Seeking the new, finding the old.
Notes from a clubhouse conversation amongst lawyers, and more about the next.
Earlier this week, my friend Ramanuj Mukherjee and I had the pleasure of holding a clubhouse together. Getting ourselves in front of people used to be common before the pandemic and he acknowledged missing it too, and thats how it came about. Now in hindsight, I can say that the experience of Clubhouse is the closest it has come to replicating that same walk-in walk-out sidebar format that makes real world conversations voluntary, fun and meaningful.
Our chosen theme was “alternate and exciting career opportunities for lawyers”, which we sent out to… pretty much everyone we like. Plus clubhouse does its thing. At 8 PM, in walked in a mix of young and old, serious and slightly less serious (lawyers, you know), old and new economy, traditional versus tech-enabled versus technology led, we are behind innovation versus innovation is disappointing us, recovering lawyers and recovered lawyers, students (to be) and former lawyers (used to be). Though in small number, the group felt selected for diversity, more shades than imagined when we had set it up.
The conversation went over a vast breadth of subjects and instead of summarising them, I am sharing here the impressions and thoughts that it left me with:
Technology is hotter. A decade ago, “lawyers who love technology” used to gravitate toward legal practice areas or academics connected with technology, such as intellectual property laws or space laws. It was always “laws” and “love” rarely implied any deep yearning for coding, doing math or innovating products. That seems to be changing now, and how! There were even indications that it is turning into an “unhealthy fad” with its own cult like followers, jargon and other trappings that outgrow the intentions. Another me too peer coolaid that young people are rubbing on to each others backs while leading themselves down the cliff of vanity. Oh my! Nothing so dramatic was said ofcourse, but I did for a moment entertain this pleasing over-simplification in my mind. If young lawyers are moving in this direction, the future looks bright not only for them but for customers who have been waiting for centuries to see innovation in the law. Without enough skilled lawyers going out there and trying to innovate, there is only so much the others can do no matter how much the world needs it.
Old and new is a chimera. Everyone really is in the same boat. The conventional idea that the new and technology led will leave the traditional grey hairs behind is a false dichotomy. Knowledge and experience in the law is always going to be relevant, and innovation will make an impact only if it is able to carry everyone along. Innovation isn’t as easy as we like to think, our disappointments with adoption can go hand in hand with our disappointments in innovation. Whatsapp and Twitter are great products, adoption increases when innovation doesn’t disappoint. Why would anyone not want something that makes their life or careers better? Their work days easier?
There is never going to be a straight answer to the generalisation versus specialisation question. This question has the same edge it had decades ago as it does today, and the fundamental questions haven’t changed. Is it a bad idea to specialise too early? Yes and no. It is a bad idea not to specialise? Probably yes, too. There are several truths that co-exist despite conflict depending on the context. Narrating from experience, few lawyers specialise in the same thing in the same way for all their careers - over a career, even the most specialised lawyers move between a range of subjects depending on the contexts of their clients and whats “hot” As the world around them changes, even specialists have to adapt. There also comes a point of time in your career when not having the ability to obtain a “bird’s eye view” or manage matters that are strictly within your expertise will turn into a handicap. The more years you have spent in the legal profession, the larger the importance of your role as a legal manager and not only a professional. Being a good manager means the ability to supervise and excel at producing results in areas that other people deliver expertise that feed into your decision-making. Particularly, client relationships often have to do with “you having their back” than your geek-outs in super-niche areas. Your biggest corporate client might be suffering a life altering criminal trial - there is only so much you can stay away, you are a lawyer after all. While specialists will run the grind, your client might still want your wise experienced ear and use you as a legal sounding board when it comes to things like figuring out whom to hire or what strategy among competing ones presented needs to be adopted. It is moments like this that the lawyer in private practice is often confronted with that specialisation doesnt optimise for. The other side of the specialisation dilemma is well known. As a young generalist, neither is it easy to market your business nor to compete with the impressions made by other professionals who bring specialised expertise to compensate for their lack of years overall. In summary, specialisation is essential but don’t be attached, they transform and evolve with your age and clients. Don’t diss on the generalist’s importance when it is required, say such as a corporate general counsel’s, that comes from having a good view of various different problem statements across practice areas on a daily basis, without forgetting that a generalist is often a specialist who is actually doing the job of a legal manager when seniority, circumstances and clients demand.
People are flying blind into their legal careers, even today. Older lawyers like to repeat how easily information is available today compared to say, even a decade and a half ago. Then, it wasn’t unheard of for an international client to pay your firm by the hour after flying in around the world and braving jetlag for the privilege of having a law book opened in a plush conference room while young associates read out plain language statutes. We are in a world where this no longer happens and Google has changed what counts as value-add in a searchable world. Despite information being so readily available, the question of choosing your path remains as difficult as it used to be. There is only so much reading can substitute for doing, and knowing is something is for you or not still involves actually having to try it out. Are there ways to hack your way to where you want to be? Maybe. Is the journey any easier than it used to be? Probably not.
All this made us think about what should our conversation this week focus on? Yes, we enjoyed it enough to want to do it again. Some of the pressing questions in each point had to do with how to structure your career. It turns out, as one of us in the clubhouse - Namit Oberoy (whom I had earlier discovered through his fantastic blog) pointed out - direction is more important than speed. Ramanuj thought that exploring the world of the specialised, in the traditional sense of the term - the boutique, could be a way to re-engage with a model that lawyers have been known to excel at - creating focussed, cost-efficient and specialised solutions.
So this week, we reached out to three of our lawyer friends who are at different stages of building a boutique law business to join us on this week’s clubhouse on Thursday, 8 PM, which is structured around - “how to build a boutique law business.”
Aditya Shamlal of Gamechanger Law mirrors in many ways my own journey and I count us both amongst the examples of lawyers heading competing firms (competing for the same type of lawyers and clients) being the best of friends while enriching and learning from each other’s respective professional journeys. Aditi Halan will also be joining us. She was among the first lawyers I hired way back when I began my journey as a boutique law firm. Her journey has since emcompassed Biglaw, business development and private practice. Today, she is far ahead of where I was in a similar amount of time, having made a great headstart with her boutique that like Aditya’s - focusses on representing innovative startups, niche sectors and new age businesses with a focus on having their founders’ backs in fundraising conversations. I discovered Abhishek Subbaiah through his fantastic Linkedin presence and we connected over his new venture Bridge Legal which is focussed on a new model of enabling the gap between legal education and the skills required to close the hiring process. At heart, Abhishek is a teacher who wishes well for his students. In business, he wishes to see this translated into as many young lawyers as possible being able to learn the skills required to create value inside businesses today.
If you are not a lawyer and managed to get to reading till here, you should definitely join us. If you are a lawyer or law student and missed last week’s conversations - this might be a good way to catch up. Either way, as my co-host Ramanuj says, even if nothing else, it is a way to get into a hall with interesting folks doing exciting things, something we used to deeply enjoy before the pandemic and hope to again - soon!