Biglaw, In-House Counsel

On Having You Help

Here’s something junior folks don’t always realize: I’m doing you quite a favor if I ask you to help with stuff.

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dartboard pen inside straightHere’s something junior folks don’t always realize: I’m doing you quite a favor if I ask you to help with stuff.

Alright, alright: Maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement. But for certain things, it’s absolutely true.

Suppose I ask you to help with a presentation we’re making to senior management. I could do it myself, but I decide to give you exposure to the top brass.

First, you must talk about the right subject.

So I have to think hard about what you’re going to say and why.

Then, you must deliver the presentation coherently.

If you wander aimlessly for a half hour through your notes, the gang will blame you only in part. They’ll also blame me, because I was silly enough to let you do this.

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So once I’ve figured out what you have to say, I must rehearse it with you a few times to be sure that you deliver it correctly.

(See? This is already taking me three times as long as if I simply did it myself.)

It doesn’t stop there.

You might be asked questions during your presentation.

Someone has to know the answers.

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It would be great if you knew the answers, and we should prepare you for that.

But if you don’t know an answer, or you forget something that we’ve discussed in advance, we can’t leave the question unanswered. Thus, I must know the answer to every question that you might be asked, just to be sure we don’t embarrass ourselves. That’s an awful lot of preparation for me in the days leading up to your talk.

(See? This is now taking me many times as long as if I were simply doing it myself.)

You give the presentation. It’s great!

Everyone congratulates you, and you showed the top brass that you’re up to the task!

That’s just the way it should be — even if I prepared you until the cows came home.

But: You give the presentation. It’s terrible!

You get blamed only in part. I also get blamed for having been foolish enough for letting you speak to the important folks.

See? Having you help is not as easy as it looks.

I’ve given the example of a corporate meeting, but this really applies to most situations in which the junior person is speaking in public.

I decide to let you take the lead at a client meeting.

I spend as much time preparing as you do, and then let you take the credit.

And so on.

I understand completely that this is the senior person’s job: The senior person must pass responsibility on to the next generation, and the senior person must teach the junior people how to excel.

That’s absolutely true.

But the junior people should understand that this is hardly as simple as it looks.

I can’t just say: “Hey, junior person! Go do this!”

Rather, if I’m being responsible, I’m doing an awful lot of work behind the scenes.

I ought to do that work; it’s my responsibility. But the junior person should understand this is not as easy as it looks.

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now responsible for litigation and employment matters at a large international company. 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 inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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