Inside the Minds: The Corporate Lawyer: Corporate Chairs From Dewey Ballantine, Holland Knight, Wolf Block More on Successful Strategies for Business Law [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Success as the Corporate Lawyer

A key element to the success of the great corporate lawyer is the ability to distinguish the importance of issues, identify the client’s priorities and develop creative, effective solutions to problems and issues. In any matter or transaction, it is extremely important to distinguish between issues that have significant financial and other consequences and are critical or otherwise material and those which are not of significant consequence to the client. This recognition will determine the amount of focus and importance the lawyer devotes or attributes to a given issue. The lawyer must also have an understanding of the client’s priorities in deciding which issues are of greater importance. A third important factor is to find or create solutions to problems, which may prevent a matter from proceeding. In a sense, a lawyer must be a dealmaker and not a deal killer. Clients want to know how something can be done and not why it cannot be done. A great corporate lawyer must possess the necessary technical skills, be able to evaluate risks, and know how to analyze and present the potential consequences of a particular course of action.

To be successful, a corporate lawyer must have particular insight into the business issues and problems facing a client. The lawyer needs an extensive knowledge of financial matters, a great deal of business and personal judgment and common sense, and the ability to instill confidence in the lawyer’s ability to address, manage and solve the client’s issues and problems. A willingness to work to the maximum on behalf of the client is also necessary. If necessary, the lawyer should be available to the client at any time on a seven-day-a-week basis.

As indicated previously, the lawyer’s diligence, devotion, concern, judgment and intelligence are relevant personal characteristics the client will consider important. Successful lawyers have the desire to do perfect or at least outstanding work, and the desire to excel professionally. Outstanding service should be cost efficient in terms of handling the project or issue presented. Simple, comprehensive, cost-efficient solutions and work product are appreciated by clients. The ability to interact with the client on a personal level is also valuable, as confidence in the lawyer is extremely important in the lawyer-client relationship.

It is necessary to be able to handle all aspects of an assignment and to staff the matter with lawyers exhibiting the appropriate level of experience and expertise. The legal team must handle its responsibilities in a highly competent and professional manner, and all legal personnel must be committed to doing whatever is necessary to meet the needs of the client. Each member of the legal team must be able to interact positively and cooperatively with the client and the other members of the legal team. Thus, a well-organized, team approach provides the appropriate expertise and staffing on a cost-efficient basis.

The nature of the staffing and responsibilities will be based upon the experience of the lawyers on the legal term. In the case of a partner in a group corporate practice, the responsibilities would include the following: advice to clients, drafting and review of documents, interaction with third parties, continuing professional education, marketing, and firm administrative matters relating to the client. The amount of time devoted to these areas will vary with the circumstances at a particular time and also with the responsibilities of the partner. This is a general list and not intended to be complete. In the case of a more junior corporate lawyer, the principal responsibilities will include drafting documents, research, and responding to client questions. The junior corporate lawyer should supply the support necessary for the senior corporate lawyer to respond to the client’s needs. In the interest of providing properly staffed, quality legal services, the importance of training junior lawyers to assume greater responsibility in general and for specific clients should be recognized.

In summary, the goal should always be to provide outstanding service to the client in a cost-efficient, effective manner. The lawyer’s work should add value that is at least equivalent to – and preferably substantially in excess of – the cost of the lawyer’s services to the client.

Negotiations. Negotiations are generally an important part of the lawyer’s services and successful negotiations are basic to maintaining an excellent relationship with a client. The approach to handling negotiations is vital to success. The first consideration is to determine and analyze the issues. This involves reviewing the history of the matter and the understanding of the parties. Second, the lawyer must determine the client’s position on the issues, the relative importance of the issues to the client, and the client’s flexibility relating to specific issues. Third, it is necessary to assess how significant each issue is to the other party. Fourth, the lawyer should attempt to determine the other party’s strategy and the positions and arguments it is likely to take. Finally, based on the foregoing, a negotiation strategy should be formulated. The lawyer must learn to concede on minor or secondary issues and devote more attention to important issues. Every effort should be made to avoid the other lawyer or business representatives from becoming hostile.

In entering negotiations, it is often helpful to indicate that the objective is to find mutually acceptable solutions to problems and not to appear simply as an advocate trying to win “points” for the client. Depending upon the conduct and demeanor of lawyers on the other side, it may be important to adjust one’s own approach and demeanor. The mindset is to be reasonable and to keep cognizant of and achieve the client’s objectives. The corporate lawyer’s objective should be to find solutions to business problems and not to achieve necessarily complete victory, which ultimately may be counterproductive.