Monthly Archives: August 2008

Top Ten

Top ten things Robert is overheard saying at home:

10. “I didn’t do that. I don’t think I did that. Sorry.”

9. “What?”

8. “Can we watch TV now?”

7. “Babius, babius”

6. “Did you call your parents?”

5. “Will you call my parents?”

4. “Was that you or the baby?”

3. “Do you know where my badge is?”

2. “What can I do?”

1. “Poop”

The Legal Department

After nearly a decade inside corporate legal departments, I have generated a few opinions about how they should be organized and run.  I hope to use this weblog to discuss some of those conclusions.  I’m going to begin by discussing what I believe are the three categories of services that a corporate legal group performs for the company.   These are the Three C’s, compliance, contracting and consulting.

First, a forewarning.  I fully admit that I, like most of my brethern, love to pidgeon hole.  My choice of the Three C’s as the buckets into which I place all of our work is artificial and at times forced.  In order to keep the buckets to three, and in order to achieve alliterative beauty, I chose them. They are meant to collectively include everything a corporate legal department does.  An impossiblity given the variety and complexity of work we do.  So, inevitably, some shoe-horning and fudging needs to occur.  In the end, it is not important that the categories work perfectly well.  What is important is that we have some way of talking about our work.  Second, as you will see, overlap is great.  One activity, such as negotiating a contract for a client, may include all elements of all of the Three C’s.  Again, it is not important that the lines be absolutely crisp.  All I hope to do is explain what I believe is a helpful management paradigm.

Summer Plans Revisitied

Our summer vacation plans continue to wax and wane.  We had planned on a cycle tour in Oregon, bringing Mira’s parents along.  Crater Lake-Bend-Sister-MacKenzie Valley-Eugene-Ashland.  You get the picture.  Well, turns out that will not happen.  It also turns out that we will not be visiting Japan.  So, the summer and fall is blank once again.  Current thinking is Guatemala in December–January for Spanish lessons and travel.  Robert has been once before and he knows Mira will like it.  Stay tuned.

rrpjr

Return from Yellowstone

We just got back in to San Francisco after our visit to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole. We took a two night backpacking hike into the backcountry in Yellowstone, where we relaxed, fished, and looked out for bears. After that, we checked in to our cabin at the Trail Creek Ranch, in Wilson, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We just chilled there, swimming and playing horseshoes. We spent one day in the Laurence Rockafeller Nature Preserve in the Grand Teton National Park. We did a very little bit of fishing there. Robert had dinner with Karen, Bob and Bryan Cottle in Jackson Hole at the Merry Piglet Mexican restaurant. One night we ate at the D.O.G. Himalayan Momo Shack, where the name and crowd is more interesting that the food. Then we packed it up and flew back home.