In-House Counsel, Legal Ethics

A Principle Isn't A Principle Until It Hurts

Will you enforce the rules when the heavy-hitter disobeys them?

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dartboard pen inside straightDoes your law firm (or company) really have principles?

Let me hypothesize a heavy-hitter. At a law firm, the person is the partner who brings in a ton of business. At a corporation, that person really matters to the business: A dynamite sales person, a person who’s technologically brilliant, whatever matters most to you.

Your heavy-hitter misbehaves.

The person is a bully.

Or the person doesn’t submit time sheets promptly. Or expense reports as required. Or always flies first class when the rules require coach.

The person is told to strive for diversity in hiring, but somehow always picks the old, white male.

Whatever.

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Will you enforce the rules when the heavy-hitter disobeys them?

Enforcing the rules against little guys is easy. You really don’t care if the little guys leave. Heck, you’d be happy to fire them for not obeying the rules: You can puff out your chest and say how principled you are, and it hasn’t cost you a penny.

That’s the easy case.

The hard case — the one that makes you decide whether your rules matter — is when the heavy-hitter violates the rules.

I know, I know: You still want to dodge the question. We’ll talk to the heavy-hitter and she’ll change her ways. Or promise to change her ways in the future. Or we’ll impose a small punishment, so we can say we enforced the rules, but the heavy-hitter won’t leave. Anything to avoid having to really think about the question.

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But really think about this. We’re only doing a thought experiment, after all. We’re just trying to decide if your organization has principles.

Well, you think, if she did something illegal, of course we’d fire her!

I’m not talking about illegality. Sometimes you do have to fire a person for doing something that’s illegal. So again, that’s easy.

I’m talking about something that you say matters to you, but somehow doesn’t matter so much when a heavy-hitter is the culprit.

Because if you won’t enforce a rule when the heavy-hitter violates it, then there really isn’t a rule at all.

A principle isn’t a principle until it hurts.

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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