Biglaw

Biglaw Attorney Learns Hard Lesson About When *Not* To Recruit New Lawyers

The judge was tough but fair about this 'inappropriate' behavior.

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Benchslapped-01Maybe Perkins Coie attorneys think they *always* need to be recruiting potential lateral lawyer talent, but they’re learning there is a time and a place for everything. An unnamed Perkins Coie attorney was benchslapped by Northern District of California Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers for trying to recruit one of her clerks mid-trial. Yeah, even if you’re uniquely impressed by the legal acumen of a law clerk, it seems like discretion would warrant at least waiting until the end of trial to try to recruit them to your firm.

But, as reported by Law360, that’s not what happened in the middle of a patent lawsuit between Impinj Inc. and NXP USA Inc. And Judge Gonzalez Rogers made it abundantly clear that nonsense would not fly in her courtroom or in her district:

“No lawyer should ever reach out to a law clerk of a judge during trial and suggest that at some point [the clerk] should contact him if he wants a job,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers said. “It is so inappropriate that it’s shocking to me that I have to say anything about this.”

Judge Gonzalez Rogers noted that during her sidebar discussions with the trial attorneys it “was suggested that this kind of thing happens in other jurisdictions.” The judge said she emailed other judges in the Northern District of California, as well as a friend who is a federal judge in Texas, and so far, the judges have unanimously replied to her that they have never heard of trial attorneys recruiting law clerks “in any case whatsoever.”

“In the Northern District of California, it is inappropriate, and it should never happen,” she said. “So I don’t know what people think is okay, but it is not.”

Opposing counsel, Michael C. Hendershot of Jones Day, requested a mistrial in light of the inappropriate behavior. However, the judge denied that request.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers told defense counsel that although the lawyer’s conduct “was entirely inappropriate,” she pointed out that her clerk “has no impact” on what the jury will decide or how she instructs the jury, and “if anybody should be worried, it should be [Perkins Coie].”

“I’m not going to hold it against the company,” she added. “I’m not going to hold it against the client.”

Perkins Coie partner Ramsey M. Al-Salam was quick to fall on the sword over his colleague’s behavior.

“We apologize,” he said. “We regret it.”

He added, “If it helps, we could commit to not employ [the clerk],” and the promise would presumably eliminate any perception of favoritism.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers replied that the law clerk will not have any communication with the law firm, and she noted that the clerk doesn’t have any kind of job interview lined up with Perkins Coie.

“The answer right now is there is going to be zero communication with him,” she said.

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Additionally the attorney at the center of the debacle will have to eat crow in front of their fellow attorneys at the firm:

The judge ordered the Perkins Coie lawyer to email all litigators at his firm by noon Sunday to explain what happened, and to tell his colleagues that the judge “said it was inappropriate, and it should not happen.” The judge also required the attorney to include her and opposing counsel as recipients on the email.

Let this be a lesson to all attorneys: knowing when *not* to recruit is as important as knowing when to recruit new attorneys.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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