'Legal Said It Was Okay'

'I was immediately struck with that moment of panic. Had I dropped the ball on this one?'

green light stoplight okay yes go aheadOn an almost weekly basis, walking though the office or overhearing conversations among members of my own team, I can almost guarantee I will hear someone say the heart-stopping phrase “Legal said it was okay,” or worse, “Stephen signed off on it.”

Given the sheer volume of emails I receive and impromptu meetings I am pulled into, it is near impossible to remember each time I or my boss have weighed in on the legal aspect of a given topic. To hear someone who I do not immediately know, or cannot recall meeting with, cite something our department has said as the rationale for their action can invoke an immediate sense of panic.

What did I sign off on? What exactly is on the line? Did they catch me on a good day, when I had time to research and respond to their question, or was it as I was walking out the door and I dismissed of their issue with haste?

Which leads me back to the panic struck by any invocation of my name or legal’s as justification for a given action. In the traditional legal world, we can author a well-researched position paper without having taken a position at all. When we render advice, we can do so using our favorite two words, “it depends,” which allows us to guard and protect our answer from ever being blatantly incorrect. But there is no such in-house “it depends” equivalent when it comes to the yes or no questions often poised by my colleagues or members of my team.

By the time I overhear someone citing an answer we may have given as the rationale for a given action, it’s far too late to issue qualifiers to our original answer. We had better hope we were right. Which is why two of the greatest lessons I have come to learn in my time in-house are (1) first and foremost, always trust yourself, and (2) make sure you give the proper attention to each question.

Toward the beginning of the year, I reached a decision point with opposing counsel, after many months of legwork by my team: either accept their settlement offer or prepare for likely litigation. After properly vetting the issue with my team and boss, I ultimately declined their offer.

Many months and hundreds of similar fact patterns later, I received notice the opposing counsel opted to file suit. However, for the life of me, I could not immediately recall the particular facts of the case or my own involvement with it earlier in the year. Not that we shy away from defending a case if we need to, but given our limited time and resources, we always try to settle our disputes before a court gets involved.

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I was immediately struck with that moment of panic. Had I dropped the ball on this one? Did I miss an opportunity to resolve this case earlier on?

However, after reviewing my files, I was greeted with relief as I read this case’s file and was able to recall I had spent the requisite time and resources on the case earlier in the year and made the right decision months ago. While case management is one obvious example, I have also faced similar moments when team members or colleagues take an action based on counsel I may have rendered months ago.

Which is why it is important to always give the proper attention to all issues or questions, big and small, and trust yourself to make the right decision. Although I know I will always still be greeted with mild panic and discomfort when I overhear the legal stamp of approval assigned to something I cannot recall assigning it to, I can at least trust that if I or our office did weigh in on it in the past, we did so with care.


Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at stephenwilliamsjd@gmail.com.

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