In-House Counsel

Rees Morrison?s Morsels #100 ? a centennial of additions to earlier posts and short takes

By Rees Morrison

The fate of a general counsel and his blog. With the purchase of Sun Microsystems by Oracle, will General Counsel Michael Dillon?s blog fall silent (See my post of Dec. 16, 2008: 13 corporate law department blogs.)?

Non-compete restrictions on in-house counsel. ?As a general rule, in most states, an employment agreement with a general counsel or in-house lawyer (or any attorney for that matter) which attempts to prohibit the lawyer from joining a competitor as a lawyer is probably unenforceable.? From the blog, General Counselor (See my post of Feb. 4, 2006: non-competes in New Jersey and in-house counsel.).

Severance packages for lawyers laid off. Zusha Elinson, The Recorder, April 24, 2009, writes that BEA lawyers got a severance package -- one year for vice-presidents and above and six months for more junior lawyers. But that was because of a change-of-control clause written in by BEA, not Oracle's generosity (See my post of Dec. 20, 2005: a general counsel sues for severance payments; and Jan. 27, 2006: a law department includes severance costs in its budget.).

Six Sigma legal departments and law firms. ?Several major law firms, such as Shearman & Sterling, Jones, Day, Weil Gotshal and Gibson Dunn, as well as the law departments of companies such as Caterpillar, DuPont and Dow Chemical, currently use Six Sigma.? This information comes from The Lawyers Competitive Edge, Vol. 9, July 2007 at 3 (See my post of April 28, 2009: Six Sigma and other certifications by firms; and Feb. 13, 2008: Six Sigma with 18 references.).

Citations to 14 articles on the costs of patent litigation in the US. Invention Statistics compiled a list that summarizes these articles, in chronological order, each of which has estimates about the costs of US patent litigation or the success rates enjoyed by patent holders (See my post of Oct. 2, 2008: costs of patent litigation, with 13 references.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).