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According to data collected by Jim Rosenblatt’s law deans database, what law school has the largest number of alumni currently working as a law school dean?

Hint: This law school has 31 alumni currently serving as law school deans.

See the answer on the next page.

Since beginning my own law firm earlier this year, I have taken referrals and referred cases to other lawyers much more than when I worked at larger law firms.  I used to believe that referrals only helped attorneys receiving work, since these lawyers are able to generate revenue from clients that are referred to them.  Of course, there are some ways to ethically share fees as a result of referrals, but referring attorneys can also realize a number of other benefits from referring out matters.  In addition, clients often realize a number of benefits from having their cases referred to another attorney rather than working with the first lawyer to whom they contact.

One benefit of referring matters that I did not understand until after I started my own firm is that referring a client to another attorney is a far more polite way to pass on work without impugning the merits of a case or hurting anyone’s feelings.  Oftentimes, friends and people referred to me by acquaintances might propose litigation that would either be costly or does not have a high likelihood of success.  It is difficult to turn such people down, since prospective clients are often unwilling to see the deficiencies in their cases or understand the practical issues of filing a given lawsuit.

However, it is much more polite to refer a case to someone else than to turn a matter down outright.  In addition, even if an attorney has a difficult talk about why a lawsuit might not be practical, clients usually appreciate being referred to another lawyer whom they can talk to about a given matter.

Moreover, and I hate to use this expression in this context even though it fits, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.  Even if one lawyer does not see value in a matter, another attorney might discern the merits of a case.  For instance, I was involved with a personal injury lawsuit recently that was turned down by three respectable attorneys.  However, this case eventually settled for several hundred thousand dollars without too much hardball litigation.  The attorney that handled the case and filed the lawsuit a day before the statute of limitations expired was referred to the client by the third lawyer who turned the matter down.  In any case, referring work to other attorneys can help clear a lawyer’s desk of matters they do not wish to handle, and this can maintain relationships with clients who might appreciate being referred to another lawyer.

Another major advantage of referring cases to other lawyers is that this can increase the number of clients that are referred to the referring attorney.  Attorneys are usually more than happy to refer clients to an attorney if they themselves received a referral.  In fact, nearly all of the referrals I have made have positively impacted my practice.  For instance, many attorneys who have accepted my referrals have referred matters to me or reviewed me positively online.  Referring cases is a good way to pay it forward, and there is a solid chance that this deposit into the “favor bank” will yield dividends in the future.

Referring cases to another attorney is also usually beneficial to the client.  Oftentimes when a lawyer is on the fence about whether to accept a matter or refer it to another attorney, it is because the referring attorney does not have much experience with a given issue.  Of course, lawyers sometimes work on a matter even though they might not be totally familiar with a type of case because they want to get paid for doing the work.  However, in these situations, another lawyer who is more experienced with a given legal matter might be able to give a client better representation.  In addition, doing less-than-ideal work for a client could make a client think that a lawyer is bad at handling all matters, and this could jeopardize future work generated by an attorney.  As a result, referring cases when there is any hesitation about one’s experience with legal issues is usually beneficial for everyone involved in the matter.

In addition, there are a number of other reasons why referring out a matter might benefit a client as well as the attorneys involved.  Sometimes, attorneys wish to refer out prospective clients that are located a far distance from an attorney’s office.  This makes it much easier for the client to meet with their attorney and lets an attorney avoid the hassle of handling a matter far away.  In addition, when attorneys at bigger firms refer matters to lawyers at smaller firms (which happens all the time, how many of us have gotten an email at a bigger firm looking for an attorney to refer work to!) the attorney at a smaller firm usually charges less money.  This can save the client cash and avoids a situation in which an attorney at a bigger firm cannot properly handle a matter because they are afraid of racking up huge legal bills due to higher hourly rates.

All told, referrals are commonplace within the legal industry, as they are in other professions.  Of course, everyone probably understands that referrals are good for the attorney receiving work, and for the referring attorney if referral fees are allowed.  However, it is also important to note that there are many reasons why referrals are good for referring attorneys, lawyers receiving work, and clients themselves.

Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a New Jersey and New York full-service 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 jrothman@rothmanlawyer.com.

While Trump rails against Facebook for having the gall to occasionally fact-check the nonsense passed around its platform and Democratic candidates are seriously discussing breaking up Amazon, it’s becoming clear that the leeway big technology firms have had for years is going to be reined in regardless of who controls Washington. In the meantime, the FTC is ratcheting up enforcement of tech companies, having secured a pair of big wins last month over Facebook and Equifax.

But as the FTC does its job, these tech companies are lawyering up with former FTC lawyers who’ve decamped to Biglaw.

Facebook enlisted Sean Royall, an attorney with the firm Gibson Dunn, who was previously a deputy director in the FTC’s Bureau of Competition from 2001 to 2003, according to the law firm’s website. Current FTC Chairman Joseph Simons was the bureau’s director at the time.

And Edith Ramirez, a Democrat who was selected by then-President Obama in 2013 to chair the FTC, represented Equifax over privacy charges stemming from their massive 2017 data breach. Ramirez, who left the agency in February 2017 to join the law firm Hogan Lovells, has also defended Google-owned YouTube against a class action lawsuit over children’s privacy. A federal judge in South Carolina threw the case out in April.

On the one hand, this makes a lot of sense. Who could possibly know the procedures and motivations of an investigating agency better than someone who used to work there? Former agency officials offer insight and experience that’s hard to find among practitioners who’ve spent their whole life on the outside.

On the other hand, just as there are many excellent criminal defense attorneys who’ve never worked as prosecutors, it’s possible to build expertise defending antitrust actions without being on the other side. And the risk that the rapid-fire revolving door system could undermine the mission of the FTC is high:

“There’s just an enormous expectation that either you yourself will revolve if you’re at the FTC, or that in almost any important matter someone opposite you at the table is a former colleague, and maybe a former boss who gave you a promotion or a friend,” [Executive director of the Revolving Door Project Jeff] Hauser told The Hill.

“I mean, there’s a lot of ongoing social connections between current and former FTC lawyers, who are often going to be ostensibly on the opposite side of tables,” he added. “And I think it would be an act of robotic perfection for that to not influence the tenor of the conversations at those tables.”

The adversarial system breaks down when the other side of the table is approaching the matter as if they’re an alternative agency viewpoint instead of an opponent. The whole conflict changes when one side is acting like a dissenting commission member rather than an outside attorney and that influences how the sausage is made — more likely than not in ways that inure to the benefit of the company.

Still, these folks can’t stay in the government forever and they’ve made their livelihood in trade commission litigation. They wouldn’t have much to bring to the table of the firm if forced to do only slip and falls the rest of their lives. The legal academy can’t absorb a bevy of new FTC professors every year, so some of these folks have to get back into private practice. But the government can do a better job of policing conflicts of interest.

Peter Kaplan, a spokesman for the FTC, told The Hill in a statement, “The FTC strictly adheres to all federal government ethics rules and guidelines.”

Those include a lifetime ban on former officials representing any companies that they were personally involved in overseeing in cases before the federal government.

That’s a good start, but the agency should consider making employees above a certain level off-limits to practice in this area for a longer blackout period. If a line attorney wants to move to Biglaw that’s one thing, but if a commission member who actively shaped policy jumps ship they should be forced to sit out. A ban on representing a specific company doesn’t address the conflict involved when a defense attorney has real knowledge of how overarching policy is being shaped and the sort of deep personal connections with the people making the supervisory calls on cases.

There may not be an easy answer, but with tech companies increasingly being hauled in front of the FTC with their former FTC attorneys in tow, everyone should at least start thinking about what can be done.

Tech fight puts former FTC officials in high demand [The Hill]

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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