What To Do In A World Where Nobody Remembers Anything

In a law firm, people sometimes remember things.

Folks are focused on deal or cases; folks are providing advice; folks may well remember what they said before (or what was said to them).

That’s far less likely to be true in a corporate environment.

If you’re talking to lower-level people, who handle one issue at a time, those lower-level folks may remember what they’re working on.

But if you’re talking to upper-level people, whose role is to make decisions and keep things moving, those upper-level people are far less likely to remember the issue that you spoke to them about three months ago.

(When I talk to former law firm partners who have gone in-house, they all have the same first reaction: “At my firm, we really thought about stuff. At the corporation, we’re handling many issues, and we’re often making decisions based on incomplete information. I’m asked to opine on many different things without having the chance to really get to the bottom of stuff.” Right. That’s corporate life.)

What should you conclude? First, what I’ve just written is true. Do not make the mistake of assuming that a senior person has any clue what you’re talking about, even if you talked to the senior person three months ago on this very subject. The senior person has handled many, many different issues since you last spoke about your topic; the senior person does not remember the issue.

Second, that’s no problem. Just gently remind the senior person what you’re talking about.

Introduce every new subject with a sentence that reminds the senior-level listener about the issue. This is not hard to do, and it’s worth a great deal to you.

At the quarterly meeting of the senior-most people who look after ethics complaints, you could introduce a subject the moron’s way: “You remember Bulgaria.”

They don’t.

Is that Romania? What the hell is Bulgaria? What’s this guy talking about? What happened in Bulgaria, and why’s he raising the subject?

Or you could introduce the subject the intelligent way: “As you recall [they don’t, but you can be nice], we had an employee in Bulgaria who bribed a government official to give us business. We decided . . . . ”

And your audience is thinking: “Oh, yeah. I remember that one! What’s the status of it?”

When you’re talking to the Board of Directors, you could say: “We discussed the Smorgasbord issue at our last meeting.”

That could be true, but no one remembers it. So they have no clue what you’re talking about.

Instead, you should say: “We discussed at our last meeting the performance of our Smorgasbord unit. It sold more burgers than dogs, and we were concerned about this. In the past quarter . . . . ”

And everyone’s thinking: “Oh, yeah. Right! That’s what we’re talking about.”

When you get up to argue a motion or an appeal, you can assume that the judge remembers your case and just wade into the argument.

Or you can say, in a sentence or two: “The facts, briefly, are these . . . .” And go on not to describe the facts in detail, but just to permit the judge to think: “Oh, right! The breach of real estate contract case!”

Give your listener a chance.

You’re working on one thing at a time.

Your listener may be worrying about hundreds or thousands of things at a time.

Don’t assume that your listener remembers anything about your issue. So give the listener a hint what you’re talking about. That can’t hurt (so long as the hint is brief), and it could win you a motion or friends in high places.

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Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now responsible for litigation and employment matters 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 [email protected].