In-House Counsel

Law Firm Responses To GCs' Open Letter: An Epic Fail

In-house counsel didn't request or give permission to law firms to spam them via email (personal and professional), LinkedIn, and mail.

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The most recent Paul Weiss partner class

I was one of 170 general counsels who signed an open letter to law firms requesting to improve on diversity after seeing “largely male and largely white” new law firm partner classes at Paul Weiss and other firms. As someone who has openly and consistently advocated for diversity in leadership, especially on corporate boards, I was disappointed to see that some law firms are tone deaf and joined the effort to encourage change.

I will be blunt — these largely male and largely white new law firm partner classes, speaking panels, boards, executive teams, etc. are nothing more than dated relic. It is unacceptable and embarrassing. It must end!

In response to my signature, I have received so much literature in the past few weeks that I cannot possibly read all of it. To be clear, my support for the letter was not a request for proposals or an opt-in to join lists. When I signed the letter, I didn’t request or give permission to law firms, various vendors, or other providers to spam me about their practice, diversity efforts, and numerous initiatives via my email (personal and professional), LinkedIn, and mail.

Moreover, receiving unsolicited, self-serving law firm marketing literature in this context feels a bit like receiving a pitch for a top of the line coffin from your neighbor for a business he happens to run after a death in a family. It had a distinct flavor of inappropriate, self-serving bad taste. Shouldn’t we be having different, less commercial conversations? Shouldn’t we take the marketing dollars and put them to a more productive use, such as training and mentoring?

Moreover, the senders are missing the point. By signing the letter, we very firmly and unequivocally stated that an all-male partner class in 2019 is simply inexcusable and unacceptable. It is a request to do better, aim higher, and embrace a seemingly irreversible historic trend toward inclusion.

A certain well-known national law firm sent me a FedEx envelope that required a signature to accept to my home address. Imagine what was going through my head as I contemplated what to do. Am I being served? The sender is clearly a reputable law firm. A few jobs ago, I even worked with them. They seemed sane. What have I done? Who may possibly want to sue me personally? Or, are they after a company with which I have had a relationship? Or, do they want to depose me? Should I refuse service? Should I make them jump through hoops?

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Anyway, I signed after thinking through countless what-if scenarios became too much and feeling a distinct pressure from the FedEx guy to make a decision. To my surprise when I opened the envelope, I found this law firm’s diversity statistics on a heavy paper. It was a beautifully laid out, professionally created, impeccable, shiny piece of marketing collateral.

After a moment of relief (I won’t lie, I would rather get a marketing collateral than a complaint or notice to appear), I wondered how much waste and agony this one FedEx envelope would have caused if it were sent to all 170 GCs. The bottom line is this: if you are a law firm or sending something to a general counsel, consider what message you are sending when you require a signature. Of course, the irony of signing for yet another letter was not lost on me either!

The story of responses to the open letter did not end there. A few days later, another general counsel, whose first name also happens to be Olga, forwarded me an email. In her note she said, “See attached. This might have been meant for you.” I opened the attachment and found a long, well-crafted letter addressed to “Ms. Mack” (me!) that was emailed to another general counsel who shares my first name.

Apparently, we Olgas are fungible! If you write to one of us, you will most certainly reach all of us. So please address all invoices and complaints to other Olgas. Of course, if you are sending something good and of value, please be sure to get my address right. Who wants to wait for good stuff?!

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Olga V. Mack is an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor at Berkeley Law, and entrepreneur. Olga founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to serve on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. Olga also co-founded SunLaw to prepare women in-house attorneys become general counsel and legal leaders and WISE to help women law firm partners become rainmakers. She embraces the current disruption to the legal profession. Olga loves this change and is dedicated to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and inclusive than before. You can email Olga at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @olgavmack.

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