NEW YORK - (Business Wire) ALM
’s
Corporate Counsel magazine today announced the selection of the in-house attorneys of Qwest Communications International as winners of the magazine
’s third annual
“Best Legal Department
” competition.
Corporate Counsel’s editors also named the legal departments of Caterpillar, Inc., General Motors Corporation and McDonald
’s Corporation as finalists. Profiles of the winner and finalists will be featured in the June issue of the magazine, out today, and on the magazine
’s Web site at
www.corpcounsel.com.
The in-house legal department at Qwest was selected for its work and success in negotiating the settlement of shareholder lawsuits filed after a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal wracked the Denver-based telephone company in 2001. The department, headed by general counsel Richard Baer, took primary responsibility for managing the crisis, ultimately settling the suits for less than 1 percent of the original claims. And against all odds, they changed an overworked legal department into a workplace that encourages flex-time, telecommunicating and other options for stressed-out attorneys.
“Baer and his legal team did more than rescue a badly managed company from the brink of bankruptcy. They transformed the legal department, despite daily negative headlines, and did so while investigators were scouring Qwest’s financial records for the kind of accounting fraud that destroyed Enron,” said Anthony Paonita, editor in chief of the magazine. “Each of our finalists also demonstrated innovative approaches to key legal and management areas that improve both their professional skills and their contribution to their companies’ bottom line.”
The magazine’s editors cited Caterpillar’s legal staff for their data-driven, hands-on approach to litigation, which has played a central role in winning company defenses. GM’s in-house attorneys were recognized for their information technology achievements, resulting from an innovative plan that created one of the most tech-savvy legal programs in the country. The lawyers at McDonald’s were selected for their demonstrated flexibility in crafting legal solutions for the company, ranging from the agreement behind the sale of all of McDonald’s Latin American assets last year, to its compliance efforts across 119 countries.
Winners were selected from responses submitted to a detailed questionnaire developed by the editors and reporters of Corporate Counsel and distributed to the general counsel of all Fortune 500 corporations. The magazine’s editors and reporters evaluated submissions and selected the winners.
The winner and finalists will be honored this fall at a joint event with Corporate Counsel's sibling publication The American Lawyer. The dinner will salute The American Lawyer's 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award winners, the 20 firms from the Am Law 200 selected for the magazine's "A-List," and the winners and finalists of Corporate Counsel's Best Legal Department competition.
The award-winning Corporate Counsel, the nation’s leading magazine for general counsel and in-house attorneys at corporations across the country, is published monthly by ALM and is available on the Web at www.corpcounsel.com.
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Peters & Feldman for ALM
Lee Feldman, 203-341-8922
lfeldman@alm.com
