In-House Counsel

A New (To Me, Anyway) Business Development Idea

An incredibly unique idea that might just convince in-house counsel to hire your firm in the future.

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As a former long-time partner at a Biglaw firm, I’m always interested in seeing how firms approach business development.

There are the basics:  Do good work for existing clients.  Cross-sell.

There are the intermediates:  Stay in touch with old friends.  Never dine alone.  Write.  Speak.  Join.  Attend sporting events with clients and prospects.

There are the advanced:  Give customized CLE courses to groups of in-house lawyers.  Speak on panels with in-house lawyers (and spoon-feed the script to the in-house person).  Co-author articles with in-house lawyers (but don’t actually expect the in-house person to write anything).

I did it all, long ago.

But I recently heard a new (at least to me) business development idea, and I intend to fall for it.

(Actually, I may not “fall for it” in the sense of actually hiring the lawyer who suggested the idea. I may “fall for it” in the sense of taking advantage of the proffered opportunity.)

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Here’s the backstory:  During a break at a conference, I was deploring the fact that, as an outside lawyer, I used to argue motions, argue appeals, and occasionally try cases.  As an in-house lawyer (at my company, at my level — this may not be true for all in-house lawyers), I never act as a “real” trial lawyer.  I manage cases, both internally and externally, but I never get to play the game anymore.  That, to me, is the major disadvantage of having moved in-house.

The person to whom I was complaining has quite a reputation.  (The person’s reputation preceded him, or her, by some distance.  I had known this person’s name, through the legal press, for a decade before I met the person.)

The person said:  “Give me your card, or send me an email.  We can arrange for you to argue an appeal.  We regularly ask the federal circuit courts to send us pro bono cases.  We’ll write the briefs in one of those cases — under your supervision, of course, but you won’t have to do very much — and then we’ll let you argue the case.  You could probably do the whole thing in 30 hours or less.

“We like to do that.  It gives us a chance to work with in-house lawyers whom we haven’t met before, and it shows the in-house lawyers the quality of our work.  If we’re any good (and we are, trust me), the in-house lawyer might decide to hire us.  We figure that’s a good way to invest time.”

This strikes me as a good idea, for the right firm.

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The firm has to be relatively large, so it can reasonably devote the time needed to briefing an appeal.

The firm has to be extraordinarily good, or this would be an exercise in business destruction, rather than business development.

The firm must be invited to brief a lot of pro bono federal appeals.  If I were running a firm, I’d give the first dozen pro bono federal appellate arguments to junior lawyers at my own firm, giving those lawyers an opportunity to argue appeals, learn from the experience, and build a résumé.  Only after that internal demand was satisfied would I begin handing away appeals to interested in-house lawyers.

From my personal experience, it’s hard to generate that many pro bono appeals.  Once upon a time, I volunteered to do pro bono appeals, and the circuit in which I volunteered never got back to me.  Unlike the person who I recently met, I wasn’t famous in the world of federal appeals, so perhaps it’s not surprising that the court ignored me.  But for the average Joe Bag-o’-Donuts lawyer, I suspect it would be very hard to attract enough interesting pro bono appeals to satisfy both the internal and external demand.

On the other hand, if you can pull it off, it’s a great idea for business development.  The idea was new to me, and I don’t see too many new ideas in business development these days.  And, as I said, I, at least, intend to take the firm up on the offer.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel 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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