AFAs
How not to be someone who pays $775 an hour for a first-year lawyer 💸
24/7
A leaked list of 'non-negotiable expectations' for a law firm’s associates 😓
Circle
A new law firm model without partners or associates, and reshaped from a pyramid to a circle 💡
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"One of the only mail outs I genuinely enjoy reading." – Mandy Chapman at Beyond International.
Pro Bono
A comprehensive guide to pro-bono for in-house lawyers, refreshed for 2023 🙌
Pause
An open letter calling for a 6 month pause on the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 🚧
Comp
Brightflag’s 2023 Legal Operations Compensation Survey is out 💸
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"They are a nice ‘pause’ in my busy working day." – Melissa Monks, Lead Counsel – Competition & Compliance and BlueScope Steel.
Job share
Is it possible to job share the GC role? Yes, and here’s the proof 🙌
Copilot
Microsoft announces Copilot — combining AI with the data in your docs, emails, calendar, meetings and chats to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet ⚡️
Hype
Despite the hype, hardly any lawyers are actually using generative AI, and roughly half think it will have “some impact” 🥱
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"The InCounsel Weekly newsletter is the best! I love when it hits my inbox." – Stephen Myers, VP, Head of Legal at People.ai.
Teardown
Privacy expert Avishai Ostrin, details the crucial elements of a DPA and flags a few issues/gaps in Slack’s DPA 🔍
GC 4.0
An evolution of the General Counsel over the past century – from 🦍 Paleo GC to GC 4.0 🚀
New role
The tradecraft of legal research evolving into the new role of ‘Legal Prompt Engineer’ 🤓
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"InCounsel manage to find the best of the web for this newsletter." – Jeremy Stevenson, Managing Director - Legal & Risk at CPE Capital.
Top ten
Ten issues for in-house lawyers to pay attention to over the coming 12 months 🔍
ALSPs
Thomson Reuters biennial report on the ALSP market is out 📈
Locked in
It should never be this frustrating to change software providers 😭
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"InCounsel weekly is the one email I always read and click on all the links!" – Natalie Truong, Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Ad Standards.
Survey
ACC's annual survey of global chief legal officers and general counsel is out 📊
CLM cuts
Layoffs in CLM have started with Icertis and SirionLabs cutting staff despite recent capital injections ⛅️
Sounds
Treat your ears (and mind) to a free repository of pure, immersive natural soundscapes from around the world 🎧
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"I open your emails as soon as I receive them!" – Melissa Monks, Lead Counsel – Competition & Compliance and BlueScope Steel.
Support
What happens when a GC spends time answering customer support tickets 🤲
Alliance
How a strong legal and procurement alliance can form the backbone of any business 💪
Subscription
A book that looks set to become the leading authority on the subscription model for professional firms 📖
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"I love reading these gems each week with a fresh coffee." – Mel Scott, Senior Legal Counsel at Megaport.
Compare
A handy comparison between two of most popular ‘standard’ NDA templates – oneNDA and Bonterms’ Mutual NDA 📑
Spellbook
An add-in for Word that reviews and suggests clause language for your contracts 🙌
Turnover
According to data [gated] from 16 firms, “roughly one-third of Australian associates left their firm over the past 12 months” 😧
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"They are a nice ‘pause’ in my busy working day." – Melissa Monks, Lead Counsel – Competition & Compliance and BlueScope Steel.
Super GC
A quick 6 min clip on the rise of the ‘Super GC’ 🦸
Process map
Alex Herrity at adidas on the friction created by asking a legal team to ‘map out your current processes’ 🤦
Well said
“All the change management in the world cannot make users adopt a bad experience…” 👏
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"I open your emails as soon as I receive them!" – Melissa Monks, Lead Counsel – Competition & Compliance and BlueScope Steel.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Budget
Three tips for an in-house legal budget as we approach 2023 💸
Standards
A global list of legal standardisation projects from task codes, to metrics, template docs, and more 🔍
Whinenot
Because life’s too short for average wine and billable hours 🍷
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"I love reading these gems each week with a fresh coffee." – Mel Scott, Senior Legal Counsel at Megaport.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Canvas
Throw back to our Service Model Canvas for Legal Departments 💁
Takeaways
Three takeaways from last week’s ILTACON – North America’s largest legal technology conference 📣
Handshakes
The importance of handshakes in the contracting process 🤝
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"They are a nice ‘pause’ in my busy working day." – Melissa Monks, Lead Counsel – Competition & Compliance and BlueScope Steel.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
What is ‘market’?
Get free access to a new product that provides real market data on hundreds of contract terms 📊
Liability limits
… and a deep dive analysis of said data on ‘what is market’ for limitation of liability clauses 🛡
Know-it-all
How sole GCs can manage the expectation to ‘know all the laws’ 🦸
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"Best legal related snippets I have read/watched in ages." – Caroline Ferguson, Business Transformation and Innovation Director at Simpson Grierson.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Templates
A free set of template contracts vetted by over 30 in-house lawyers for parties to negotiate by cover page, not redlines 👏
Desk
adidas Director of Legal Solutions, Alex Herrity unearths this gem showing the evolution of the desk since 1980 📠
Workspace
… and a science-backed deep dive on how to optimise your workspace for productivity, focus and creativity 🧠
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"InCounsel manage to find the best of the web for this newsletter." – Jeremy Stevenson, Managing Director - Legal & Risk at CPE Capital.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Robust
The biggest cause of drawn out contract negotiations is starting from unreasonable AKA “robust” standard terms 😭
Home
This country looks set to make working from home a legal right 🏡
NotLeap
A class-action for firms that have had to spend time and money moving from LEAP Legal Software ⚖️
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"Still one of my favourite sources of news on legal innovation and tech." – Shilpa Bhandarkar, CEO at Nakhoda.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Privilege
A recap on legal professional privilege for in-house lawyers ⚖️
Independence
… and a template amendment letter and board paper to help GCs/CLOs enshrine their independence into their employment contract 📜
Cap table
In yet another win for standardisation, the first version of the Open Cap Table Format is out 📊
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"I open your emails as soon as I receive them!" – Melissa Monks, Lead Counsel – Competition & Compliance and BlueScope Steel.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Recap
Happy EOFY! Here's a recap of your three most popular items (by click through) so far for 2022...
#1 Templates
A (small) collection of free, open source template contracts vetted by a solid crew of in-house lawyers 💪🏻
#2 LinkedIn
One of the best reasons I've read for GCs to post on LinkedIn ✍🏻
#3 Automate
An in-house guide to document automation 📝
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"I love reading these gems each week with a fresh coffee." – Mel Scott, Senior Legal Counsel at Megaport.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
CLM
I thought last year was big, but new funding for CLM in 2022 has already surpassed $1 billion 🤯
Password
How long would it take a hacker to crack your password? 🔓
Big Four
If the rumours are true, “the great obstacle to the Big Four in their efforts to build legal businesses” might soon fall away 💸
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"Best legal related snippets I have read/watched in ages." – Caroline Ferguson, Business Transformation and Innovation Director at Simpson Grierson.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Inbox
A different kind of legal inbox that uses a few of my favourite tools, and one of the best process maps I've seen 🥰
Backstory
Here's a timely backstory on ex-Tesla commercial counsel, Laura Frederick's hugely popular 'How to Contract' resources ✍🏻
Zero
A framework for in-house lawyers to stop firefighting, and strive for 'Destination Zero' – a place where every legal problem is prevented 🏆
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"The one email I always read and click on all the links!" – Natalie Truong, Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Ad Standards.
Bite-sized 🍣 for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with ❤️ by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Rebuild
How legal spend evaporated after consolidating 30 versions of a contract template into one, and rebuilding it from scratch ⚡️
OneDPA
If you deal with Data Processing Agreements, here's your chance help standardise it for the greater good 🥰
Coming in
“We’re not going to make you [come into the office] every day,” Sullivan said. “And if you do, we’re going to make it worth your while, so you see real value in coming in, rather than thinking, ‘Man, I came in because I felt I had to be there, and everything I did in the office I could have done at home.'” 👏
[read more]
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"One of the only mail outs I genuinely enjoy reading." – Mandy Chapman at Beyond International.
Bite-sized for in-house counsel and creative legal minds. Curated and crafted with by David Bushby. Newcomers can subscribe here :)
Unprivileged
What it means for in-house lawyers who're not protected by legal privilege 🇫🇷
Beef
A few beefs with legal tech we can all relate to – jump straight to the meaty bits at 6.36 🍖
Longer
Remote hearings took longer according to this study 🧐
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"They are a nice ‘pause’ in my busy working day." – Melissa Monks, Lead Counsel – Competition & Compliance and BlueScope Steel.
"Best legal related snippets I have read/watched in ages."
— Caroline Ferguson, Business Transformation Manager at Simpson Grierson.
