Partners need to understand what their associates are saying to them, but Associates do not always have the gumption to express themselves clearly and partners don’t always listen so well. Here, as yet another extension of my desire to give back to the profession, are some translations from Associate Talk (“AT”) to Plain English (“PE”):
You know me. Always giving back to the profession. Today I want to help associates understand what the partners mean when they use certain phrases. Here is your handy, dandy guide to some translations of partner talk (“PT”) to plain English (“PE”).
Once again, since I am all about giving back and public service, I offer these translations from legal talk (“LT”) to plain English (“PE”) to help lawyers communicate effectively with opposing counsel. I hope that you find them helpful.
Due to popular demand (I have now asked myself to do this ten times) and as a continued public service, I am providing some more translations from Legal Talk to Plain English.
In deference to my highly intelligent wife who has told me that these are getting pretty cynical, even for me, I do want to acknowledge that there are some great lawyers out there to whom this does not apply. Once again, it may simply be a case of 99% of us giving the other 1% a bad name.
| Legal Talk | Plain English |
| Your billable hours target is 1600 hours. | We have put you in the budget for 1400 hours because we know that is as much as you can do, but we won’t tell you that because we want you to try to reach 1600. Every month we will tell you that you are failing. |
| You have a non-billable hour target of 300 hours. | We don’t care if you reach it or not. In fact, we know that you can’t reach it if you are going to have a hope in hell of reaching your billable hours target. But from time to time we will tell you that you are failing. |
| We will provide you with support to learn how to market your practice. | You are on your own. |
| We will provide you with expert support to learn how to market your practice. | We will have our consultant tell you what you have to do and leave it to you to figure out how the hell you are supposed to fit that in and still meet your billable hours target. |
| It is important to learn how to set boundaries and say no (first definition). | Tell your family that your time is spoken for at the firm and that they have to get things done without you. |
| It is important to learn how to set boundaries and say no (second definition). | Now that we have gone on record as saying that boundaries are important, feel free to ignore this and continue to devote all of your time to the firm. |
| It is important to learn how to set boundaries and say no (third definition). | You can say no to everyone else, but not to me. |
| You are not required to work on weekends unless there is an emergency. | We define an emergency as any time that a partner wants you to work on the weekend. |
| You are really not required to work on weekends unless there is an emergency. | We consider it an emergency if you are not going to meet your billable hours target. |
As a continuation of my public service, I offer the following additional translations from Lawyer Talk to Plain English:
As a public service, I offer the following translations from Lawyer Talk to Plain English: