Corporate Lawyer’s Top 10 List of Successful Outside Counsel Habits: #10 Listening to What is Not Being Said and Lessons from Warplane Design

10.? You ask what we want to achieve together and how we should work to get there.

I thought my list should start at the START??.? Each working relationship is different.? Even within a single corporate client, in-house lawyers may work very differently or have different bandwidths to address legal challenges and need outside counsel differently.? After many bumpy starts, I have learned that a basic discussion at the start about expectations can avoid those bumpy starts.? Yet, in my experience, very few lawyers start work for a client by asking really important questions to set them up for success??.? It should go something like:

?“I want to be sure I understand how you want to work together.? It is important to me that we deliver on why you hired us, but I have come to learn that clients work very differently and can have different expectations, needs, and involvement.? With that in mind, I want to ask a few questions.”

• What does the company want to achieve specifically?? Why is it important to the company and its objectives?
• ?How do you want to solve this problem together?? How do you like to work?? What role do you want to play?? What role do you want me to play?
• Finally, and most importantly, what does success in this matter look like to you –for the company, for you, and for me?

Don’t be afraid to cross examine your client on these issues.? Don’t be afraid to challenge assumptions you may have even about clients that you have a long working relationship.? You will be surprised at:

1?? what you will learn – in-house lawyers often have so much to do and on their mind that these questions could give you what might be critical information

2?? how it will change how you handle the matter.?

But here is the kicker:? Follow Through.? Handle the matter in a way that showed you listened and care about these answers.

What does this have to do with warplane ?design?? As many of you know, I love history and particularly WWII history.? It can teach us so much about great leadership.? During WWII, fighter and bomber planes would come back with bullet holes.? The Allies initially sought to strengthen the most commonly damaged part of planes to increase the chances the plane and pilots would survive.?

That was not making much change in survivability rates until someone asked this question:? what if the reasons planes were not coming back is because they were hit in the least common areas of bullet holes?? This led to reinforcement in those areas to greater success.

In working for a client, don’t only listen to what is being said??, ask these questions so you can listen also to what is not being said??.

-Brennan