LJN Newsletters

General counsel are increasingly recognizing the need not only to manage the talent within their departments, but also to develop and enhance the group and its individual lawyers.
In this, the second article in a three-part series on talent management, we focus more closely on what innovative initiatives law departments are using to capitalize on existing capabilities and what steps some of them have taken to continually add to the effectiveness of team performance.

In the years since Farragher and Ellerth, numerous courts have been asked to decide whether or not constructive discharge (ie, the employee felt forced to resign because conditions were unbearable) is a tangible job action negating the employer's ability to raise the affirmative defense. The decided cases have had differing outcomes.

One of the many challenges faced by corporate counsel when conducting or overseeing an internal workplace investigation is how not to compromise critical attorney-client privilege during the process.

After writing the perfect resume, tuning up your cover letter and targeting your job search, you'll have to show up to get the job. Don't sweat it. Interviewing skills are not brain surgery.

This month's question:
Many of the lawyers in my firm still resist doing any selling because they see it as "unseemly" for lawyers. How can I help them overcome this crippling bias?

RESPECT: Earn It, Keep It, Advance Your Career
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003
12:00 p.m. ' 1:30 p.m. EST

The NJ Supreme Court has recently elected to hear appeals in two coverage actions involving the same basic issue ' namely, reconciling the application of the Owens-Illinois "continuous trigger theory" with the application of specific policy provisions under New Jersey law. In the first of these two cases, Spaulding Composites Company, Inc. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety, the court strongly affirmed the viability of the continuous trigger theory, invalidating a clear and unambiguous non-cumulation clause that it found conflicted with this approach. Spaulding Composites Company, Inc. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety, 176 N.J. 25, 46 (2003). In the second case, Benjamin Moore & Company v. Aetna Casualty & Surety, which is pending, the court must now determine how to apply the continuous trigger theory to self-insurance features contained in a series of unambiguous policy endorsements which do not appear to conflict with a continuous trigger. No. A-4423-01T2F, 2003 WL 1904383 (App. Div., Jan. 14, 2003), appeal granted, 176 N.J. 70 (2003).

There is definitely an art to becoming the object of the press's affection. If you are lucky enough to have an in-house public relations department, your "luck runneth over." However, for most lawyers whose wish list includes "personal appearances" either via print media or electronic media, it can be a challenging and sometimes frustrating experience. There is hope, and it comes in the form of having a personal public relations/professional development plan. While most business development efforts focus on marketing, public relations can be a key component to one's overall success. Public relations is different than marketing in the sense that it requires a more personal approach to one's professional development plan. It requires an individual to hone a separate set of skills that enables one to speak, be quoted and appear as a spokesperson in a specific area of expertise.