Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 5

Reflection No 5: There's karma in them contracts

As a lawyer in private practice I was instructed by a tour operator in relation to a contract put forward by one of their suppliers who provided a service which my client could advertise its holidays on.  The contract was the supplier's standard form contract and one of those contracts which just didn't make any sense at all just because it was rubbish.  You know the type of thing:

"This contract shall not be binding, sign here if you agree"....and....

"The contract can be terminated at any time for any reason by anyone, but termination of the contract under this clause will not affect the standing of the contract"

Eh? Exactly.

So I spent a fair amount of time tidying up the rubbish, not just making it all work for my client, but also for the supplier such was the nonsense that was in this standard contract.

Its quite annoying when you have to improve someone else's contract, as @BrettTechLawyer will testify:

Fast forward to when I myself was working in-house at a completely different tour operator, but who just happened to use the same supplier's service.

Enter the contract.

And the memories.

And what a pleasant surprise. There was all my corrective drafting, as I had written it, word for word in my previous life in private practice a good couple of years before.  Customer-friendly.

Smug lawyer. Karmic contract.

For the rest of my Reflections post, please see: Part 1: They're not as prickly as they look, Part 2: Contracts are like the sea, best when they're crystal clear, Part 3: Define your own terms and Part 4: They're alive!

Speaking Event

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be speaking at the in-house lawyer breakfast seminar at Pannone LLP, Manchester on Thursday 31 March 2011.

I'll be discussing how in-house lawyers can use social media to its best effect.  Other items on the agenda (which I won't be speaking on!) include:

• Competition law compliance
• Review of recent breach of contract cases
• Data Protection Act compliance and update
• Bribery Act Part 2
• Running a successful due diligence process
• Phasing out the default retirement age

Contact law@pannone.com for more information about the seminar.

POST SCRIPT - Due to popular demand, the event will now also be running for a second time on 6 April. Hope to see you there.

Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 4

Reflection Number 4: They're alive!

Image is of a Tasmanian Devil.  In common with contracts, Tasmanian Devils give a nasty bite if not treated correctly.  Unlike Tasmanian Devils, contracts are not best kept locked away in drawers in the furthest flung corners of the earth.

In my younger days, I would often encounter a Project or Contracts Manager who would sigh heavily at the time which it had taken to review a contract, negotiate the detail and baton down a signature, and then triumphantly observe that there was another pile of paperwork which, with a bit of luck and a following wind, wouldn't need to see the light of day again. Instantly belittling the need for the amount of (my hard) work which had just gone into that paperwork.

I've heard it from well-meaning and less-arrogant colleagues before as well, pleased with the work which has been achieved in the contract negotiation "Good job" they say as they file it away the copy document in their bottom drawer (never give away the original document when in-house), along with the contract guide I'd crafted for them to make their life easier and the contract user-friendly , "now we can let that gather some dust while we get on with the proper job".  As though the job done (by me) is not proper.

I've never subscribed to that theory.  The best Projects and Contracts Managers which I've worked with keep their contracts close at hand and use them as a daily weapon against their suppliers to ensure deliveries are made on time, service levels are met, software performs as it should and (you'll be surprised how much this next one is overlooked)  invoices are accurate, so that we're not charged a penny too much for the privilege.

And, as the project which it manages evolves, so the contract should evolve too.  A contract is a living thing. And indeed, the Project or Contracts Manager managing that project is best served by keeping up to speed with this evolution.

A case in point:

A perplexed manager once came to visit me, in one hand a hat and in the other a material sample.  Let's call the sample, Material A, and lets call the material which the hat is made out of, Material B. Let's call this whole event, The Hat Saga*.

The Hat Saga essentially involved the following (albeit in a much longer, more drawn-out, microscopic and draining way over the course of about 6 months):

 "Melanie, the hats delivered are made out of Material B. I wanted them to be made out of Material A."
"Oh no. Do you have a copy of the Contract with you please?"
"Er, no, (for I am only the person responsible for it) have you got a copy?"
I dip into my Contracts Register.
"Yes I have. Lets see, oh yes Schedule 2, "The Matrerial". It says "TBC". What did you eventually agree was the correct material?"
"Material A"
"OK, well lets put a call into the  supplier then."
Call to the supplier revealed that, unsurprisingly, they were under the impression that they agreed it was Material B.

The following discussion was had every which way possible consistently over many days and weeks. Me: "Are you absolutely 100% certain you've never agreed Material B?"
"Absolutely. Never"
"Any documents say otherwise?
"None"
"Are you sure?
"Absolutely. Yes"
"Absolutely?  Our hats are very precious to us, they are very expensive. I'm about to commence proceedings as we have spent so much money on these entirely incorrect hats.  That's serious and expensive stuff. It will be embarrasing if we're wrong."
"Absolutely. Yes."

Some cost, time, effort and energy later:

 Manager approaches my desk "Erm, Melanie,  could this be relevant?"
"I don't know, let me see. Oh look its a document with Material B attached to a letter from the supplier asking if Material B would be a suitable alternative and which you've counter-signed.  Yes. I'd say that's relevant."

The error in this particular instance was that this correspondence which changed the contract was never logged and associated with the contract by the manager. Ironically, clearly the hat supplier hadn't saved  a copy of the relevant correspondence either.  Frustrating to say the least (I do remember collapsing on my desk with my head in my hands for quite some time afterwards).

So, what was the point of this post? Oh yes, contracts are alive, please check in on them once in a while.

*subject matter altered to protect the innocent.

For more of my reflections check out Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 1  Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 2 and Reflections of a Contracts lawyer: Part3

Say what?

I've recently been reminded of how individual companies and organisations not only carry their own individual corporate image and corporate culture, but also their own corporate parlance and turn of phrase.  But can this choice of parlance also be a reflection of the corporation which utters it?

Image copyright of www.savagechickens.com

When I joined my current employer, I was very quickly introduced to the concept of "bandwidth". No, I wasn't just a late starter when it came to getting online,  my colleagues would be commenting on their capacity to carry out a project within a particular timescale.  It's still used a lot today and I love this expression! It's completely digital. Which is good because Latitude is of course a digital company, and the company name is Latitude, and latitude is a bit like bandwith. Sort of. You get the idea.

Back when I worked in one private practice firm, I wasn't doing my job if I didn't have "shedloads" to do at any one moment in time.  A sub-conscious reflection of the name of the firm, Eversheds, I wonder?

Working in-house at a tour operator, colleagues were always polite enough to check if I was "snowed under" before asking me to do any work for them.  Actually, I was never snowed under, I always opted for MyTravel's winter sun holidays instead.  

At a different firm, not a day went by when I wasn't invited to a "catch-up".   No link between the company and the phrase here, just genuinely nice colleagues who had a lot to catch up on after a day spent "picking all of that low hanging fruit".

So, why have I recently been reminded of this link between parlance and organisation?  Well, my current employer is now part of a larger group. It has been for a couple of weeks.  Within that same time I've been asked a question which I've never been asked before.  On 3 separate occasions by 3 separate people. "So, if we cut you down the middle, what would we find?"

Gulp.

I'll continue to watch the link between companies and their choice of phrase more carefully, but for now I'm just relieved that my new colleagues want to get to know me so well! 

The In-House Lawyer Meets The Lawyer

Last Wednesday I received a call from The Lawyer magazine asking me for some time for an interview to appear in their in-house lawyer profile section.  I was over the moon to be asked to feature in this prestigious publication, and even more excited that they sent a photographer round to Latitude HQ for a photoshoot the very next day.  All very showbiz indeed.

The photoshoot co-incided with 1. stage 1 of a completion meeting at Latitude and 2. much more stressful than any completion meeting as I'm sure you'll all agree, a bad hair day, making it completely and utterly impossible to gaze into the distance with an air of nonchalance.

So huge thanks to The Lawyer magazine, and in particular Joanne Harris, for the write-up quirkily entitled Tweet Shop which appeared online just a few days later.

What LinkedIn Maps tells us about Lawyers

LinkedIn has introduced a quirky new tool for users to visualise their connections and professional network, its called LinkedIn Maps. I've created my own LinkedIn map here:

So what does my LinkedIn Map tell me:

1. Well, firstly that the LinkedIn Maps gadget is pretty intelligent!  Within seconds it created this map for me and categorised my networks efficiently and...erm...categorically.
2. The 2 main hubs of my network (the orange hub and the dark blue hub) are connections I've met through industries I've worked in as an in-house lawyer, those being digital media and travel respectively.  These hubs are full of people I've met in business, in industry, non-lawyer contacts.  These people use LinkedIn big time. 
3. Despite being a lawyer myself, knowing lots of lawyers and working in private practice for a good proportion of my career, my lawyer connections from private practice using LinkedIn only account for a sprinkling of my LinkedIn contacts, the pink hub and the yellow hub (spot them if you can). Now, on LinkedIn, I hunt for colleagues and business acquaintances I've met in all walks of life in equal measure, so this tells me that, as a breed, the legal industry is significantly under-representing itself on LinkedIn.
4. Lawyers I've met solely through the power of social media over the last year, based in both the UK (the green hub) and overseas (the purple hub), and who I've connected with on LinkedIn now out-number my "in the flesh" private practice lawyer connections from over many years who've connected on LinkedIn.  
5. As a rule, I used to only connect on LinkedIn with individuals I'd physically met or done business with, but social media threw that rule out of the window for me.  I'll now connect with individuals I know only through social media channels even if I haven't met them in the real world, where I know there's a beneficial professional relationship, or even if I just like them.  However, I still won't connect with individuals who I haven't met with, if I don't know them through a social media channel.  Lawyers, if you're not using social media and your competitors are, they have the opportunity to up-turn your established client relationships.

So, in summary: Lots of people use LinkedIn. Not many lawyers do.  Lawyers who do use social media are rapidly stealing a march on their counterparts who don't.  In terms of making connections and cementing professional relationships, social media works. 

Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 3

Reflection Number 3: Define your own terms

Image is a snapshot courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Back in the world of a corporate trainee, I sit in the partner's office. Alas, the office is devoid of cacti, and the building has no lake outside of it to speak of, but the odour of OCD does permeate the air. I've produced a mighty fine piece of written advice. The partner has other ideas and sees fit to draw lots of  red patterns on it.  An hour long lesson in "consistent style" is endured: the basics on use of defined terms are drummed in to me, the benefits of tables and schedules are shared and more peculiar preferences are revealed such as line-up your paperclips symmetrically, and methodology for the production of Bible spine labels....

Later that week, same firm different partner, I produce a mighty fine contract (demonstrating the previous lesson in consistency). The partner has other ideas and sees fit to draw lots of red patterns on it. An hour long lesson in "this way" is endured: put your defined terms in a schedule this way, separate out the term and termination clause this way, do it "this way".....

Out of traineeship, and as a fully-fledged solicitor I'm asked to review a supply contract for a senior associate with a rep for pickiness. This solicitor was not for quitting. Or being picked on. And certainly wasn't enduring any more red patterns or hour long lessons.  An all-nighter resulted in a  philosophy of a review and a mighty fine resulting letter to client. Picky senior associate looked.....impressed. That day has been recorded in my memory as a VC day (victory in contracts), no contract or piece of written advice has ever flummuxed me since.  

But looking back on these lessons: yes, I'm hot at defining terms but the rebel in me never lines up my paperclips symmetrically; my contracts hang together just fine but I never put my (hotly) defined terms in a schedule and my terms and termination clauses can usually be found in the same place; and although my contracts contain a lot of clever quirky drafting, I've never needed to provide, or be provided with such a granular piece of written advice as I did on VC day. 

I've developed some deft drafting tricks of my own over the years but I also own the right to "take a view" when what is really needed with a contract is to get the deal done. Yes, I've learned from some great teachers (and I make sure that the lessons I've learned have been passed on to those I've trained too), but my contracts are my style: I live with them, advise on them and chew over them, I need to know them inside out, and I can only do that if they've been created my way. 

You see, contracts aren't just a reflection of the deal which has been struck, they're also a reflection of the lawyer who creates them.

For more of my reflections check out Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 1 and Reflections of a Contract Lawyer: Part 2.

Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 2

Reflection number 2: Contracts are like the sea, best when they're crystal clear.

Image courtesy of Nevit Dilmen under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation Licence Version 1.2
Fast forward to 2002. Location: an open-plan office of one of the Big 4 tour operators in the UK in the North West. Upon the approach, one stumbles upon a lake filled with Canadian geese, and when entering the magnificance which is the office, one is greeted by statues of Noah and modern artwork.

OK, OK, I'm in the old Co-op building in Rochdale.  Noone said being in-house was glam (but the lake bit is true).

However, the tour operator which I worked for clearly did a lot of business abroad where the majority of its suppliers were based. Everyday I would see contracts land upon my desk for review which were governed by the laws of the US, Switzerland, Greece, the Maldives, Jamaica, Cuba, France, the Balearics or India. You get the sunny picture.

But I'm an English law lawyer, and haven't been provided with a budget for a second opinion on these contracts from a lawyer conversant with the laws governing them or the jurisdiction to which we might be summoned in the event of dispute.

Hmmmm....how to save one's backside? My risk-management technique: If you don't know about the law which will govern the dispute, best not let a dispute arise in the first place. The only way to do that with a fair degree of confidence is to make sure that the commercials within the contract are absolutely crystal clear, so that there can be as little opportunity for a dispute as possible.

To be wholly accurate, this risk-management technique should be par for the course for all contract reviews regardless of the governing law, but I always find there's nothing quite like the threat of the jurisdiction of Vietnam to focus the mind on not letting a dispute arise in the first place (although one can be forgiven for being less risk-averse with those threatening jurisdiction in Barbados for example, just my own little rule that one, not right for every one).

I'm not saying anything new when I share the general rule that the process of dicussing  expectations at a pedestrian level does in most situations elicit gaps or areas in need of further discussion with the other party.  This of course is generally helpful all around and a good thing to do before any contract is signed, as it goes towards the resulting project running much more smoothly and any obstacles seen well in advance.

Of course, the process which you need to go through with your fellow colleagues to achieve crystal clear clarity on their expectations of contract performance can very greatly depending on who you're dealing with - but more on mind-reading another day.

For more reflections, see Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 1.

Reflections of a Contracts Lawyer: Part 1

My number one rule is when it comes to dealing with contracts is that they must reflect the deal which has been agreed. Pretty simple really, but its a guiding principle which has seen me well over the years of drafting and reviewing, what must now be well over a thousand, contracts.

To start the year, I present to you a mini-series of blog posts of my reflections on being a contracts lawyer.

Reflection Number 1. They're not as prickly as they look

The year: 1996. Location: a cacti-filled office in an electronic and manufacturing engineering establishment in Leicester.

A colleague hands an intrepid trainee her first contract for review. For the avoidance of doubt, and in case he's reading, said colleague is not her boss of the time, nor the owner of the cacti office for that matter.

Said colleague is a non-lawyer lawyer. A non-lawyer lawyer is not to be confused with a wannabe lawyer.

A non-lawyer lawyer is an individual who has no legal training but is involved in legal activities usually because their original function in the company somehow creates an opportunity for said non-lawyer to get familiar with some legal concepts and become relatively proficient in them. Thus they are accepted into the lawyering fraternity as they talk our language.  Non-lawyer lawyers often have, but are not limited to having,  insurance, contract manager, or accounting style backgrounds.

A wannabe lawyer however usually has some tenuous connection with the law, for example a friend of a friend of theirs studied law at university, they walk past a law firm on their way to work, they're in the process of selling their house and therefore dealing with a solicitor presently. Nothing wrong with all of that of course, except when that link is regarded as a legal qualification. Similar to the same legal qualification which took 3 years of University study, a further year LPC, a couple of additional years of traineeship. Oh yes, and all the PQE too.  For the avoidance of doubt, that link is not a legal qualification. I digress. Much, much more on wannabe lawyers another day.

But for now said non-lawyer lawyer colleague, provides said trainee with a set of MF1 Rev. x standard terms and conditions with the cryptic message, "see what ya' make of them then". I'm sure there was a haughty laugh afterwards, but I could be embellishing for the sake of a dramatic post.

Anyway, MF1. Lets just say that its not so much a contract but a way of life, nay, a philosophy within the engineering world.

It really was a novel of a contract. As I sat in my B&B that evening (I recall it has western-style saloon doors to the en suite, but did a mean scrambled eggs for breakfast), tears actually rolled down my face as I pondered the document which lay before me. None of it made any sense whatsoever. And looking back, no wonder. A contract document on its own, without a scenario to which it must be applied, without a deal which it must reflect, and regardless of the complexity of the drafting it contains, does indeed make no sense. I was right.

After a tortuous weekend of tearing out my hair at this anonymous document (which I felt I had to have a view on as I'd just come out of law school and it was "expected"), my boss (the owner of the cacti, not the one who gave me MF1) kindly introduced me to the company's "Standard Responses to Standard MF1 Contracts".

Epiphany.

No matter how prickly their first impressions, there's rarely anything in a contract which someone hasn't come up against before and a suitable response is always waiting in the wings.

I am Still Here

I am still here.

It's just that there are only 24 hours in a day, and while that's enough hours (just) most of the year to work, run a family and engage in social media experiments, in the run-up to Christmas with the prospect of 4 families around 1 table and a demanding 5 (nearly 6) year old to satisfy on the present-front as well as the usual year-end activities and projects on the work-front, well, I am only human (and a specialist plant of course) and things slip.

Fear not, the in-house lawyer remains committed to (a) being an in-house lawyer  (b) social media and (c) fusing the two together in pursuance of this blog.

A Merry Little Christmas post will be with you before the Big Day itself, and normal blogging service will be resumed once the festivities and stress are over.

Karma Communities

No, I haven't gone all hippy-chick.

I've been reading Twitter Power by Joel Comm lately. In fact, thats incorrect. I'm a 2.0 reader, so I've been listening to the audiobook.

Image is Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm, Gildan Media Corp, presented by Audible.co.uk

Joel Comm gets to the nubb of social media in the first chapter of his book where he describes traditional media publishers as the few who broadcast their news to the many, as against the new social media phenomenon where the many have the power to communicate the news, views and experiences to each other, resulting in the creation of communities with a common interest.

To me, the community is the most important aspect of social media. And because there are little, if any, barriers to entry into the social media world, its much simpler to become part of your chosen community and influence that community than it is to become part of a community in the offline world, such as, say, falling in with the cool kids at high school, the mums at the school gate or the clique of personnel who might have your CEO's attention. Social media is a great leveller.

But for a community to operate it needs to communicate. Communicating means listening as well as speaking, it means building relationships.  You'll read a lot about social media being all about communication and relationship building, but once you truly understand that it actually is, it is an epiphany moment.

And so I was surprised today to come across a tweeting lawyer who followed zero people. Why would you join a social media community and not be part of the conversation? Even if it your goal is to promote yourself as a lawyer or a firm, how can you achieve that goal effectively without monitoring the conversation around you and understanding the impact which your broadcasting/marketing is having?

As an in-house lawyer, through social media you have the ability to become part of a number of communities which feed into your world: the community of the industry which your employing company operates in, or those of your company's suppliers or clients, the legal community, your specialism within the legal community, other in-house lawyers, legal service providers. Communities are being built, and the members of these communities are being generous with their information and advice. In-house lawyers can benefit from this: pop a question into your Twitter status such as "Does anyone know whether there are unfair dismissal rights in Germany?", and you'll receive several tweets in reply from practising employment lawyers pointing you in the right direction.  The more you give back to the community, the more you'll receive from it too. There's a lot of good karma in circulation on social media sites.

A Halloween Hoot

Welcome to the 31 October 2010 edition of ukblawgroundup, and the fourth in the series of round-ups initiated by Michael Scutt to promote blogging lawyers in the UK.

The theme of this edition is, spookily enough, what with the date and everything, Halloween; the origins of which date back to the Celtic festival of Samhain which celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", where the border between this world and the other becomes thin enough to let the spirits pass through, and when we wear costumes and masks to ward off evil.

But I live in the countryside, and what this time of year means to our family is the harvest from the local farmers. And at Halloween, of course, we take great delight in carving up some of that harvest. I was most proud of my local farm in Little Budworth, Cheshire, which this October has just harvested over 3,000 pumpkins:

Image copyright of The Hollies Farm Shop

Halloween festivities are embraced with much more vigour on the other side of the Atlantic, and when Michael started this UK blawg review at the beginning of 2010 he observed that lawyers in the UK hadn’t embraced social media nearly as much as their American counterparts either.  And what a difference (not even) a year makes, because I’m now writing this edition against the backdrop of Legal Week’s recent analysis of the UK blogging scene. It’s article, The Geek Shall Inherit, introduced the audience of the mainstream legal press to the lawyers who operate in the online world, looking back at history of the UK legal blogging scene and presenting both some established bloggers and recent entrants. 

As insightful as the article was, and that one piece of journalism probably succeeded in bringing forward the legal digital mind-set by approximately 5 years, what it was unable to do was mention every credible UK blawgger, and there are few. Some additional players are mentioned in the commentary against the article, so do take a read of both the article and the commentary if you’re looking to increase the number of blawggers on your watch list or your RSS stream.  What the omissions do tell me though is that blawg round-ups such as this one are extremely important to spread the word and to promote the profiles of all of the great blawggers in the field, because by giving each other a pat on the back from time to time, we can help this community grow.

The Law Actually Blog knows a thing or two about patting its fellow blawggers on the back.  Penned by The (mysterious) Michael (whom we only know as an LLM and LLB student working in-house for a telco company)  this quarter it successfully ran its annual "Blawggies", the awards for, well you guessed it, blawgs.  As well as the  Blawggies Results, you can get to know the blawgeratti by reading the regular  “A Law Actually Interview with…” series of posts.  Take a look at the most recent, Law Actually Interview with Charon QC  for the type of thing which you can expect.  You'll also become very familiar very quickly with tech law developments and generalist legal observations too such as Council Goes Bonkers over Conkers, a scenario observed with the observational dis-belief that a fellow in-houser can truly appreciate.  Speaking of which, have you had the good fortune to stumble upon Legal Bizzle? An anonymous in-houser The Biz, who in his own words has been "saving your ass since 1999",  just tells it like it is.  Check out 5 Words I Hate to Hear, and  What does Success Look Like? to see why.

Another round-up we saw this quarter was the FT’s Annual Survey of Innovative Lawyers, but I was disappointed that it didn't feature lawyers who are taking strides into social media as part of their practice strategy, however, to rectify the position, we also saw the 360 Awards, at which Paul Hajek received the award for most effective social networker. Paul is a regular on the UK legal blogging and Twitter scene, and the Clutton Clox Blog succeeds where a lot of law firm blogs fail: it's kept bang up to date and presents a well-rounded perspective of what the firm is about, its work and its people.

The reviews kept on coming this quarter, and one which caught my eye was from Linda Cheung, CEO of Connectegrity.  In September, Linda reviewed the Top 100 Law Firm Websites in Pictures. No spoilers here, you'll have to check out her blog for the winner.  

Image copyright of Tyson Moore, via Flickr, depicting some spooky fence ghosts 

The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common at Halloween. This quarter has seen its fair share of legal horror stories and frightening tales too. Most of which, it has to be said, have emanated from the demise of Halliwells. So may I take this opportunity to present Peter Blair, Director of Mar-aon Consulting which specialises in Risk, Operations, Strategy & Communications in Law Firms, and his eminently sensible Pitch for Common Sense, dealing with issues ranging from Responsibilty and Leadership to Keeping Up to Date. Whatever your profession or specialism there is a multitude of "makes sense" opinion and information on Peter's blog.

More gremlins in the machine this quarter, but thankfully with much less consequence.  Brian Inkster summarises his encounters on the Inksters Solicitors blog in IT Problems at Trainee Summer School. Inksters are officially Cool Lawyers recognised for the example which they set in social media, and I'd agree, like the Clutton Clox blog, Inksters keeps a refreshing balance of posts about the firm's work and it's people.

The above image is of Vice President Dick Cheney's Labrador retrievers Jackson, left, and Dave, right, prepare for Halloween, as they sit for a photograph at the Vice President's Residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Jackson is dressed as Darth Vader, Dave is dressed as Superman. (Random legal copyright fact: This image is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.)

The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages. ‘Guising’ as it became known, was prevalent in Scotland and Ireland in the 19^th Century, and became extremely popular in the US in the 20^th Century. Rather aptly, blogging also allows lawyers to take on a disguise where their  be-devilled alter-ego can roam free.

Guising with expertise is the UK’s very own Baby Barista who provides us with a fictional "worm's eye view of the English Bar" with unparalleled eloquence and wit which has been observed and applauded for some time, however hot on his heels is a the new and superb Magic Circle Minx providing readers with a fictional account of the life of a trainee solicitor at a London Magic Circle Law Firm, her blog is now a regular on my RSS list.  Another esteemed blawgger who makes no bones about his devil-may-care blogging style is the wonderful Charon QC who this quarter has had me hooked on his (fictional?)  Muttley Dastardly LLP series.

Taking on a guise, but not one so scary, is iPad Lawyer documenting his journey as a lawyer with THE piece of kit of the quarter. The iPad Lawyer explains step by step how to use the apps and software for a lawyer's best effect and productivity, and his excellent commentary in iPad workflow - some thoughts is a great example of his hands-on, explanatory approach.  The man behind the mask is Jon Bloor of Peninsulawyer fame who this quarter has also taken a look at Go Compare the Money SuperMeerKat (or why I don't buy Wigster) providing his views on the recent announcements by Wigster and others of the launch of price comparison sites for solicitors.

Image copyright of Shane Gorski, via Flickr "no one knows who lives here but there is proof of life at this property"

There is a tradition of decorating a haunted house at Halloween, filling it with eerie music, cobwebs, spiders, zombies, mummies, jack o' lanterns, devils, witches and of course the witch's cat.  One of my favourite cats is IPKat, aka Jeremy Phillips, home-grown but internationally recognised for his passion of all things IP.  Jeremy and his team provide regular consistent and credible work and I've personally read Jeremy's blog since I discovered it back in 2003, immediately capturing my attention for its valuable insight in my practice area. In September, I was impressed further by the excellent live-blogging series, Handbags at Dawn 1, 2, 3 and 4, reviewing an IP & Fashion conference - yes, live blawgging, as it happened, brilliant.  The team really do live, breathe and eat IP; see The Advertising Wars of Kelloggs Cornflakes for evidence of this assertion.

Other animals featuring in this blawg round-up, but not seen so much at Halloween, include:

CyberPanda, aka Asma Vranaki, who is a Doctor of Philosophy of Law at Oxford University. Asma's blog posts and tweets are brimming over with information and considered opinion tackling issues such as Facebook: the Privacy Backlash and Pan-European Copyright Laws all helpfully summed up in a Cyber-Law News Daily; 

and

Technollama, aka Andres Guadamuz, a lecturer at the Edinburgh School of Law.  This month I enjoyed reading his discussion on cyber-regulation in the well-penned post Is it time to take Anonymous Seriously? Readers of Andres' blog are always guaranteed an enlightening read.

Staying true to her identity, and founder of another technology blog, is Shireen Smith at Azrights Solicitors.  Shireen's posts are bang on the money for her target audience and I always benefit from a legal brain refresher when reading her posts.  She has a knack of making her specialism a subject which everyone should take an interest in:  Facebook Places, Privacy and Implied Consent and Rejecting Anonymity, Making Authors Accountable are both good reads whatever your specialist practice area.

Stepping away from technology blogs, and back full-circle to the founder of the UK blawg round-up now. Michael Scutt's passion for blogging is evident as he wears two blawgging hats, one for Jobsworth, Employment Law Explained, and the other for There May Be Trouble Ahead, Legal Services De-regulation.  Jobsworth is an essential blawgging read for anyone in practice remotely affected by employment law (and, lets face it, who isn't?).  His analysis of the Equality Act in The Equality Act: Here at Last ? Worth the Wait? (and the earlier posts referred to therein) really get to the nub of the issues underlying why and how the legislation has come about to provide a much fuller and contextual picture, but he also does the practical stuff too, see Why Employers Shouldn't Ask Pre-Employment Health Questions: Equality Act 2010 #2 for the answers to the "ok but what does it mean I actually have to do" questions.  In There May be Trouble Ahead, Michael has himself well-positioned as a thought-leader amongst the profession challenging views of what de-regulation will mean for it.  His September post, More on Branding, questions how much a law firm is prepared to invest in a franchised brand. 

I couldn't let the opportunity of this blawg round-up go by without mentioning Mark Gould, with a background as an academic and lecturer in Competition Law, Mark is currently Head of Knowledge Management at a leading law-firm.  His blog, Enlightened Tradition explores a rational approach to organisational learning and knowledge management. He draws inspiration from many sources and his blog posts pay homage to his academic background being clearly well-researched; a shining example is his recent post  Corporate Professional Spectrum: Law Firms, KM and the Future.

And last but not least, Jennie Law, a law librarian in Edinburgh. I've had Jennie's feed on my RSS stream for a while now, and her light-hearted "say what you see" approach is perfectly summed up in How to Make a Librarian Happy.

Image copyright of Anon, via Flickr

And now, the witching hour really is upon me, I have work to do! Happy Halloween readers!

5 More Reasons for In-House Counsel to Use Twitter

I attanded a law firm seminar yesterday evening discussing social media for in-house lawyers.  It was an informative and very well-received event, yet  I was amazed to find that save for myself and the presenters, nobody else around the table had ever used Twitter. 

Twitter is so ingrained into my working day, I thought everyone else was using it too, but it appears not, and more evangalising is required by the rest of us! So following on from my previous  5 Reasons for In House Counsel to Use Twitter and 5 Twitter Best Practice Tips for In-House Counsel, here are 5 more reasons for in-house counsel to use Twitter:

1. Community: Twitter is highly effective at creating communities.  There's a growing legal community on there, and we're already starting to see sections of that community specialise, in particular lawyers focussing on technology, IP, IT cloud computing, and, of course, social media are growing and prospering by creating communities within the larger legal circle.

Being an in-house lawyer can be a lonely experience professionally, especially if you're sole in-house counsel in, say, a firm full of engineers or scientists.  So, lets face-it, some daily legal banter wouldn't go amiss.  Twitter allows you to become part of a community very easily, and the more you put into that community, the more you'll get out of it.

2. Easily incorporated into your day: One of the reasons I've heard for lawyers not getting involved in social media or twitter activities is because they can't find the time.  Well, that's no excuse in my book. With Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite , its so simple to have Twitter running unobtrusively on your desktop as you're completing other tasks; and very quickly you'll become accustomed to spotting the avatars or hashtags of your favourite follows as your tweetfeed pops up in the corner of your screen.

3. The Next Generation: Social media is already the communication choice of the next generation.  Your business is going to have to prepare itself to accommodate this sea-change in communication preference, and if you want to communicate with the next generation of lawyers, its a tool you'll have to get to grips with pretty quickly too.

4.140 characters only: Twitter helps you to hone your writing skills. You need to get your point across in 140 characters or less. As an in-house lawyer in commerce and industry, this skill is particularly valuable where you're dealing with individuals not interested in the legal niceties, but who just want to get to the point.

5. Fun: As my good tweeting companion and fellow in-house lawyer @junecasalmir quite rightly points out, tweeting is actually quite good fun, its enjoyable to meet, network with and read tweets from some great people who you wouldn't have the opportunity to meet in the real world.

Have I convinced you yet?

The event I attended yesterday evening was hosted by the wonderful @stevekunkewicz and @paulcarruthers (to whom I thank for the insight into my point 3 above).

In the Mix. Creative Law?

In my recent 22twts interview I was asked:

My advice was inspired by a quote attributed to Steve Jobs who, speaking at the Stanford University 2005 graduation ceremony, said "You can't join the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future".

You can find his full address here, but the point which fascinated me in this speech was that when Mr Jobs was at college, he actually dropped-out of the course allocated to him and instead chose to follow his intuition and curiosity and take up a calligraphy course of study, the learning of which bore no practical application in his life at all.  10 years later when working on the design of the first Macintosh computer, he recalled his calligraphy learnings and fed them into the creative design process which resulted in the development of the Apple Mac with its signature typefaces, typography and fonts. An example of magnificent creativity.

Simply put, the more broad your experience and interests, the more opportunities there are in your life to connect the dots and bring a fresh and creative perspective to the table.

Law is no different, and some would argue more in need of creative energy: the best patent attorneys usually have a background in science and chemistry and a passion for photography might fuel a leading copyright lawyer's quest to represent image right-holders.

For me personally, a 'mumpreneur' moment during my maternity leave back in 2005 led me to develop and optimise a website for pregnant women.  What is this to do with your legal blog, I hear you ask?

Well, 3 years later I found myself interviewing for the position of in-house lawyer at a digital marketing company quietly confident that I knew, more than any other candidate, my SEO from my PPC, and my back-links from my HTML.  What's more,  my experience during an 'off-track' year as a PSL responsible for training lawyers in a commercial law firm, rather than practicing law with them, continues to feed into that element of my present job responsible for managing the Training & Development at my company.  It all adds up.

In my view, its easy for lawyers to pigeon-hole themselves as specialists, one trick legal ponies; but I'd like to challenge your  specialism and encourage you to take your legal wisdom, add a pinch of a personal interest and pour out a creative contribution to your workplace.

Turn On, Tune In, Tweet Out

If you turned on Twitter on Thursday evening, and tuned into the #22twts hashtag, you'll have seen me tweet out.

#22twts is the inspiration of Lance Godard (of the The Godard Group) and comprises a weekly live Twitter interview of tweeting lawyers "helping them to tell their stories one tweet at a time".

I was Lance's first in-house interviewee, and I was slightly nervous to begin, but the experience was great fun and I'd thoroughly recommend that any lawyer using Twitter contacts Lance if they'd like to feature on #22twts.

The transcript of my interview appears on www.22tweets.com.

Privileged Position

I've always viewed working in-house as a privilege; that a company trusts one individual to be their primary source of leagl advice and cousel is a compliment in my book.

But now it appears that working in-house may be a less privileged role.  In the strictly legal sense.  The decision by the ECJ last week in Akzo Nobel vCommission means that legal privilege does not attach to advice provided by an in-house lawyer to their client/employer in EU competition law matters.

Swings and roundabouts.  On the back of the decision, it was indeed an honour and a privilege for me to be asked by the Solicitors Journal to pen an article providing an in-house perspective of this decision.  My article and views are here.

Branded Part 4: It's Lawyering, but not as we know it

Well, things are finally starting to move forward on the personal brand quest front.  I was delighted to speak with Legal Week recently in relation to a peice which they're writing on Tweeting Lawyers (I'll link to the piece once t goes live); I have an interview lined up for late September with 22Twts (a real time Twitter interview which asks 22 questions of tweeting lawyers, and  I have the honour of being their first interview of an in-house lawyer), and finally I have myself a press deadline (scary) as I've been asked to provide an opinion piece for the Solicitors Journal on the recent Akzo Nobel case decison on privilege and the in-house lawyer.

It's lawyering,  but not as we know it.

The Hub's got the Goods

One of the more interesting feeds in my daily RSS stream today pointed me in the direction of the OFT's website.  The OFT website is one of the Government websites which I do tend to frequent more than others as so much of the OFT's work affects business (what with its myriad of Codes of Conduct, protection and enforcement work and competition regulation), but also business can affect the OFT's work as well (such as by contributing to their industry focussed consultations).

The reason for my visit to the website today though was to take a look at its online Hub launched to help retailers comply with the Sale of Goods Act (SGA).  Like most legislation, the SGA isn't the most riveting of reads, as you can see here:

But the good old Hub has made it a much more user-friendly read, thus:

The Hub includes an at a glance flowchart, download area, case studies and even a quick quiz should the mood take you!

One of the many tasks of the in-house lawyer is to simplify legal concepts and make them less of an obstacle for business; the Hub is a terrific example of how lawyers can use technology creatively to achieve that goal.

5 Reasons for In-House Counsel to use Linked In

In the style of the popular 5 Reasons for In-house Counsel to use Twitter, and having noticed that I'm spending more time using Linked In lately, it seemed only right and proper to set out my 5 reasons for in-house counsel to use Linked In:

1.  In Branded I discussed the benefits to all lawyers of creating a personal brand online.  Linked In is a credible, professional online network which is designed to provide you with the the tools to establish your online professional persona quickly and simply on a canvas which Twitter and, say, Facebook can't provide:

• Your Linked In profile page acts as an online CV
• The profiles of those who you are connected with are stored in an easily-searchable Contacts list
• Links to your website, blog and Twitter account can be easily incorporated into your profile page to showcase your wider online presence
• Status updates, activity timelines, group links and recommendations showcase your business impact

2. Linked In is the place to formally cement any professional connections which you've made fleetingly in the online or offline world, particularly those connections from Twitter!  Linked In also provides access to a wider network of like-minded in-house lawyers and other professionals who you might not necessarily use the other social media networks which you also do.

3. Linked In groups offer you a members-only style form for you to connect with other in-house professionals.  To get you started, here are a selection of Linked In groups focussed on in-house lawyers:

• In House Legal
• Legal Week: In-house lawyers group
• The Lawyer: In-house Hub
• Law Department Management

4. Linked In groups provide you with the opportunity to, not only connect with other in-house counsel, but to also learn from, join in and create discussions on your group's specialist subject area.  Members of groups share information resources, survey data and pose questions on topics of interest, and if you choose to subscribe to your group's email update (on a daily or weekly basis) all of that valuable information and discussion-based material can be delivered direct to your in-box.

5. Lawyers are one of the professions which are traditionally dragged into technology. My real-life contacts from law firms are under-represented on Linked In and, those law firm contacts who are there, have the least active profiles.  As in-house counsel, I like to think we're more connected with the way the rest of business uses technology and we should prove to the professional community that lawyers can have a social (networking) life too!

And, if you're a lawyer who does embrace technology, Linked In is one of the venues where you'll come across other tech-savvy lawyers.

I'll see you on Linked In then: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/melaniejhatton

Pick n' Mix

A corporate lawyer in private practice asked me recently, "What's it like to have just the one client then?"

"Not quite as simple as having just the one specialism," I replied. Because, when it comes to being an in-house lawyer, life is like a  box of chocolates pick n' mix.

As a sole in-house counsel, I don't have the luxury of a specialism. My employer relies on me to know just the right amount of law about any event which happens to affect it that day of the week (and sometimes not necessarily the "right amount of law" just "the right amount of knowledge generally"). So, that could be a dose of contractual drafting on a Monday, a dip into a property lease on a Tuesday, approving the HR policies on a Wednesday, a dose of contract drafting on a Thursday and a dabble in collecting debt on a Friday*. Although more often than not, its all of those things and then some on a Monday and the rest of the week continues in a consistently random manner.

*I always leave anything litigious to a Friday, I'm a non-contentious lawyer and, to me, opposing counsel seem much more inclined to strike a deal with less antagonism on a Friday than any other day of the week. This just happens to be my observation of the world of litigation, any litigators out there who concur or disagree can drop me a line. On a Friday please.

Anyway, the point is an in-house lawyer has to be prepared to deal with any type of issue which drops onto his or her desk and be able to choose the correct legal tool to conjure the solution required. We just need to get things done.

I've acclimatised to being a general commercial lawyer through a combination of in-house roles in different industry sectors and also a good grounding in the Commercial teams of a couple of private practice firms. I recall being a trainee in the Commercial team of a law firm, and on my first day in the seat I asked the outgoing trainee what type of work I could expect to do in the team, he replied "Well, if it doesn't fall into Corporate, Property or Litigation, you'll be doing it".

However, I think there's much more discipline to being a general commercial lawyer than that rather glib welcome to the Commercial team suggests, and Richard Russeth, author of the blog The Last Generalist, agrees.  Richard claims that the legal generalist is the new specialist. In his post More Sheriff Taylor Less Wyatt Earp, "Not a “jack of all trades, master of none” but a master of the breadth, height and depth of the law, its reason and its wisdom. She sees the forest. She sees the trees. She sees all the little pieces of the deal/business/environment, the mosaic they create, and, as a result, what needs to be done, the specialists needed, the knowledge to be tapped. She brings ethics, finesse and wisdom to her counsel. She is a counselor at law."

Liquorice allsorts anyone?