I’ve just returned from three days in Chicago at SuperConference, a gathering of in-house counsel from corporations across the nation.  No, they aren’t like us. 

Dan Hull at What About Client? was kind enough to think of me when he was asked to put together a panel of lawyers to speak on the subject of Gen Y lawyers, and Sheila Brennan, the brains and brawn behind SuperConference, was kind enough to ask me to come. Sheila was a sweetheart, and anyone who throws a conference without Sheila at the helm is a fool.  Having gone to many a conference of criminal defense lawyers, but nary one of our brethren whose life is spent behind desks rather than in the well, it was a fascinating experience.

First, contrary to popular belief, they don’t wear Grateful Dead t-shirts when they are amongst their own.  They may let their hair down, but it doesn’t have a long way to fall.  These are guys who show up in a pin-striped suit when no one makes them.  They like to.  It’s them. Hull told me about this in advance, so I wore the uniform too. 

It was an abundantly friendly crowd, and they were happy to meet anyone, even a criminal defense lawyer.  The first question out of every mouth was, “Who are you with?”  This is a question one never gets at criminal lawyer conferences, but the basis for everything that follows amongst in-house lawyers as well as the outside counsel who came to lobby.  Everybody is with “somebody”.  The idea that you weren’t with “somebody” was as foreign as, well, not wearing a pinstripe suit.  It just wasn’t done.

The in-house guys were not merely friendly, but exceptionally smart and savvy within the confines of their niche. Unlike trench lawyers, they were inclined to be agreeable, to follow instructions and to be on time and prepared.  It was strange to see a room full of lawyers and no one screaming at anyone else.  It was nearly impossible to find alone in disagreement about anything.  They knew what their job was, where their interests lie, and who buttered their bread.

As I met GC after GC, and after we got past the obligatory “who are you with,” and I explained what my day job was, there was the quizzical “so why are you here?” look.  I followed Hull’s lead, as he works a room like nobody’s business.  When I talked about white collar work, and how it related to their world, there was a disconnected interest, as if they heard about how corporate executives were subject to compliance, regulatory violations, fraud and the occasional prosecution, but it has no real meaning in their world. 

It was brutally clear how and why so many executives, particularly those who turn to their pals in the general counsel’s office, get themselves into a jam.  They just can’t conceive of how their world connects to ours.  They are good, clean-living, corporate types.  They would never engage in conduct worthy of moral reprobation.  Never. And if it did, the overwhelming sense was that there was nothing one could do about it.  Their remarkable savvy when it came to structuring their transactional work evaporated entirely.  It gave me a great idea for a topic for next year’s conference, as these guys and gals had an awful lot to learn about how to keep their executives, and themselves, out of trouble.  They just don’t believe they have the capacity to get into trouble, or once trouble finds them, any way to get out.

The biggest ongoing controversy at SuperConference was billing, whether the billable hour was dead and whether flat fee billing was the future.  Everyone claim to love it.  Everyone claimed that the world was changing.  Nobody could explain why it was all talk and no action.  As David Boies said in a keynote address, businesses look for the best way to do things while lawyers look to the way it was always done.  If there was any moving force amongst the GCs, it was inertia. 

Hanging with my new friends kept me up and out way to late, and away from the news and caselaw that finds its way into the pages of Simple Justice, which is why there were no posts yesterday.  I’m still trying to recover today.  It was exhausting to be nice to so many people for so long.

Beyond the high point of getting to hang out with Dan Hull was meeting Ed of Blawg Review.  A great guy who bears a faint resemblance to Chuck Norris (and that’s as much as I’ll tell), I was almost persuaded to give Blawg Review another try.  Almost.  Whether I will be invited to speak at SuperConference again has yet to be seen.  There are a few topics that connect our world with theirs, and information which these guys desperately need.  But I did learn one thing which I will carry with me should I be asked to attend again:  Don’t let them suck you into late night dinner and drinking if you’re not used to it. 

I’ll be back to normal soon, for better or worse, and plan to clean up the mess around here and catch up on the real world.