In-House Counsel

In-House Counsel: Go Forth And Mingle

Be known. Be likable. Be visible. And then use your social cachet to your advantage.

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I had the honor of sitting on an alumni panel recently where the moderator asked each of us what special skillsets we had developed over our years of our practice. Since I had to go last and all the other good answers had been taken, I replied that I was uniquely qualified to survive a zombie apocalypse. Everybody tittered politely and eventually I conceded and said, “You need to be likable.” Again everybody dutifully laughed, but I was being deadly serious. About that and surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Why be likable? Because it’s in your best interest and it’s amazing how many attorneys I meet who don’t bother to master this simple skill that should have been learned back in grade school.

First rule of being likable, you should treat your business partners like hostage takers on a cheesy network procedural. They need to know your name. If you’re just “Legal” well, you may as well be a red shirt on Star Trek. Goodnight, Vienna.

Your name is a good start.  If you have pictures of significant others, adorable pets, semi-adorable offspring, vacation candids where you’re mostly clothed, old bowling trophies, or rumpled participation awards from the third grade science fair, you should bedeck your office with them. Business partners like bright shiny objects and conversation starters that don’t begin with how they broke the company’s social media policy over the weekend. Again. Instead, they will remember having a delightful time in your office, carefully avoiding eye contact, and marveling at the sheer number of college mascot themed accoutrements you have amassed over the years.

Once you’ve established a colorful home base, get out of it and go be likable. Yes, go forth and mingle with the business (and take some hand sanitizer with you). As lawyers, we tend to hang out in our caves and wait for our people to come to us. This isn’t a bad strategy if you’re a giant Tolkien spider trolling for prey. But it’s not a good look on a cross-functional partner.

If you work in one of those trendy offices that passively encourage social interaction, perhaps there are ping pong and foosball tables in the cafeteria. Pick whichever one you’re worse at and go play. Or join the monthly trivia showdown at lunch. Do group yoga. Whatever your jam, show the business that despite everything they’ve heard about those stiffs in Legal, you can hang.

Ditto for company picnics, potlucks, bagel Fridays, and events that require you to don an ugly article of clothing or team jersey.

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If you have the opportunity, level up and offer to guest judge an intern poster board competition or pie eating contest. Scratch that, participate in the pie eating contest. Eat the pie. Eat all the pie.

Be known. Be likable. Be visible.

Why? Because it’s that much harder for Brian to ask the person who cleaned up slime-covered pond trash with him at the last volunteer event to review a 90-page contract with riders over the weekend.  If Samantha’s pup and yours were butt-sniffing soul mates at the first (and likely last) “bring your pet to work day,” it will be that much more difficult for her to end run you and Finance to push a trade deal through. Why? Because Brian and Samantha now see you as a person instead of a paper-pushing meme. And it’s damn inconvenient. For them.

You should take advantage of this hard-earned social cache you’ve accumulated and use it for the powers of good. Like pushing out unreasonable deadlines for you and your team. Or reeling in a partner who’s gone to crazy town with a one-way ticket. Or even, put out mini-risk fires among the sales team over your shared, disastrous karaoke duets at the last conference. Better yet, remind them you still have the video on your cell.

And if for some reason, you can’t be likable, but you can wield a chainsaw, or better yet, have a chainsaw for an arm, then you can be on my winning team for the zombie apocalypse.

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Kay Thrace (not her real name) is a harried in-house counsel at a well-known company that everyone loves to hate. When not scuffing dirt on the sacrosanct line between business and the law, Kay enjoys pub trivia domination and eradicating incorrect usage of the Oxford comma. You can contact her by email at KayThraceATL@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @KayThrace.

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