsed.
When the global financial crisis (GFC) loomed over the West, multinationals turned their attentions to emerging markets, including many in Asia Pacific. Fast forward to 2015, and jurisdictions like China, Hong Kong and Singapore are key locations for global business, with a huge amount of foreign investment and a driving seat in the world markets. Continue reading “Green shoots: the growth of newlaw in Asia Pacific”
Catherine McGregor (CM): What are the challenges for in-house legal departments when you’re traversing a large number of geographies and trying to communicate across a dispersed department or business?
Richard Nohe: We look at things from a number of different matrix perspectives. You have the geography or the jurisdiction, you have the line of business, then you have the subject matter expert or centres of expertise. Continue reading “Dinner with GC: New York”
GC: Was law your first career?
Maksim Arefiev (MA): My first profession was as a military translator and I served as an officer in the Russian military forces. I participated in several peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia. While on these missions I not only worked as a translator, but also performed the function of civil observer. I worked on a wide variety of challenging tasks, such as resolving conflicts between the Serbian police and Kosovo Albanians, participating in humanitarian missions, and participating in the investigation of various military crimes. Upon my return from Kosovo, I decided to go to law school and become a lawyer. Continue reading “Shopping around”
Russia, the largest country in the world by territory, has a unique geographic location that allows it to serve as a bridge between Europe and Asia. Emerging from a decade of post-Soviet economic turbulence, the country has moved from economic isolation to become a country that is well-integrated in the global markets. The ‘90s saw privatisation of most sectors in the economy, with the exception of defence and energy. Continue reading “GC Powerlist: Russia”
With pressure to increase capacity, work collaboratively and have management information at the GC’s fingertips, many in-house departments turn to a case management system. A clever one can bridge gaps caused by time zones, streamlining even multinational teams. Continue reading “Your business matters… Top tips for case management”