The law rarely gets less complicated. There are more regulations and statutes. There are more traps to fall into because of computers and mobile devices. One slip can expose your company to immense liability and irreparably damage its brand. Business litigation costs continue to skyrocket. Whether you are the CEO, COO, CFO, GC, in-house lawyer, or other executive, you constantly worry about legal issues. Unfortunately, these worries don’t just stay in the office.
During my years as an in-house lawyer, I saw 3:00 a.m. way more than I wanted to. You know what I am talking about. It’s the middle of the night, you roll over and those huge numbers on your alarm clock are screaming at you like you are in the middle of Times Square. 100 sheep, 99 sheep, 98, 97 – damn! Throwing something over the clock brought back the dark, but you just can’t silence the incessant voice in your head stuck on work.
It’s the case that the CEO keeps asking about. It’s the compliance policy that is three-months late. It’s the outside lawyer who doesn’t get that litigation sucks cash from your bottom line faster than a baby can drain a bottle. It’s the law firm that forgets that surprises in legal bills do not earn warm and fuzzies (couldn’t they have just picked up the phone to ask me first if I wanted to file THAT motion!). It’s the judge who thinks that you can snap your fingers and produce 100 gigabites of electronic discovery overnight, with little cost and no inconvenience. It’s the business unit constantly pushing the regulatory envelope or that ignores those four letters – FCPA. It’s the jury box full of “your peers,” empowered to decide the fate of your company.
My goal in launching this blog is to offer solutions and insight to help you sleep better. I ask my clients to let me worry about the legal issues in their cases so that they can run their businesses and make money. Hopefully, this blog will relieve some of your stress so that you can do the same.
I am not going to talk about every development in business litigation, technology, or electronic discovery. There are plenty of great blogs out there doing just that and you don’t need another one. My goal is to offer information and solutions to help you sleep better, without taking those little pills (by the way, have you ever read the warning labels for those things!).
When I do talk about cases, it will be about the ones that really matter. Cases that keep you up at night, should keep you up at night or that may actually help you sleep better.
I will talk about the legal industry. Not about how lawyers can make more money, (although that is important!). Instead, this blog will discuss how outside lawyers can be better partners with their clients. I hope to offer practical suggestions about how you can better manage your outside counsel and reduce costs. I know this may sound like heresy to some of my fellow lawyers, but it never ceased to amaze me when I was in-house how little some of my outside counsel actually thought about what kept me up at night.
Finally, I want to hear from you. What is keeping you up at night? What has worked for you?
I would also like to hear what you think of this blog – good, bad or indifferent? I don’t mind criticism – as a trial lawyer, my inbox is lined with asbestos.
Enough from me. I hope you sleep well tonight!
Scott H. Marder