In-House Counsel, Labor / Employment, Old People, On The Job

Keeping Your Ageism In Check

This is a significant issue in the in-house world, where it's harder to know exactly how old your colleagues are.

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embarassed businessman lawyer faceplam face to palm old man“Hey, Stephen,” a senior member of our in-house team belted out at a recent meeting. “What year did you graduate law school again? I ran into a guy at a conference last week who said he graduated your school in 1987, were you around then? Maybe you know him?”

Sweat immediately began to form on my brow, and I could feel the color drain from my face. Setting aside the fact I hoped I looked a heck of a lot younger than someone who graduated in 1987, I knew this particular colleague had a rather low opinion of younger attorneys. It did not matter if you were younger than him by a year or a decade; youth, in his eyes, equated to inexperience.

Luckily our meeting started before I could answer, and my colleague forgot his question. But it highlighted an issue a bit more unique to the in-house world. Unlike our colleagues working in law firms, we often do not have a detailed biography page online listing our graduation date, past work experience, publications, favorite color, etc.

Sure, everyone may have LinkedIn, but who really wants to look at a colleague’s page knowing they will get that lovely notification letting them know you were creeping on them?

Which means, unless you were a part of the hiring decision for a colleague, you may well be surrounded by colleagues whom you actually know very little about. On one hand, this creates an environment where you judge your peers by their production and not pedigree. On the other, you can bet it breeds a fair bit of ageism, as colleagues judge each other by their cover alone. Sadly, I must admit I am just as guilty of it as the next person.

When one of our hospitals experienced a data breach, I found myself dismissing the suggestions of my previously mentioned senior colleague, as I was certain there was no way he could comprehend the technology behind the breach. After all, he is one of those people who stills refers to it as “the internets.”

I did not care that the technology in question mattered very little in how we would ultimate navigate our response; in my eyes, he was far too old to contribute any meaningful value to the conversation, and I arbitrarily tuned him out.

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Conversely, I recently partnered with a new hire whom I knew joined us straight from law school for a contract negotiation. Admittedly on day one I wanted to take the lead. I had done the negotiation dance dozens of times before, and, in my mind, she should just sit back and take notes.

She had other plans, like doing the job she was hired to do, and dove straight in at the outset of the negotiations. And to my surprise, she was quite good! Only over lunch did I learn she went to law school after having earned her MBA and spending several years with a major consulting firm. Needless to say, I was more than happy to let her take a larger role in the remaining negotiations.

Even though I know I will always jump to an early judgement when interacting with new colleagues, I am at least attempting to keep my own ageism in check and give them a chance.

Unless, of course, I am interacting with my retained outside counsel. In that case, I only want to work with a partner… and be billed for it at an associate’s rate.

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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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