Category: News Feeds

You work somewhere for 20 years. You quit. All of a sudden, you’re not sure the joint was that good, after all.

You work somewhere for 20 years. They fire you. All of a sudden, you’re absolutely sure the place was terrible all along.

The basis of some counterclaims is obvious: Maybe you actually wronged the other party. That would be a good reason for the other party to sue you.

Or maybe you have a 100-page, single-spaced contract, and both parties are obligated to do many things for the other. If you sue them, they’ll sue you back. That’s the way it works.

But human nature may reveal the less obvious bases for counterclaims.

Fire someone.

All of a sudden, that person is likely to realize that your joint engaged in rampant discrimination against the former employee’s protected class.

Fire someone.

If the person isn’t a member of a protected class, then the person will suddenly realize that people at your joint routinely violated the law, or breached the rules of ethics, or otherwise acted improperly.

It really doesn’t matter that the employee never mentioned ethics problems during the 20 years they worked for you.

I’m not talking about reality here; I’m talking about human nature.

File a collection action.

You’re about to get sued for malpractice.

I don’t care if the client seemed happy during your five-year retention. The client is about to become very unhappy with the work you did.

I’m not limiting my analysis to individuals. Have a corporation decide to eliminate someone’s job as a result of a reorganization. All of a sudden, everyone will start criticizing the eliminated employee’s performance. It doesn’t matter that this is a position elimination, and performance is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter that the employee always received a performance rating of “3,” suggesting that the employee’s performance was satisfactory. If the employee’s position has been eliminated, then the employee was no good. It’s human nature.

Consider the partner who leaves your law firm and goes to work for a competitor. Before the office door has swung shut, your colleagues will be scoffing: “Jarndyce — he was never any good anyway. I’m delighted he left.” (Others may be silently thinking: “Gee, I’m old enough to remember when Jarndyce was a good lawyer.” But they’ll never have the courage to speak up.)

When you’re considering the possibility of counterclaims, think about human nature.

Some counterclaims are based on the law, but many are based on primal instincts. Either way, you’ll have to pay for your defense.

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Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

For two years, Dan Kamensky waged a grueling and bitter war against Neiman Marcus owners Ares Management and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. The Marble Ridge Capital chief lambasted them for attempting to screw over unsecured creditors by spinning off its MyTheresa e-commerce business. The whole thing certainly got quite nasty at times. And then, when Neiman was at its lowest, in bankruptcy and accused of default by Deutsche Bank of all counterparties, Kamensky turned the screws, forcing Ares and CPPIB to give up some of their stake in MyTheresa to make exiting bankruptcy possible.

* A music composer for The Simpsons can move forward with his lawsuit over being dismissed from the show. Maybe his response when he heard the news was “Woo Hoo!” [Yahoo News]

* A lawyer for the alleged Kenosha shooter claims his client was acting in self defense. [New York Post]

* Ghislaine Mawell, a former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, is allegedly the first person in a New York City federal lockup to see a lawyer since the COVID-19 pandemic began. [Independent]

* A Georgia lawyer was shot in his right shoulder during a dispute at a real estate closing last week. [August Chronicle]

* The Estate of Leonard Cohen may take action against the RNC for using the song “Hallelujah” during fireworks after President Trump’s acceptance speech last week. [Vanity Fair]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Remember morning rush hour? Or being stuck at the office until 9:45pm on a Friday night?  While so much has changed as we’ve settled into remote work, many segments of the legal industry continue to roar as they did pre-pandemic. And the most astute, successful firms are seizing this uncertain time to add talent and bolster their teams for the future. But against this backdrop, recruiting lateral talent presents its own unique challenges in an ever-evolving hiring process. So how does interviewing in the age of Covid-19 work, and how do firms and candidates gather the necessary information about one another from six feet apart?

So 2019, No. 1:

Interviews must be held in an office and in-person.

2020? For decades, offices, hotel lobbies, and coffee shops were the primary domain for interviews. But just as Covid-19 has rewritten the rules about social norms, business practices, and government debt, so goes the interview process. Now more than ever, successful interviews are happening anywhere, anytime. Flexibility is ruling the day.

It goes without saying that the video interview has taken over, so we won’t bother with another etiquette lecture. But with so many of us working remotely, the added freedom has made interview scheduling easier than ever. Employers and candidates are genuinely embracing (or begrudgingly accepting) the new reality, often going through every step of the hiring process without an in-person meeting. Fingers crossed we don’t end up having to publish our draft post, “Zoom Crash Leads to Collapse of Modern Civilization”.

The right fit concept is deeply ingrained in our job search/hiring culture and pushes us towards personal contact. Navigating the murky waters of possible in-person meetings can be tricky for all sides involved, and of course everyone has to make decisions about their own comfort zone.

How employers and candidates deal with this issue can say a lot about them. A complete lack of flexibility from the employer could reflect other long-term aspects of their policies, so you might want to let that ship sail. On the other hand, a lack of flexibility by the candidate, especially if presenting an in-person meeting as an ultimatum for moving forward in the interview process, can be perceived as tone-deaf and result in a withdrawn offer. 

But as with the rest of life, there has been a slow return to some in-person activity. We have scheduled meetings in public parks and at outdoor cafes. The most creative location we’ve seen: “I’ll meet him in the fishing section at 3pm” — and thus a mid-level litigation associate interview with a national firm went down in a Cabela’s Sporting Goods store. 

So 2019, No. 2:

Lateral Interviewing typically follows a set process and timeline.  

2020?  There is no standard interview process or timeline. So again, be flexible! Lateral interviews are challenging, time-consuming, and nerve-rattling even under normal conditions.  While there are exceptions, we have seen more employers extend the interview process both by the number of interviews, length of time between interviews, and requiring additional writing samples, references or assurances before deciding (or declining) to extend an offer. By talking to hiring managers and partners on a daily basis, we have gained inside knowledge about the employer’s budget to hire, willingness to move quickly, and the competition under consideration for an opportunity, which is vital for making a successful placement.   

So 2019, No. 3:

Live where you work.

2020?  Work where you live (See what we did there?).  Since most attorneys are now working remotely, firms are recognizing that employees can live anywhere and still perform. One of our clients, a NYC-based boutique, opened up their lateral associate search to the entire U.S., realizing that the days of showing facetime in a Midtown office have passed. Tech companies have long realized that workers can perform remotely; law firms and in-house departments are following suit. As a former tax attorney (Jessica writing here), check with your accountant on the tax consequences of living and working from a state other than where your office is domiciled. 

Can you believe 2021 is right around the corner?

As autumn rolls in and the lock-down counter ticks into month seven, there is much reason for optimism in the lateral hiring market. Nimble firms who have mastered remote recruitment are making headline-worthy lateral hires and seeing immediate production. Those firms and companies who haven’t must follow the lead or will find themselves severely lagging when stability from Covid-19 returns. We anticipate that several positive factors will result from this challenging time, including efficiencies in lateral hiring as competition increases and the need for travel decreases.  2021 will almost certainly hold lateral options that were unthinkable in the 2019 legal industry.

As always, reach out anytime (Jessica, Daniel).  We’re happy to discuss career opportunities, commiserate over Zoom fails, or share our favorite bread recipes if you can find any flour.

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day!

According to American Lawyer’s Midlevel Associate Survey, which breaks the rankings out by specific offices, which two Kirkland & Ellis locations got top marks in their respective cities?

Hint: One office got a 4.854 out of 5 in overall satisfaction and the other, slightly less happy location got a 4.745 but still takes the number 1 spot for the city.

See the answer on the next page.

I’ve noticed conservative Republican chairs more often eager to get back in the office. Many of those people are in the Southeast or Texas, but a few in Chicago and New York.

— an unnamed law firm consultant, commenting on post-COVID Biglaw office reopening plans and the correlation between their geography and the politics of the region. The consultant also said they’d noticed that men seemed to be much more eager to get back to the office than women.

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Olga V. Mack is the CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. She founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to participate on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat and Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security. You can follow Olga on Twitter @olgavmack.

Even if you’ve not heard, let alone heeded, the warnings of the grown-ups in the room, even if you’ve somehow missed all of the practical examples of why you should be extra super-duper careful before trading your actual money for some newfangled intangible imaginary money, we’re have hoped that the exception boldness of OneCoin’s value proposition might have aroused some skepticism in even those lacking in any common sense at all. But we would be wrong.

The Justice Department said OneCoin accounts show it took in some $4 billion from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2016, sucking in investors from Africa to the U.S., Venezuela to China…. Ruja Ignatova, a 40-year-old Bulgarian, started OneCoin in 2014 with Mr. Greenwood. Unlike more established cryptocurrencies, OneCoin wasn’t actively traded. The coins couldn’t be used to buy anything. Their price was determined solely by Ms. Ignatova, who promised big financial rewards. Federal prosecutors would later allege that OneCoin was less of a cryptocurrency and more of a pyramid scheme, where money from new purchasers would flow up to Ms. Ignatova and others who sold the currency in the early days.

If you’ve been feeling stressed out, anxious, or depressed over these past few months, you are not alone. When the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), a leading organization for in-house lawyers, surveyed its members in June, it found that almost 20 percent are experiencing depression, more than 40 percent suffer anxiety, and almost 75 percent have moderate to severe burnout.

It’s not hard to understand why, given that our nation is suffering through a pandemic and a recession at the same time. Our country, our economy, and our legal profession are going through a huge amount of turmoil and change — much of the change bad, but not all of it — and dealing with change is difficult, even during good times.

If you are a lawyer looking for guidance and support as you help your organization navigate all this change, consider looking to the principles of change management. For those of you who are not familiar with it, change management consists of “the process, tools, and techniques used to manage the human side of change for the achievement and sustainment of a desired business outcome.” Change management has revolutionized the business world — and it’s now being adopted in the legal world as well.

Earlier this month, I moderated a (fantastic) panel about change management for in-house counsel — sponsored by Cadence Counsel, the in-house division of the Lateral Link consortium of legal recruitment firms — which featured the following (superb) panelists:

• Monique Burt Williams – CEO, Cadence Counsel
• Brittanie Chin-Merkerson – Change Management Consultant, Johnson Controls
• Jennifer Chung – General Counsel, Accuweather
• Julie Honor – General Counsel, 3Q Digital

The discussion offered an excellent introduction to change management and its applicability to the in-house context, combining a theoretical framework with solid, actionable advice for in-house lawyers. You can watch it below — and I’m confident that you’ll find it as informative and enriching as I did.

Next month, we’ll be presenting the second installment in this free webinar series, focused on change management and corporate culture, including such crucial topics as compliance and diversity. It will take place on Tuesday, September 22, at 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT, and you can register for it here. Please join us for what I know will be a delightful conversation full of invaluable insight.

Change Management & Corporate Culture: Registration [Zoom]
Cadence Counsel Presents: Change Management for In-House Counsel [YouTube]

Earlier: Change Management For In-House Counsel

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. This post is by David Lat, a Managing Director in the New York office, where he focuses on placing top associates, partners, and partner groups into preeminent law firms around the country.

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Cadence Counsel is the in-house division of Lateral Link, one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices worldwide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click here to find out more about us.