American Lawyers–A Continental Perspective

Years ago, through a chain of events which would strain the reader’s credibility, I (I was a solo practitioner back then.) wound up representing one of the largest corporations in Germany in a mid-sized lawsuit.

I enjoyed the experience quite a bit. My contacts were the Vice President for U.S. Marketing and his secretary, both of whom spoke English as well as BBC announcers. They were most gracious and arranged to contact me by phone after I had actually awakened. (When you factor in the time difference and the Teutonic habit of rising early, they could have awakened me at home in the middle of the night.)

Anyway, eventually the case was settled, my Veep contact told me that when the settlement documents were ready for his signature, I was to send them to his attention or to his secretary. He told me that if I failed to mark the envelope with a notation that the contents were for his eyes only, odds favored the documents getting sent to their legal department, which he abhorred.

He confided in me that lawyers through out the world were the bane of businessmen, but in the US. lawyers were mercenary so they at least understood the value of a mark and acted practically. His comment was that in Germany, lawyers were glorified bureaucrats who could make anything drag out for ten years over nothing.

I did as he said and the matter was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Obviously, I remembered what he said about American lawyers.

I’m never entirely sure if it is worse to be justifiably guilty of being mercenary or being a bureaucrat.