Illegal? Are You Sure About That?

One of my favorite pastimes as an in-house counsel is when I get to play my lawyer card and tell my non-legal colleagues they are wrong.

And at no point is it more enjoyable than when one of them pushes back on a recommended course of action on the grounds it is “illegal” and I get to politely remind them that despite my years in law school and during my subsequent years in practice, I cannot recall coming across a single law prohibiting whatever they have just claimed.

This usually results in my colleague getting flustered before they reluctantly concede their point.

Do I have issues? Maybe, but I am surrounded by MDs and MBAs on a daily basis, so I take my wins where I can get them.

While this sort of interaction has provided me with a great deal of delight over the years, I recently had a strange revelation. I was partially to blame for their ignorance of the law.

As in-house counsel, it is my duty to advise my non-legal colleagues on how to operate within the confines of the law. If one of my colleagues errantly states something is against the law when it clearly is not, that is an opportunity for me to educate rather than belittle. After all, their ignorance of the law not only can reflect poorly on me, but our organization as a whole.

Think about it: Have you ever had an encounter with a business that claims some process they do is “legally mandated,” “required by Congress,” or whatever other citation to some vague legal authority they can muster? If you are like me, these encounters leave you frustrated, but also questioning the business as a whole.

Is it really “highly illegal” for me to retrieve a friend’s credit card they forgot at a restaurant the day before? If so, I likely have multiple warrants out for my arrest.

Did Congress really just pass a new bill mandating I turn off my phone in an emergency department? Really? The same Congress that hasn’t passed a meaningful bill in years somehow rallied around the idea I need to power down in the ER?

And my favorite phrase these days is, “We are federally required to ask you these questions.” While in some instances this may be true, but its sheer ubiquity in modern society is astounding.

Granted the above are minor and trivial examples from everyday life, but my point remains — if you think it sounds silly or far-fetched when you hear it in everyday life, take a moment to examine where your own business practice could improve its lexicon.

Where you feel the need to invoke a higher authority, simply try saying it’s “our company policy.”

If the practice really is legally required, great, you have made it known it is company policy is to follow the law.

And if the business practice really isn’t, then you save yourself from looking like you have an in-house counsel giving out legal advice who is asleep at the wheel. We make plenty of mistakes on our own and certainly do not need anymore help.

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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 [email protected].