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June 01, 2009
Part II--"Wartime Consigliere": Bunnies with JDs are nice but...
A Warrior knows how to make peace. A Scared Bunny will never know how to win a war.
--Scott Greenfield. Trial Lawyer. Philosopher. Planner. Aggressive Human. [upper case in mid-sentence by WAC? for emphasis]
"Worse still, a scared bunny will do everything in his power to avoid a war." Bunny GCs and Bunny outside lawyers, if you think about it, may be in the majority.
That's okay. Not every lawyer needs to be a take-charge, overbearing, fire-breathing litigator. Or a "mean person" who is demanding and aggressive, God forbid. But you do need a couple of nasty folks like that in your camp.
Lawyers. Most of us like puppy dog tails, canned jokes that only CPAs and bank employees would laugh at, "Lassie" movies, Sweetness, Light and Get-a-Life conferences during a Recession.
(Note: I can't get over the ugly and embarrassing reality of such a gathering. If anyone said I had attended--even in jest--I would hire a certain lawyer at a Cleveland-based DC shop and sue for defamation, and under the Lanham Act, in a heartbeat. How about a "Get-a-Pair" conference?)
And we are a reasonably intelligent, gentle folk. We don't raise our voices. Are risk-averse. Don't like to run things. Don't market. Don't yell, swear or bully. Tom Hagen was a "nice" guy. (And worthless except for that fun LA horse head thing; you can have him.)
And we are "nice guys" not because we are "moral" or "professional" or "deliberate" or "smart"--that's all a crock. It's because we just don't like violence. It's so, well, icky. Not in our nature. Most of us don't fight. Even for clients--and I see this every day. We are lawyer-centric. Club Dweeb. The Bunny Bund. Face it.
But you DO want a few non-Bunnies around you and yours, occupying certain positions of trust and importance in your company, or law firms. Yes. You do. Trust us.
So be extra nice to a few mean people today. See this one at Simple Justice: "A Wartime Consigliere".
A Hagen Bunny at work: "Hey, can't we just keep talking?"
Posted by JD Hull at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
Yes--and your GC should be a "Wartime Consigliere".
The Wrong Stuff: Thomas "Tom" Feargal Hagen (Paramount Pictures)
It's not a Godfather thing, not a macho thing, not a litigation thing. It's just a business fact, especially in changing industries. And especially now. General Counsel at corporations do make a difference:
1. She should be broad-gauged, intellectual, take-charge, organized, preventive, resourceful--and War-like at heart.
2. Hates war as expensive--but likes and even revels in a fight.
3. Tells management what to do--and not a tentative, qualified "what you can do".
At his well-regarded Law Department Management, Rees Morrison, by far one of the smarter, sager and more experienced lawyer-consultants out there, just asked "Does a General Counsel Make All That Much Difference?" Our two cents is in the WAC? post title above. The right GC? Get thee a philosopher-warrior. Be safe and feel safe, friends.
Morrison goes a bit farther, inspired in part by this month's Atlantic piece "Do CEOs Matter?, by Harris Collingwood. See also our short recent post, "Proctor & Gamble's Lafley: Look to the meaningful outside", on CEO A.G. Lafley's recent thoughts about CEO uniqueness in May's Harvard Business Review.
Morrison excerpt:
Other researchers have found that CEO leadership matters relatively less in constrained industries, such as electrical utility industries, than in hotly competitive, fast-changing industries.
A similar conclusion probably applies to general counsel: legal/business calls are tougher and more frequent in roiling industries so the top lawyer has more opportunity to make a difference.
Expert on The Right Stuff: Rees Morrison
Posted by JD Hull at 12:20 AM | Comments (1)