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December 21, 2005
Fear and Loathing at the CLE Seminar? Getting an Earful from GCs.
Law.com's In-House Counsel section recently linked to a December 9 article from the Fulton County [Georgia] Daily Report entitled "Getting an Earful From GCs". Apparently--and this fascinates me--at a CLE seminar hosted by the Corporate Counsel Section of the Georgia state bar, some of the 100 GCs present asked outside law firm reps a bunch of "why-can't-you-get-it?" questions, including this one: Why don't outside lawyers understand the "business models and corporate culture of their clients?" Assuming that's true, i.e. we are not learning about clients from which we want repeat business, and at the risk of sounding didactic, I ask this one: How did so many of us get this bad? Whoa.
Posted by JD Hull at December 21, 2005 10:39 AM
Comments
So I follow this link and read this from a GC rep from UPS:
""They're not called trucks," she said. "They're called package cars. If you call them trucks, you don't understand the nature of our business."
Sorry, but nomenclature over trucks v. cars has nothing to do with any business model. This law firm, probably one that understands what a business model really is and with integrity, loses an account because the GC is an idiot. Readers who want to understand what is meant by a business model should start with Hamel's book, Leading the Revolution, or Drucker's essay, The Theory of the Business.
Can you image trying a fender bender lawsuit with this gc in the courtroom. Plaintiffs counsel says in her opening. Had you been standing at 12th and Vine on December 29th at noon you would have seen a familiar brown UPS truck run the red light and pile into the driver side door of my client's chevy nova.
Defense counsel would then stand up and, least she lose the account, start. "It wasn't a brown UPS truck, it was a package car." That will carry the day.
You should rip this GC a new one. What is useful about your site are you posts on plain writing and clear speaking.
Posted by: Moe Levine at December 29, 2005 09:41 AM