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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (67907)	8/18/2007 3:43:03 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197311

Corporate lawyers as a group tend to be less astute and hardworking than those in outside law firms. In fact, the lawyers who end up working for corporations are often those who didn't perform well enough to make partner in their law firm. I wouldn't say that is necessarily the case anymore, Art. I've dealt with some very sharp in house attorneys. I am thinking specifically of one guy who was in fact a partner at a major Kentucky law firm but who resigned to become general counsel for a mid-size corporation. I tried a case for him a few years ago, won it. He was on top of things like gravy on rice even though it was not a huge case by any stretch of the imagination. He wanted the case tried and won, and I delivered, but he could have easily delegated its supervision to a junior guy on his staff. It was important, very important, to him that he win his trials, and he was seriously - almost obnoxiously - hands on. The top legal officers at a growing company can profit from options just like any other member of management. Compensation differences are therefore smaller and more top notch folks are going the in house route. The problem, of course, is that they lose the collegiality and freedom of being a partner in a law firm. They are a cog in the wheel, just another brick on the wall, rather than the masters of their own destiny. And, of course, they have only one client rather than many, so independent judgment can be clouded. I can't say that bringing legal work inhouse is necessarily a good thing for Q.