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12 Fla. St. U. Bus. Rev. 131 (2013)
The Evolution and Influence of Corporate Legal Departments

handle is hein.journals/fsubr12 and id is 137 raw text is: THE EVOLUTION AND INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE LEGAL DEPARTMENTS CRAIG B. GLIDDEN* I. INTRODU CTION .................................................................. 131 II. EVOLUTION OF LEGAL DEPARTMENTS ............................... 133 A. Period of Law Firm Dominance .................................. 133 B . Transition P eriod ........................................................ 134 C. Legal Department Ascendency .................................... 136 III. IM PLICATION S .................................................................... 138 A. Implications for Law Firms ........................................ 138 B. Implications for Legal Departments ........................... 141 C. Possible Implications for Legal Education ................. 142 IV . C ON CLU SION ...................................................................... 143 I. INTRODUCTION Corporate legal departments are not very well understood by most law students and are often overlooked by many law schools. This is due in part to the fact that most legal departments do not recruit from law schools, but instead hire from law firm ranks. However, the evolution and influence of corporate legal depart- ments in shaping the modern legal services industry is too signifi- cant to be ignored by law students or law schools. Corporate legal departments have had a profound impact on law firm practice. A significant number of law firm practitioners, particularly those at * Craig Glidden is the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of LyondellBasell Industries N.V. Prior to joining LyondellBasell in August 2009, he served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. Before leading corporate legal departments, he was in private law practice for nearly twenty years, in which he was an associate and partner at law firms serving corporations and the founder of his own law firm. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University in 1980, graduating magna cur laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained a Juris Doctor degree with high honors from the Florida State University College of Law in 1983, where he served as editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Florida State University Law Review. He is a member and past chair of The General Counsel Forum and currently serves as Treasurer on the Board of the Houston Bar Foundation. This Article is based on a lecture delivered by the author as part of a program entitled Examining Corporate Legal Departments, at the Florida State University College of Law in October 2012. The remarks in the lecture and this Article are the author's own and are not made on behalf of his company. LyondellBasell (NYSE: LYB) is one of the world's largest plastics, chemical, and refining companies, and a member of the S&P 500 Index. LyondellBasell (www.lyondellbasell.com) manufactures products at fifty-eight sites in eighteen countries for people around the world; its products are used in packaging, electronics, automotive parts, home furnishings, construction materials, and biofuels.

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