A Couple of Questions For… Brian D. McCarthy
Posted on July 29th, 2009 by Tim Eavenson | No Comments »Filed under: ., HR Issues, The Financial Crisis |
From time to time, I will be posing two questions to varied members of the labor & employment law conversation. If you have suggestions for people who should answer A Couple of Questions, send me an email and let me know who they are.
The first installment of “A Couple of Questions…” goes to Brian D. McCarthy, Chief Employment Counsel at the risk management powerhouse Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Before joining AJG, McCarthy spent 10 years on the other side of the table, as a business-side employment attorney at the Labor & Employment firm Franczek Sullivan (now Franczek Radelet).
No suprise, then, that Brian gets the series going right with insightful answers about the relationship between inside and outside counsel:
CE: Okay. A couple of questions. Here we go.
1. What is the most important factor in maintaining a good relationship with a corporate client?
BDM: That’s an easy one. Make me think of you as an essential part of our business.
You can do that by demonstrating a desire to understand our business model and our specific objectives. Don’t be a contractor; be a teammate. Respect our goals and make them your own, without simply rolling over (this is not Burger King; the client is not always right). Maximize my confidence that you will handle my business the same way I would handle it – better, even – because that is why we send work out in the first place. These are the things that will truly build up your relational capital with corporate counsel.
All that other stuff that shows up in your high-end, four color glossy firm brochure? That’s important, too – don’t get me wrong. I demand a high level of legal expertise; an ability to meaningfully and practically communicate that expertise; a command of pertinent decisions, regulations and trends; transparent value in staffing and billing; and willingness to understand our business model and specific objectives. But these qualities are the sine qua non, the absolute preconditions, of getting hired and staying hired by my corporate legal department. They are only facets of the bigger picture we see in our favorite outside counsel, the “go-to” lawyers with whom we actually look forward to working.
Here’s a simplified test: your corporate counsel client assigns you a piece of work in the late afternoon. How does the matter weigh on your client that evening? Over the weekend? On Monday morning? Is your in-house client calm, cool, collected and at peace with the world? If not (or if you can’t answer that question), there is definitely room to improve the relationship. Obviously, this simplification won’t apply to a bet-the-company case or your first assignment from a new client, but it’s a good general barometer.
And the best news? I’m a lot more likely to forgive and forget those inevitable missteps if they are made by one of my go-to lawyers.
2. Has the recession changed your perspective on outside counsel?
BDM: No question it has.
Corporate counsel who were previously focused on value and costs are becoming positively obsessed. Many are simply drawing the line and saying: “I won’t pay for this anymore.” Computerized research? Forget about simply passing on that overhead anymore. Charges for faxes – are you kidding? Gone are the days of dozens upon dozens of billable hours (let’s face it, mostly inexperienced associate hours) that are unconnected to realized value.
I’ll happily pay high rates for high quality and relevant experience. Quality legal representation can be costly. But I will be scrutinizing the value provided more closely than ever before. I’ll be looking to non-law firm consultants, contract attorneys and assistants and other nontraditional legal professionals who can do most of the work of associates in any number of disciplines – at a mere fraction of the cost.
We could all take a lesson from the makers of “Borat,” who got big press, and saved a bundle, with their Indian off-shoring of legal work like research, litigation support, discovery, contract drafting and patent writing. I’m not suggesting that most of my work could be sent to India, but I like that thinking.
Let me add that go-to lawyers, like the ones I talked about above, are the first to point out value that might be had from alternative staffing, billing and sourcing arrangements. They concern themselves with hunting out and adding value to our relationship. The result? I now expect those suggestions from my business partners. I would encourage other corporate counsel who aren’t getting them to pointedly ask outside counsel, why not?
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