In-House Counsel

For aligned law departments, structure follows when the business changes its configuration

By Rees Morrison

At Cadbury PLC the business regrouped from four regions to eight, and the law department matched that change exactly. It is a clear example of how efforts to align with the business side can push a law department to restructure itself (See my post of June 15, 2008; alignment with clients with 16 references.).

As laid out in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, Feb. 2009 at 70, the Cadbury law department ? with 85 lawyers and 130 legal staff ?now has eight regional heads, a company secretariat team, and a global intellectual property team. It sounds as if chief legal officer and group secretary, Hank Udow, has at least 10 reports (possibly an administrator too). That number would be on the high end of direct reports to the top lawyer (See my post of Jan. 12, 2009: reporting other than decentralized by lawyers, with 13 references.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on February 13, 2009 (boomark / email).