New England Biz Law Update
Corporate mergers over the past 15 years in sectors important in New England – including banking, technology, health care, life insurance and consumer products – have erased the top legal positions in many companies and sent general counsel and other in-house lawyers back to law firms.
Many who have been in-house are hesitant to return to law firm life. The thought of marketing legal services and keeping myriad (not just one) client happy present daunting challenges when contemplating a return to private practice.
Interviews with three former general counsels who have returned to private practice reveal, however, that those challenges can be overcome and a successful new career established.
They believe they are now more practical and savvier about marketing and providing high quality service than before. Successful careers, like most good things in life, sometimes require figuring out (as the saying goes) how to make lemonade out of lemons. Leveraging the in-house experience is the key to making the transition successful.
Practical View
The view from the general counsel perch is more practical than the law firm perch and deepens the understanding of the business lawyers’ role.
“Once you have been on the hot seat as general counsel you have a new understanding of what it all means – and why the client is calling. They have to act,” says Peter F. Demuth, formerly chief counsel at Sun Life Financial, who has returned to Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. “This practical perspective can be very helpful to the client.”
Richard A. Goldman was formerly general counsel at Kobrick Capital Management, LP and Kobrick Funds LLC and is now a partner at Bingham McCutchen.
“As an outside lawyer,” Goldman says, “you are often saying no. You don’t have to deal with the consequences of that to the business. Inside you have to figure out how to get it done. Being inside has made me a more practical lawyer.”
Part of being more practical is understanding that “legal aspects are just a component of any transaction,” Demuth adds. “I give better advice because I know things are just getting started when the deal is signed. When a client calls for advice about how to negotiate a merger agreement, I ask what are you doing at the business level to figure out how these two businesses are going to work together. I know that as an inside lawyer you are left with what it all means and how you are going to implement it. Now I really understand how the legal aspects are just a component of any transaction.”
This more practical perspective can also be a valuable marketing tool. Having a better understanding of how business operates from the inside enables a lawyer who has returned to a law firm practice to have a “better sense of the totality of clients’ needs,” says Anthony E. Hubbard, former general counsel at Designs, now a member at Mintz Levin. “Projects often come to law firms pre-packaged, and if you sit and listen to the client, you will learn more about all of their needs. I am a much better listener, having been in-house.”
Being in-house also gives you the opportunity to see how a business works, says Goldman, including budgets and managing employees, which you do not get in a law firm.
“Many of my clients who are hedge fund people have been very successful at handling other people’s money but have never run a business,” Goldman says. “Part of my marketing presentation is the value I add from having been in their environment, and my understanding of the whole picture.”
Investing time in the client to find out how the business does work is important. “Taking time with a client is very powerful – having lunch, casual conversation – and not billing for every hour. As an in-house lawyer I didn’t like it when I was billed for every second. The most important thing is to figure out how you can add value.”
Having a niche is also very helpful in marketing. “Every business has its’ own lingo and it is very powerful in marketing to know the lingo. I know the hedge fund lingo,” Goldman says.
Appreciating High Quality Service
While being in-house makes for a more practical approach to legal advice, it also gives rise to a heightened appreciation of the importance of high quality service. Making sure the client understands he or she is important to the law firm is key.
“Service by a law firm is a lot like dining at an upscale restaurant,” says Hubbard. “The client (like the restaurant patron) needs to feel that he/she is the only client that you are attending to. Being in-house gave me a new appreciation of the importance of responding to phone calls and e-mails promptly. It sends the wrong signal when law firm lawyers fail to be responsive and proactive when it comes to client service.”
In order to properly serve clients and understand what they need, “you really need to listen. Lawyers often talk too much,” says Hubbard. “Remember there is (or should be) a business relationship developing here. When I was general counsel I remember tending to look more closely at law firm invoices when I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the relationships with the individual lawyers at those firms.”
Goldman says “responsiveness” is what Bingham McCutchen “sells.”
“Nothing was more frustrating to me as a general counsel than a lawyer or an accountant not getting back to me,” says Goldman.
The first choice for most in-house lawyers making a job change is not often a law firm. But as many have found, the in-house experience can be leveraged to establish a successful career back in a firm.
