When a Lawyer Goes In-House
By Julanne Montville
When I moved in-house from a large firm in Cleveland, I was prepared for a big change, both in responsibilities and in perspective. I was not disappointed. I was surprised, however, by how different the experience of being in-house counsel is compared with that of outside counsel. Here is my advice to outside counsel for developing business with in-house counsel, based on my personal experience. I assume, of course, that you are already providing good work in a timely manner at reasonable prices.
Things You Can Do to Be Hired by In-House Counsel
- Do Keep In Touch. In-house lawyers are immersed in a sea of businesspeople, many of whom do not understand the law and do not care to. (That’s why they have lawyers.) So, a friendly email or invitation for coffee is almost always welcome, even if your in-house colleague cannot take you up on it.
- Do Keep Your Eye Out for News about the Company. Even the most dedicated in-house lawyer does not know what all of his or her people are doing all of the time. If the company is mentioned in the news, let him or her know. If it’s good news, send congratulations.
- Do Use the Products. Now, obviously, an in-house lawyer does not expect friends and colleagues to go buy a new car, or boat, or computer whenever he or she switches jobs, but to the extent that you can, support the company of the in-house lawyer. I, for example, work for a greeting card company. I do not expect my outside colleagues to change their firm holiday cards to our brand (although they can, if they want to), but when someone sends a card to me personally for my birthday or as a thank-you, using my company’s brand is a nice added touch.
- Do Think about the Businesspeople When Providing Your Advice. There are two parts to this advice: (a) Form and (b) Function.
Form. Sometimes firm lawyers forget that their legal advice to in-house counsel will be passed to the businesspeople. So, ask your in-house colleague whether there is some form in which the advice would be more useful to him or her. For example, businesspeople tend to like PowerPoint slides instead of Word memos. Why? I can’t explain it, but they do. Perhaps your in-house colleague would appreciate a slide or two explaining the beautiful memo you put together. It does not hurt to ask.
Function. Lawyers are famous for the “it depends” answer, and rightly so. Much in the law depends on the particular circumstances at issue. Businesspeople are famous for hating that answer, and rightly so. They are trying to assess risk, and “it depends” does not really help. When providing advice to an in-house colleague, make sure to highlight the things that can mitigate the risk, the things that increase the risk, and the consequences of the worst-case scenario, especially if incarceration is a possibility. Nothing pricks up a businessperson’s ears like the words “orange jumpsuit.”
- Do Meet the Businesspeople. There are often opportunities for you to get in front of the businesspeople at a company by providing “lunch and learn” seminars or other presentations on legal topics. I know this sounds like in-house counsel asking for free services, which it is, but it is much more than that. If the businesspeople know and trust you, it is much easier for your in-house colleague to get your fees approved. Think of it as a networking activity similar to writing an article, but live and in person.
- Do Introduce Us to Your Relevant People. I do not mean “send us newsletters about people we’ve never heard of getting promoted.” Instead, when you have coffee or lunch or go to a game with your in-house colleague, bring along one of your law firm colleagues. Introduce him or her. Mention his or her areas of expertise. And do not forget the younger associates, who can benefit from seeing “The Client” up close and personal.
- Do Send Us Relevant Information. I cannot count the number of times I have used a bulletin from outside counsel as the jumping-off point for my own research, or the number of times I have used the phone numbers on those bulletins as the beginning of an attorney-client relationship.
- Do Remind Us Who You Are. When reaching out to in-house counsel whom you have met but do not know well, remind him or her who you are and how you know each other. “I’m Bob; we met at the alumni event” will save me a lot of embarrassment later.
Things You Should Not Do
- Don’t Drop Off the Face of the Earth. If you knew the in-house lawyer in his or her prior job, keep in touch. This does not mean an email a day, or even a week, but every month or two, drop a line.
- Don’t Pander. There is nothing wrong with getting back in touch with an old school friend or former law firm colleague once he or she moves in-house—in fact, a job announcement is a perfect reason to send a note of congratulations. But “getting back in touch” is a gradual process, and your congratulatory email is not the place for the hard sell.
- Don’t Be Shy. If your law firm does something, say so. If you want the business, let me know.
- Don’t Talk Only to the General Counsel. Of course the general counsel is the queen bee, and it is a good idea to make her happy, but quite often the general counsel plays a management role, and the other attorneys in the department have the primary responsibility for working with outside counsel on certain issues. Get to know the other attorneys in the department; not only might you have an opportunity to do work for them at their present employer, but when they leave to become general counsels at other companies, you also already have a foot in the door.
- Don’t Be Afraid to Talk about Money and Time Expectations. If we have clarity up front, we do not have problems down the line.
- Don’t Spam Us. Like all lawyers, in-house counsel get a zillion emails a day. Do not put me on automated mailing lists without my permission, please. And do not take it personally if I ask to be removed from the list. It’s not you; it’s my inbox.
- Don’t Leave Us off the List. If your law firm loses a lawyer to an in-house position, put him or her on the invite list for your firm’s activities that he or she might be interested in. For example, many of the firms in my area have been very good about inviting alumni to their ethics seminars, CLEs, and firm events. If your firm does not regularly invite in-house counsel to its events, change your firm’s practice. In-house counsel are always pleased to be included in things, especially if it means an opportunity to talk about substantive issues their businesspeople face.
Basically, my advice boils down to this: Don’t let in-house counsel slip into a black hole. Keep in touch with us, and we will keep you in mind.