Corporate Lawyer’s Top 10 List of Successful Outside Counsel Habits: #1 Knowing Our Business and Lessons from the Supreme Court Asahi Metal Case

Corporate Lawyer’s Top 10 List of Successful Outside Counsel Habits: #1 Knowing Our Business and Lessons from the Supreme Court Asahi Metal Case.

1.? You know our business.

We start a new year with #1 on the list and it is the most important advice to outside counsel.? The very best outside counsel knows our business exceptionally well.? It may seem like a simple matter, but I assure you it is not.? The greatest frustration expressed by in-house counsel is that their external lawyers do not know their business and thus the advice that they provide is much less effective.

I certainly understand that we are all busy and spare time is limited.? I also appreciate that you have many clients and knowing them all very well is a challenge.? We are in different industries with ever shifting priorities and new lingo to learn (and acronyms!)? But for your most important clients, I commend you to spend whatever professional development time that you have learning the business of those clients inside and out.? Their annual and quarterly reports are must reads. ?If there are podcasts on that business or industry, listen to them as you go into work.? When you do lunch and learns at your law firm, do not bring me to speak to your team.? Bring a business executive or an industry expert who can teach you and your lawyers who work for that client about the business.

Why is this so important??

1. First, it shows investment and genuine concern for the growth of the business by the client.? After all, a legal engagement is short in time (even the ones that last years).? It is the long-term success of the business that everyone at a company is striving towards, especially in-house counsel.? It will lengthen your relationship because clients will see you in for the long haul in the relationship.?
2. Second, it makes you that much more effective.? When you are able to adapt your legal advice to “fit” the client and their business, you provide the very best service for them, and it makes your in-house client’s job much easier.? The lawyer who cannot see beyond the case or legal engagement for the client is limited.
3. Third and finally, it avoids simple mistakes that can prevent you from being hired again.? Some lawyers seem oblivious to a client’s business and think too legalistically.? It will make you more practical and avoid client frustrations.

I heard this story about the Asahi Metal Industry vs. Superior Court case in the Supreme Court when I was in law school.? I have no idea if this is accurate, but whether it is or not, it is such a good story of why knowing your client’s business can be so important.? Asahi involved a motorcycle driver who was driving on a California highway when the tire exploded.? ?The driver crashed and was injured.? The driver sued and eventually Asahi Metal Industry, a Japanese manufacturer of the tire valve, was brought into the case.? Asahi argued that the California courts did not have personal jurisdiction because it did not do business directly in California.? The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court with the Supreme Court concluding that Asahi did not have sufficient minimum contacts to allow the court to exercise jurisdiction over Asahi.

When all aspects of the case were long over, the lawyer who argued for Asahi in the Supreme Court brought part of the tire valve (which had been preserved for evidence) to the client.? He thought the client might want the valve as a memento of a now important Supreme Court case.? The client thanked the lawyer for the valve but told the lawyer that Asahi did not make that valve.? Know your client, know and use their products, know their lingo, and know what is important to them and what is not.? That will make you #1 with them.

I have really enjoyed sharing this list with you all.? I appreciate all the feedback and appreciation that I have received for the list.? There have been many wonderful people who have been successful in my growth as a lawyer.? That is what will always make the practice of law more of a profession and less of a business to me.? This was my small way to pay it forward.

-Brennan