UK publication The Lawyer has an interesting profile of Motorola’s legal department and its GC, Peter Lawson.
The article puts in concrete terms the staffing and budget constraints a GC faces on a daily basis.
While Motorola quarterly earnings are at record levels, since 2000 the legal department is apparently half the size it was then. Total legal spending and the number of outside firms used are also down by half.
Motorola has also decreased sharply the spending on pursuing and maintaining its IP portfolio. One of the tools is employing Indian firms for some of the early-stage work.
Mr. Lawson puts complex issues into a clear focus:
“Like any commercial business, we’re under a lot of pressure to reduce costs,” Lawson states matter-of-factly.
Tomorrow, a brief lesson for managing partners who want their firms to continue to make the cut.