Comments on: Quick Ways To Get Fired as a Lawyer

By: Love Poems & Quotes

Love Poems & Quotes — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:50:34 +0000

I think the main way that lawyers get in trouble is taking the redlines out.

By: Jason Mendelson

Jason Mendelson — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:56:04 +0000

Thanks for the support Jeff and your name is very familiar, but missing the face. Nice to see that you have your own firm now.

By: Jeff A.

Jeff A. — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:53:59 +0000

Love this list Jason. You probably don't remember me but I was a summer associate in Hanover back in the day.

By: Mattj

Mattj — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:13:24 +0000

What I generally find offensive is the practice of billing for internal discussions within the firm. In other words, the senior partner has a meeting with the associates to discuss my account and I get billed for everyone's time. And that brings me to the firms that provide no detail to their billing. And finally, the worst of the worst: the attorney who does work that you didn't ask him to do and then won't do work you want him to do unless you pay for the work you didn't ask for. I see this more in personal representation than corporate but I had an M&A firm recently do this and I specifically told them in advance we were not interested in them doing the specific work that they ended up billing us for.

By: Jay Levitt

Jay Levitt — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:00:24 +0000

Re #3, leadership: I think the value of an "expertise" professional – attorney, accountant, realtor – is inversely proportional to the number of good ideas *I* have to come up with. If they make me do all the thinking, they're not advisers – they're gatekeepers.

Oddly, I have yet to find someone who'll make that their basis for compensation.

By: Jason Mendelson

Jason Mendelson — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:27:15 +0000

This wasn’t sloppiness. This was purposeful, but your point is well taken.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:13:26 +0000

I've generally seen poor redlining practices as an example of extremely poor organization by a lawyer, less as a way of being sleazy and more just poorly organized and lazy…someone who saves 10 drafts internally, loses track of which one was the original they were marking against, doesn't open the redline to make sure it looks like the right document, forget to train associates on what good practices are, "accept" a comment in track changes that makes text disappear without generating a new redline, etc.

A personal pet peave is that somewhere in the last five years many firms seem to have forgotten to tell associates that the cover email should always say what the redline shows changes from. The logical thought is that it would show changes from the last draft received from the other side, but that is not always the case for reasons that are legit–multiple sets of comments from investors, comments from specialists came in separately, etc.– and sometimes annoying, such as showing against your last draft to show fewer changes where you rejected all the other side's comments.

By: Jason Mendelson

Jason Mendelson — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:35:05 +0000

Agree completely and also love your email address….

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:09:29 +0000

Excellent post Jason. In particular, the "you don't represent the CEO"–or for that matter the VC's–seems to be an often overlooked part of startup company practice. Knowing the difference between trying to broker a deal/compromise between the CEO and Board/investors, and giving inappropriate advice to the CEO is critical. A lawyer must remember there are times where the correct path is to suggest the CEO should get his or her own counsel, because you don't represent the CEO. And then keep saying it until the CEO listens.

By: chacon

chacon — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:07:08 +0000

Excellent Post. Thanks for putting all of this out there. I am happy to see that playing by the rules and working hard for the client is not ignored.