We feature John Albright in this issue’s General Counsel profile. I was in the audience on Sept. 12 when John participated in an “Institute for the Future of Law” panel discussion on law department talent.

The discussion focused on the skills lawyers need to develop for success in-house. Themes included adaptability, personal re-invention, use of technology, project management and working as part of cross functional teams. The program made several references to the distinction between a 20th Century “I” shaped lawyer and a 21st Century “T” shaped lawyer. Essentially, “I” shaped lawyers have deep expertise in one area, whereas “T” shaped lawyers embrace process change and take a broader multi-disciplinary approach to their roles. ABA’s article, “The 21st-Century T-Shaped Lawyer,” does a good job of discussing this topic, one that is very popular among legal consultants.

John embraces innovation, but he also understands the value of expertise when it matters most. With a grin, John said he still goes to the “thousand dollar an hour lawyer” when it comes to broker/dealer advice (mission critical to his business). More →

I’m writing this Culture Fit column on July 3, on a plane to Vegas, on my way to play for the first time in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. I may update with a post-script, but how I finish the tournament is not particularly relevant to the Culture Fit topic it inspires me to write about right now. It is this: Control.

Many of us who went to law school, including yours truly, are control freaks … whether we admit to it or not, we want control of our careers, our future, our lives. There is a lot about the business life I have created for myself that satisfies this craving. I can control my environment for the most part, make choices about how to best use my time, and no one can fire me.

And yet, I continually put myself into positions where the quest for control is consciously made in the face of the uncontrollable. At the poker table, a skilled player is always trying to control the action, control betting patterns, and ultimately control the behaviors of his or her opponents. Indeed, one can have a certain kind of control at a poker table. I can choose to fold, call or raise on any given hand. I have choice and control of my behavior. But, of course, I cannot control the outcome. Even the best players will lose frequently due to multiple factors outside of their control. The best one can do in poker is work toward obtaining a strategic or statistical edge.  More →

The results from our 2018 Job Satisfaction Survey make it abundantly clear that most in-house counsel crave upward mobility within their current law departments.

When we present a new opportunity to a candidate, especially if the position is at a Senior Counsel or Assistant General Counsel level, one of the first questions they inevitably ask is the ladder climb one: What is the likelihood and time frame for promotion? They ask this question well before we even get to the first interview. Experienced in-house counsel are more realistic and logical when evaluating the lay of the land vs. straight-from-a-law-firm candidates, but that’s simply because in-house counsel have seen the dynamic first hand. The bottom line is that everyone asks.

So, if you are the General Counsel seeking to make a new hire, how do you manage promotion and title expectations? Unless you are making the hire with successorship specifically in mind, you want to be careful while also using this as an opportunity to test on culture fit. More →

When Stephen Sitley was named senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Sears Holdings Corp., my mind raced through the Way Back machine to a fond memory of my roots as a legal recruiter.

In 1993, I was cutting my teeth and learning this business with a legal staffing firm called The Wallace Law Registry (now part of Kelly Services). My boss and mentor Shelley Wallace had landed a big fish in the Chicago in-house legal market—an opportunity to recruit talent for Sears. This goes back to a time when Sears’ headquarters was based in a tall tower bearing its name. Sears was under a hiring freeze, so Shelley convinced the general counsel at the time to try an unconventional approach to staffing his department—use something called “contract attorneys.”

My marching orders as Shelley’s new and inexperienced legal recruiter in Chicago … find “permanent placement” caliber talent willing to work for law departments via a third-party employer. We avoided using the word “temporary,” as that carried a negative perception on the talent level and role for which the lawyer was deployed. Law departments pioneered the use of contract attorneys in the ’90s, long before law firms began using a lower paid variety for dead end document review work. More →

I hope you are feeling as good about your employer as I am this holiday season.

2017 has been one of the most enjoyable years of my career, and I am extraordinarily thankful to our clients, candidates and friends of our firm for this result. We handled interesting and challenging searches for great companies such as Adtalem, Baxter, Re:Sources USA and Principal Financial Group. We were proud to place the first in-house attorney with a Crain’s Fast Fifty company, Maven Wave. And we have several Adjunct Counsel on secondments with Fortune 500 law departments.

We improved our Adjunct Counsel offering so that our contract attorneys can opt into health care and other benefits. And I tweaked our traditional permanent search pricing structure to reflect how companies want to go about their Senior Counsel to Assistant General Counsel level searches. Moreover, the year is closing with the likelihood of an exciting Deputy General Counsel (with succession planning in mind) search in Q1 of 2018 that we will handle confidentially. More →

By working exclusively with corporate legal departments and eschewing law firm recruiting, Evers Legal stays in tune with the evolution of in-house culture.  Although we are best known for traditional direct hire search and placement of experienced in-house counsel, we have broadened our service offerings over the years to meet the niche needs of law departments.

About 10 years ago we began providing  “adjunct counsel.”  I wanted to create an option for on-site secondments that would be based on quality rather than volume. Our vision was to fill your contract attorney needs with talent that exceeded the expectations often associated with that term. Sometimes our adjunct counsel are even converted to direct hire positions, as happened just last month for Greg Lacey. A former Dykema partner and all around great guy, Greg was on an assignment for us with Adtalem, a for-profit education company, before landing permanently there. Congrats Greg!

And now, for the first time in several years, we are extending our service offering once again. We are now your go-to search firm when you need a legal department operations (LDO) professional. This position is a natural fit within our niche law department expertise and network. Moreover, individuals with the right experience to fill these roles are not yet available in large numbers. Put bluntly, a do-it-yourself approach to recruiting a top shelf LDO will be frustrating. Let us help! More →

Congratulations to one of my favorite General Counsel, Jeffrey Carr. Jeff pioneered incentive-based law firm engagements, and much more, during his tenure with FMC Technologies. Jeff advocated for changes in how legal services are delivered via his writing, and through prominent roles with InsideCounsel’s Superconference and The General Counsel Forum. Jeff returned to the arena on May 11 as the new General Counsel of Univar (NYSE: UNVR), a global chemical distributor.

Jeff’s return to the in-house community brings back fond memories of 2011, when our firm placed three attorneys with FMC Technologies. Jeff and I worked out search fee terms with three components: a modest retainer, a set fixed fee for making a placement and a discretionary bonus based on client satisfaction with our overall service. The agreement aligned our interests, and none of it was based on the compensation of the attorneys we placed. The work was so rewarding, it inspired this column for InsideCounsel on the merits of a new pricing structure for recruiting. More →

Congratulations are in order on new general counsel roles for six of the 20 lawyers we have profiled in previous issues of eNews. Cornell Boggs (previously with Dow Corning) is now leading the law department at Toys R Us, Chris Carsen (previously with Mattersight) has landed the top spot at Corel Corp., Joe Perkins (previously with Cummins) is running the show at NIBCO, and E.M. Lysonge (previously with Churchill Downs) is now sitting in the big chair at CafePress Inc.

On the promotion front, Curt Kramer steps up to become the General Counsel of Navistar International on April 1 when Steve Covey retires. And Bill Caruso has been promoted to Acting General Counsel for DeVry.

For Curt, Joe and E.M, this is their first general counsel position. I am so very happy to see their hard work pay off. For Bill, hopefully the interim title will turn permanent as it did for Doug Beck, who took a similar path via promotion at Hub Group. All in all, the individuals profiled in our Counsel Q&A’s are doing just fine! More →