Originally published on March 30, 2009 in our free BigLaw newsletter.
Previously in BigLaw, we talked about the madness that can result when communication breaks down between warring factions within the ranks of a firm's partnership. Epic battles between firm fiefdoms can undermine efficiency, turn associates into human shields, and, ultimately, leave the client wondering why his attorneys are too busy throwing mashed potatoes at one another to focus on the task at hand.
If the difficulty of intra-partner communication is enough to conjure such famous couplings as the Hatfields and McCoys, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, and Itchy and Scratchy, can a lowly associate ever hope to bridge the Great [Communication] Divide?
Find The Case …
We've all been on the wrong side of the aforementioned divide. It starts out innocently enough: a partner calls you into her office, describes the matter you will be working on (or, more likely, some fragment of the matter, removed from its context and thus stripped of helpful details, like facts), and tasks you with finding The Case. Yes, you realize with an involuntary chill: she wants you to find The Case.
Ah … The Case.
We've all heard of it, but it has earned the mythical status of a unicorn for good reason: few have seen it, and fewer still have actually harnessed its magical abilities.
The Case is a case that stands for a premise so unique, so completely counterfactual, and so arcane, that you doubt a court of law could have arrived at such a decision. The partner, however, is absolutely certain: it's out there, and it's your job to find it.
The Shapeshifting Assignment …
An even more common scenario involves another mythical creature: the Shapeshifting Assignment (and its corollary, the morphing memo).
Again, you know the setup: you arrive in the partner's office, prepared to receive your research task. He describes it in great detail, and gives you precise instructions for the memo he wants you to churn out. Eager to please, you ensconce yourself in the library and give it your all. Several days later, you hand the partner the product of your sweat, tears, and lost weekend. He takes one look at it, and, with steam shooting from his ears, announces that it's all wrong.
Clarify Your Assignment in Writing …
The scenarios described above are classic examples of how poor communication can lead to wasted time and effort, frustration on the part of all involved, and (depending upon the personalities involved), humiliation for the well-intentioned, but hapless, associate. Is there any way to avoid these all-too-common pitfalls?
Your best hope, explains one tipster, is to keep in mind that an ounce — or, in lawyer parlance, a few six-minute increments — of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
"Bill," now an experienced practitioner, was barely out of law school when he experienced the Shapeshifting Assignment for the first time. Since then, he has had strong feelings about it, and, more importantly, has devised a system for avoiding it.
"As an associate, you really need to know where you stand at all times," he says. The best way to protect yourself, he advises, is to devote special attention to what he refers to as "front end communications," or the give-and-take of instructions that occur before you actually roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Bill found, as a young associate, that a short "assignment memo" was often the best insurance policy. After receiving his marching orders, he says, "I would go back to my office, take a moment to gather my thoughts, and write a brief memo summarizing the assignment and identifying the issues, as I understood them." He explains that, by giving the partner a chance to see your understanding of the assignment before you begin, you accomplish two things: (1) you provide an opportunity to clarify and iron out details before you get started, and, in doing so doing (2) create the proverbial butt-cover that you may need later.
Having been on both sides of the desk, Bill understands that miscommunications about the precise contours of an assignment often occur "in the total absence of malice." Rather, he says, "people are busy; expectations aren't always well-stated, and memories are short. People forget what was said or not said, or they change their minds about what it was they wanted to focus on."
As an associate, Bill found that many partners were grateful for the chance to review instructions before hours were wasted on tangential research or off-point memos. Nonetheless, he advises, it's important to "be diplomatic about it. There are ways to make it seem like you're doing [the assigning partner] a favor, and not just creating a cold, hard record." For example, he says, it may help to emphasize that you, the associate, are making sure that you understand the assignment, rather than suggesting that the partner's instructions were unclear.
Bill returns repeatedly to two magic words: contemporaneous notes. Of course, he says, you'll need to take them to prepare your assignment memo, but, in addition, he points out, "taking contemporaneous notes during a meeting makes it clear that you're paying attention to what is being said, and lets them know that you're on top of things."
Lawyers and big egos, he observes diplomatically, are a pairing on the level of peanut butter and jelly. Contemporaneous notes represent an associate's way of "leveling the playing field." Moreover (speaking of diplomacy), if there is a dispute about who said what, Bill says, you'll be grateful for your contemporaneous notes. You'll also be grateful for your email correspondence, he reminds us, which practically does the work of creating a paper trail for you. In short, he advises, keeping your own mini-file of the cases you're working on will help you (the associate) stay on top of the assignments, and provide you with back-up should you ever need it.
The Buck Really Stops at the Partner's Desk …
Now that he is on the other side of the desk, Bill also has a few helpful suggestions for those on the giving end of assignments. "I prepare a short memo outlining the assignment, and have it ready when I meet with an associate," he says. In it, he is "explicit about time parameters and important issues." For example, he explains, he will often tell an associate to come back to him after three hours of research and discuss his or her progress.
Here, he stresses, good, old-fashioned talk works best. "I don't want them to waste time writing anything up," he continues. "I just want to head off research tangents before they start, and figure out whether we're going in the right direction." He finds that the minimal time and effort involved in outlining the assignment, and then meeting with the associate for a status check early on, yield tremendous benefits.
An Ounce of Prevention …
Basically, Bill concludes, a little bit of preparation up front can prevent all manner of heartache (and wasted billable time) later. And, he emphasizes, it's particularly important for associates to invest the time in figuring out what is expected of them, in relation to both assignments and working relationships.
"Trust me," he says, with the authority of one who has learned his lessons the hard way. "You can easily find yourself, as an associate, on the receiving end of an undiplomatic situation without the power to do anything about it. Knowing the rules up front and clarifying your assignments will make your work better and more precise … but, in a pinch, there's also nothing like being able to go back to the record."
How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw goes deep undercover inside some of the country's biggest law firms. But we don't just dish up the dirt. We also mine it for best and worst practices and other nuggets of knowledge. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
