Editorial/Financial Support

Facts About The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
A No Profit That Merits Support By Law Firms And Service Providers

What is the mission of The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel?

The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel is dedicated exclusively to serving the interests of corporate counsel by (1) providing information about substantive developments in the law and ways to enhance delivery of legal services; (2) supporting corporate counsels’ goals, and (3) encouraging organizations serving corporate counsel.

 What is MCCs circulation?

MCC goes to an average of 22,500 corporate counsel at 8,500 individual business locations where corporate counsel practice, including all corporate counsel at Fortune 1000 companies who have an interest in receiving MCC.  Articles and interviews published in MCC also appear on its website which is approaching 1,000,000 hits and 35,000 unique viewers a month.  We find that our articles and interviews, if they include key words with Google searches in mind, will in many instances rank in the top five on the first page of Google searches. We are also on Google News, which makes it more likely that BLOGS will pick up our content. 

What is the source of MCC’s editorial content and financing?

MCC receives financial and editorial contributions primarily from law firms and service providers.  Their support for MCC is an effective way for them to assist corporate counsel (1) to follow legal developments and learn of best practices in law department management, (2) to achieve goals favorable to the national interest and that of the greater legal community through articles/interviews that marshal support for those goals and (3) to learn about events and seminars of interest to corporate counsel and to build the membership of organizations serving them. It also enables our law firm and service provider supporters to extend their partnering relationship beyond their relationships with their individual clients to the entire corporate counsel community.

What monetary contributions do law firms and service provider partners make to The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel?

Because of our no profit format and lean staff of only 11 employees, our partners' contributions are modest.  Although most law firms and service providers participate in an annual giving plan, we invite those not on such a plan to make a financial and editorial contribution to the issue in which they participate. In which event, the financial contribution is a rough approximation of their prorata share of the all-in cost of the issue in which they participate. In this way, they contribute to the support of all the services offered in that issue. The financial contributions of a typical supporter on an annual giving plan ranges from $12,300 to $25,350 annually and the number of articles/interviews they agree to contribute ranges from five to 12 or more.  Law firms and legal service providers also have opportunities to contribute additional editorial material beyond what they are committed to provide as well as to provide further support through publication of display advertising.

MCC encourages law firms and legal service providers to partner with corporate counsel to help them achieve their goals.

Currently, corporate counsel look to their law firms and service providers to partner with them in support of diversity, pro bono and other activities related to good corporate citizenship by publishing articles/interviews in MCC heralding the firm’s good works. Why? Because, by letting other corporate counsel know about the superior contributions these firms have made, they stimulate the expectations of our corporate counsel readers about what they should expect from their own law firms. Each article or interview raises the performance bar. That law firms “get the point” is evidenced by the growing number of articles/interviews and interviews we are getting from law firms relating to their support for good causes.

Who owns The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel?

MCC is run without profit or compensation to its editor, publisher or shareholders and is totally dedicated to serving the interests of corporate counsel. It is an S corporation and the shareholders are Martha and Albert Driver and their two daughters. All profits are ploughed back into the company except for amounts necessary to reimburse the shareholders for the tax liability attributable to the ploughed-back funds. Explorations are currently underway to convert MCC formally to a not for profit corporation.

Why do Al and Martha Driver serve as editor and publisher, respectively, without compensation of any kind?

As general counsel of JC Penney, Al Driver came to believe that a newspaper that went to all corporate counsel without charge and was dedicated to the goals outlined in its mission statement could help corporate counsel play an even more constructive and enlightened role in their corporations. Martha Driver, who served as an investment officer at TIAA-CREF and was co-owner of a chain of small town newspapers, shares that belief.

Martha and Al concluded that a public service newspaper would fill an important informational need of corporate counsel. Just as some of the chapters of the Association of Corporate Counsel provide an opportunity for law firms and service providers not only to sponsor CLE programs for corporate counsel but also to support its other services for corporate counsel through their financial contributions, it followed that law firms and service providers would also be willing as a service to corporate counsel to finance a monthly newspaper for corporate counsel in which substantive articles would cover their informational and educational needs.  Thus, MCC offers law firms another way to visibly support the interests of corporate counsel.