TheCorporateCounsel.net

March 19, 2007

Cisco’s General Counsel on the Future of Practicing Law

Back at the end of January, at the Northwestern Conference in San Diego, Cisco’s general counsel, Mark Chandler, gave a provocative speech about how he sees the future of legal practice. Here is an excerpt from that speech that pretty nicely illustrates how Mark provides food for thought in his speech:

“First, how is technology driving change in knowledge-based industries? Second, what are the key areas of vulnerability in the legal services business to these technological changes? And third, what will it take to succeed in this changed environment?”

I think many of us would be more than happy to see the death of the billable hour. Aren’t you tired of reading articles like this one that implicitly makes a mockery of our profession?

Rethinking Your Legal Department

In this podcast, Rees Morrison of Hildebrandt International provides some insight into law department management issues, including:

– How do you help in-house legal departments?
– What do you see as the biggest challenges faced by those departments today?
– How do you see the practice of law changing?

Doing It “J-SOX” Style

Last year, the Japanese Diet passed a comprehensive governance reform to create the “Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.” Some commentators view this as a modified verison of the US’ Sarbanes-Oxley and have dubbed it “J-SOX.” This new law will impact all 4000 Japanese public companies when its implemented on March 31, 2009 (most Japanese companies have a 3/31 year-end). All of the details regarding what will be required have not yet been worked out.

There are some notable differences between J-SOX and what we have here in the US. For example, under J-SOX, an auditor attestation will not be required. Learn more in our “J-SOX” Practice Area.