Private practice lawyer: Difference between revisions

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There is a rake’s progress of attorney from [[private practice lawyer]] to [[inhouse counsel]] to [[structurer]] (with sickly branches peeling off towards [[human resources]] and [[head-hunter]]. whether it is a Darwinian evolution or a descent into decadent madness is a question on which the different constituents have their own opinions. But private practice lawyers are the Toyota hilux of the market - they will do whatever you ask, and will just keep going until you tell them to stop. Even when it all goes [[pear-shaped]].
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[[File:Hilux.jpeg|450px|thumb|center|Deal counsel yesterday]]
}}There is a Rake’s Progress of attorney from [[private practice lawyer]] to [[inhouse counsel]] to [[structurer]] (with sickly branches peeling off towards [[human resources]] and [[head-hunter]]).<ref>Whether those latter feeble strands are some kind of nascent [[Evolution|Darwinian evolution]] we are witnessing in real-time, or simply a descent into decadent madness, is a question on which the different constituents have their own opinions</ref>


Only the stoutest stay put. Those who do — who don’t evolve, or adapt, but keep within their darkened partnerships, thriving in that gloomy cove, are a tough breed.
They are like cockroaches — or, more flatteringly, [[Toyota Hilux]]es — they will do whatever you ask, and will just keep going until you tell them to stop. The more [[tedious]], the more compendious, the more laden with unmanageable complexity, the better. They may not sleep for three days; their complexions may take on a clammy green sheen, they may subsist on tea, pizza and prescription amphetamines, but ''they will endure'', their massive command of structural and documentational complexity intact. 
Lawyers may be obliged, by entry-barrier perpetuating regulations, to maintain [[professional indemnity insurance]] but their no-claims bonus is safe. Even when it all goes [[pear-shaped]] — deals like this often do — it will be impossible to trace that failing back to them: how could anyone, not across that whole body of information, hope to? The germ of dissolution, if it is their fault, will be so deeply buried in some third side-letter to the series proposal for the fourth tranche of the mezzanine financing leg that no-one else has a hope of ''finding'' it, let alone seeing it for the smoking gun it purportedly is.
'''''Will'' say''': “This time-line is very aggressive. We don’t have ''time'' for a term-sheet: [[Let’s go straight to docs]].”<br>
'''''Won’t'' say''': “Seems fine to me. No comments.”
===The loss of [[subject matter expert]]ise===
The sainted history of the [[eye-ess-dee-aye]], and how its carriage has descended through the ranks of solemn wizardry to its present low state, pushed about by school leavers in failed communist states is recounted in our [[downgrading]] article. The negotiation of standard master agreements — especially the securities financing ones — has now passed so far down the “value chain” that private practice lawyers are positively destructive to the negotiation process, having none of the “[[metis]]” required to competently advise on them. This will not stop them trying.
It is amusing, but alarming, when apparently sophisticated [[asset manager]]s [[Outsourcing|outsource]] their contract negotiation to [[Law firm|second-tier law firms]] anxious (late in the day) to get a piece of the derivatives action, who then resolutely bugger everything up for everyone else, not understanding foundational, if counterintuitive, aspects of the market, insisting on [[indemnities]], [[close-out]]s for run-of-the-mill settlement failures, and to reserve rights to seek replacement costs and even [[consequential loss]]es way of damages for non-performance under [[stock loan]]s.
Folks: if it hiring a [[negotiator]] knock out your [[GMRA]]s seems extravagant, getting a trainee at [[Tubb Fuller Breaden Potter Bacon]] to have a go at £200/hr is positively prodigal. Especially since she won’t have a Scooby-Doo what she’s doing.
In a nutshell, your average [[negotiator]] — okay, maybe not a [[School-leaver from Bucharest]], ''yet'', but generally — has ''forgotten'' more than ''any'' private practice lawyer these days knows about the {{gmra}}, {{gmsla}} and probably the architecture of the {{isdama}} too. But does this stop institutions, who really should know better, blowing their own money and everyone else’s time and patience, on private practice lawyers?
It does not.
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*[[Inhouse counsel]]
*[[Inhouse counsel]]
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*[[Head-hunter]]
*[[Head-hunter]]
*[[Human resources]]
*[[Human resources]]
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