INSIGHT UPDATE | MONDAY, 8 MARCH 2010
From the General Counsel Roundtable and the Compliance and Ethics Leadership Council
Offers to Summer Associates Hit 17-Year Low and In-House Lawyers Are Looking to Hire
According to statistics released last week by the National Association for Law Placement, the offer rate to summer associates for associate positions at U.S. law firms dropped from 89.9% in 2008 to 69.3% in 2009. This is the lowest recorded offer rate since the NALP began reporting statistics in 1993. Recruiting of 2Ls for summer associate positions also dropped, with the median number of offers dropping to 7 from 10 in 2008 and 15 in 2007. Concurrently, more in-house legal executives plan to build their departments this year, according to the results of the Association of Corporate Counsel's 10th Annual Chief Legal Officer Survey. The hiring likely does not reflect increased budgets, but rather an attempt to shift work from outside counsel to in-house staff.
Our View:
Clearly, the overabundance of available legal talent has not diminished in 2010. Legal and compliance executives should think strategically about hiring needs, and look to alternative talent pools (e.g., recent law school graduates and displaced law firm staff) to fill skill gaps.
Government: The Most Important Stakeholder?
A new McKinsey survey finds that executives believe their companies' economic value will be affected more by governments than by any other group of stakeholders, save customers. Sixty-three percent of respondents expect the government's involvement in their industry to increase in the next 3-5 years.
Our View:
Companies can continue to stay ahead of regulatory changes by proactively pushing their own agenda, communicating with regulators, and coordinating with industry peers. As we have mentioned previously, both Google and Microsoft are actively involved in shaping the debate around emerging regulatory issues (privacy and cloud computing respectively). General Counsel Roundtable members, learn how other companies, including Mass Mutual, Monsanto, and DuPont, have made headway in this area in our newly launched Government Affairs Resource Center.
The New Compliance Competencies
While Compliance and Ethics functions often begin as adjuncts to corporate legal departments, the practice of compliance is operational in nature with success hinging, in large part, on non-legal skills. In fact, General Counsel Roundtable research suggests that compliance and legal staff "solutions orientation" is viewed by the business as the most important attribute for compliance effectiveness.
Our View:
Compliance and Ethics Officers should increasingly focus on developing those non-legal competencies that drive compliance further into the business operations. Compliance and Ethics functions with limited staffs should work to "rent" the desired competencies through close functional partnerships or employee rotation programs.
Monday Lift – Seven Ways to Sneak a Nap at Your Desk
As we reported last week, afternoon naps can boost your brain power. Unfortunately, since most offices haven't installed beds, written an official sleep policy, or built a napping room, there seems to be only one solution: napping at your desk. From an iPhone app to a clever disguise, consider these seven creative ways to catch a few Z's. Need to be a little more discrete? Follow these slightly-more-reasonable tips on how to nap (and not get fired).
Data Point of the Week:
According to our survey of over 200,000 employees, the level of observed misconduct related to insider trading increased three-fold from 2008 to 2009. See below for a more detailed list of changes in levels of observed misconduct across 2009.
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