The Gazette 1983

GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUST 1983

matter of routine). Becoming a partner depends on ability (the U.S. legal profession considers itself a bastion of meritocracy), good connections with potential clients and a little luck. Wall Street itself seems the physical embodiment of the high expectations of its daily denizens. Corporate Lawyers and Litigators Apart from partners and associates, the other great dichotomy in a Wall Street law firm is that between the corporate lawyers and the litigators. The latter, whose natural loquaciousness is said to be linked to the preponderance among them of people of Irish and Jewish descent, are the courtroom specialists. Corporate attorneys, on the other hand, the master draftsmen of contracts, securities, licenses and deeds of trust, regard it as a matter of professional pride to keep their clients out of undignified courtroom wrangles. One of the oldest and most distinguished of the giant firms tried to establish the notion early in this century that the best corporate law firms could dispense with litigation departments altogether. Contracts would henceforth be lapidarian, pellucid and shorn of the tiniest ambiguity, so that no dispute could ever arise as to their terms or meaning. As the litigators relate with evident satisfaction, the reality of America's adversarial culture quickly asserted itself and restored the importance of ex- pert forensic skills. Litigation is in fact the fastest- growing area of current Wall Street practice, since during a recession businessmen are more willing to bring cases to court which previously they might have settled or even ignored. Indeed, business activity in some sec- tors is so slack, one partner told me, that some corporate executives seem only too pleased to forego dull days in the office in order to give evidence and watch the spectacle of a courtroom entertainment presented by their expensive Wall Street impresario! Nirvana for the corporate lawyers is a giant corporation merger or a major issue of shares or Government securities and young associates can scan the shelves of their in-office libraries for outstanding examples of past corporate deals — the documents flowing from each transaction are put together in enormous leather-bound volumes, embossed on the spine with the names of the responsible attorneys in gold lettering. It is the instinctive 'AOC' ('abundance of caution') of the corporate lawyers that makes their department a much calmer and cooler environment than the frantic pace of the litigation section, where life is measured out in terms of the next impossible deadline for lodging papers in court. The litigators have been responsible for the so-called 'document explosion' in U.S. law, which happened when they were given astonishingly wide powers of pre- trial discovery and deposition-taking. Any document can be sought or question asked which, in the opinion of the requesting attorney, is or may be relevant to the later trial, an openended indulgence which has the obvious consequence that quite literally every document will be sought and every question asked, so that each side can decide retrospectively what is or is not relevant! One senior trial lawyer told me of a witness who proved to be every American attorney's dream — clearly anticipating future legal battles and the descent of swarms of inquisitorial lawyers, he had carefully recorded on index cards of three different colours the date, time and key

points of every single conversation in which he was involved that concerned the disputed transaction, choosing the colour of the card on the basis of how important he felt a conversation to have been! Attorneys try hard to coach their clients for long deposition sessions, and very often a stream of 'I don't know' or T can't remember' responses is the result. This can, in turn, provoke quite extraordinary (and, in Irish terms, quite unprofessional) exchanges of abuse between each side's attorneys, though a freewheeling use of derogatory language in describing your opponent's arguments is a common enough tactic, even in written legal briefs, in New York. The trial, if it ever manages to take place (the New York courts are utterly besieged by eager litigants) will be a much-abbreviated summary of all that has been going on for years during depositions and discovery. Paralegals The Americans have invented a new breed of legal specialist called the 'paralegal', a neologism which presumably works by analogy with the longer- established 'paramedical'. Paralegals ensure the smooth operation of the nuts and bolts of legal work, getting papers served on opponents or lodged in court at the due time and keeping track of the Everests of paper which flow from depositions and discovery. Not usually lawyers themselves (though one of ours had the almost unique distinction of being called to the New Mexican Bar), qualificationitis has nevertheless caught up with them and a diploma for paralegals is now available at many law schools. They sometimes drift into law from other callings — one of our best was a dissatisfied schoolteacher. In this yearning to become involved with the law they show an inclination completely opposite to that which exists among not a few lawyers. 'Attorneys here are people who never decided what they wanted to be when they grew up', one associate told me (referring no doubt to the profession as a whole, rather than just to his colleagues at the firm). Certainly, some of those I met had allowed their inner thoughts to inhabit other, not necessarily loftier, planes of existence. Apart from the associate who dreamed of being a train driver on the Long Island Railroad, there was a brilliant trial lawyer who, though relishing the trappings of Wall Street success (the sleek yacht, the magnificent gentlemen's clubs perched atop all the best skyscrapers), in his heart felt his true vocation to have been as an austere classics professor in the mould of A. E. Housman. Although all the firm's partners met once a month for a general strategy session, day-to-day control was vested in a discreet troika of the hightest-earning partners, known as the 'Executive Committee'. One of the top three was among the first woman partners in a Wall Street law frim and in 1975 she spearheaded the launch of a quite spectacular outreach of the American feminist movement, a commercial bank founded and governed entirely by women and still flourishing today in midtown Manhattan. But even the Executive Committee cannot devote itself too deeply to administration and the trend in Wall Street few offices since the mid-70s had been to bring in a full-time professional office manager to organize the network of legal secretaries (a profession growing even faster than the legal profession itself), file- room personnel, telephonists and messengers who form 161