Biglaw, In-House Counsel

2 Career-Limiting Mistakes Lawyers Make During Meetings

Columnist Mark Herrmann gives two examples -- one error routinely made by senior people at meetings, and one routinely made by junior people.

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I’ve seen it all: Witnesses break down and cry, toss their cookies during a deposition (or just before testifying at trial), or have heart attacks the day before they were due in court. (That last sentence is completely accurate; I’ve lived through each one of those things.)

I’ve seen meetings run well and meetings run poorly. (That last sentence is also completely accurate. But, frankly, who cares?)

(Wait! Maybe you should care!)

I continue to see (and hear about — don’t think any of this occurs at the joint where I happen to work today) meetings during which people do career-limiting stuff. Let me give two examples — one error routinely made by senior people at meetings, and one routinely made by junior people.

Let’s start at the top:

Senior guy! (I mean you — partner, or boss, or muckety-muck!) Do not criticize people harshly during meetings.

I understand that junior people occasionally say silly things during meetings. They say embarrassing things, and things that are simply incorrect, and things that could mislead a client (or some broader audience). Sometimes, junior people say something that’s technically correct, but they express it in the wrong way. For example, a question may require a one-word answer — a yes or no response to resolve a tangential issue, permitting the meeting to turn back to its main purpose — and the junior person may (intentionally or not) begin to filibuster.

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A few minutes into the filibuster, I know that you’re starting to fume: I have to shut this clown up! The junior person is offending me, and annoying everyone else in the meeting, and, frankly, embarrassing my institution (or department, or whatever). I’ve gotta say something!

Or, if the junior person provided misinformation, you might be equally outraged: This firm prides itself on perfection! And now this jerk is saying stuff that’s just flat wrong. Why did we hire this moron?

There are now two ways to get your meeting back on course: Nasty or nice.

Be nice.

Here’s nice: “Romeo, you said ‘one million,’ but I think you moved the decimal point there. Have another look, but the number might be ‘one hundred.'”

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Here’s nasty: “Romeo, dammit! I told you to be careful when you prepared these materials, and you’ve screwed up yet again! That number isn’t a million; it’s a hundred. Jesus; can’t you do anything right?”

Or, after Juliet’s been droning on for an unnecessary 90 seconds: “Juliet, I hate to interrupt, but you might be providing a little more context than this group needs. I think the answer to Hamlet’s question is ‘yes,’ and then we can start thinking about [whatever]. Am I correct that the short answer is ‘yes’?”

Not, in front of the whole crowd: “What in God’s name are you talking about? He asked a simple yes or no question, and you’re giving us a whole friggin’ dissertation. Is the answer yes or no? Just tell us that, and then shut up. We have real things to talk about!” (And then mutter under your breath.)

Be nice. Your subordinates will be hurt when you chastise them in public, and they may resent you for years as a result. If you work in a corporation (or in a law firm that cares about these things), you might be judged poorly for having publicly berated a subordinate. Here’s the rule: When you’re in public, criticize subordinates as gently as possible.

After the meeting, it is, of course, fair — indeed, necessary — to tell the junior person what he or she did wrong: “Juliet, be very careful about taking up the time of a half-dozen very senior people on tangential points. You and I are just advisors at a meeting like this; we help the decision-makers act. So our role is to answer questions correctly and succinctly, and let the real players get on with their work. When Polonius asked you that question, you started to tell everything you knew on the subject, instead of giving the short answer the group needed to move forward. Keep that in mind for future meetings.”

That’s called being helpful — or a “mentor,” or giving “coaching” or “constructive criticism” — and most people appreciate it. Even if someone doesn’t appreciate the advice, the person won’t hate you for decades because you’ve inflicted public humiliation.

Just be nice; show some respect.

What about the other side of the coin? Junior person! (I mean you — associate, or subordinate, or lawyer in the room when the CEO is speaking!) Do not make your boss look like an idiot in public.

I understand that the boss is saying something that you think is wrong. The partner just said that the Second Circuit had reversed, and the Second Circuit had in fact affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded, for heaven’s sake. How did that guy ever make partner? Or the CFO said that earnings were up “significantly — something like 10 percent” — and you know that earnings were up only 9.8 percent.

I know that the speaker’s error is killing you. You wallowed in the detail work. You did all the preparation for the meeting. The other clown is speaking from a PowerPoint deck and notes that you prepared, and she can’t even do that right! Why are you cursed to have to work for these fools? You should be in charge here!

What’s a career-limiting move in this situation? “Ophelia, that’s wrong. Earnings weren’t up 10 percent; they were up 9.8 percent. I put that in your speaking notes; just read them.”

Calm down. The partner really, really, really doesn’t want to be corrected in front of clients. And the boss really, really, really doesn’t want to be made to look like a fool in front of the executive committee. And the CEO really, really, really doesn’t want to look like a jerk in front of the chamber of commerce.

So spare the public correction, if at all possible.

You certainly shouldn’t jump on the senior person for sins that are hardly worth mentioning — presenting your ideas as hers, acting as though she’d done the spadework, bluffing through materials that she doesn’t really know (and that you do).

That’s just life. That stuff happens all the time. Get over it.

If the boss makes a small mistake, but one that ultimately won’t matter — because earnings were up only 9.8 percent, but the meeting has virtually nothing to do with earnings — stay silent. If the mistake might matter in the future, then raise it gently with the supervisor privately, after the meeting is over. (“I thought you did a great job at that meeting. The only time I thought you might have accidentally misspoken was when you said earnings were up 10 percent instead of 9.8 percent. But that was just a tangent anyway, and it doesn’t particularly matter. If you think that’s worth correcting, just let me know, and I’ll draft an email that you can send to the gang letting them know the number more precisely. Other than that, I thought everything was just about perfect.”)

If the boss really butchers something, and it’s something that matters — she said “affirmed” when she meant “reversed,” and that’s the whole focus of the meeting — then you’re duty-bound to speak. “Claudius, I think you misspoke there. I think you said ‘affirmed,’ and you probably meant to say ‘reversed.’ I’m sorry for interrupting.”

If you’re right — if the issue did matter, and the boss was in fact wrong — then the boss will correct himself and appreciate your interjection. You were duty-bound to speak, and you did. Good for you.

But you were also duty-bound to avoid making the boss look like a jerk in public, and you did that, too. Perfect.

None of this is hard; it’s all common sense.

Not even common sense; it’s common courtesy: Show a modicum of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me.

Mark Herrmann is the Chief Counsel – Litigation and Global Chief Compliance Officer at Aon, the world’s leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital and management consulting. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].

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