Quote:
Originally posted by Skeks in the city
NY Biglaw attracts pushy people with big egos. There are tools everywhere though. I've had partners from small firms who think it's beneath them to negotiate with an associate, who try to BS me about what's market simply because they've got more years under their belt than I do, or who ramble endlessly because they like to hear themselves talk.
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Also, I've had clients tell me specifically to be an asshole with the other side, be pushy, be annoying. I don't know if that's unusual or not (or just a side effect of my being naturally reasonable and good natured 100% of the time), but I've seen it a lot. Clients pay us the big bucks, they want to see some fireworks - or at least use us to express their contempt for the other side's client without getting personally called on it.
Perhaps not incidentally, I've seen this have excellent results in negotiations - asshole lawyers can get others so pissed off, annoyed and distracted by the assholish personality issues that they lose their cool and aren't thinking straight, often giving a pass to comments made without asshole overtones and allowing us to walk through all kinds of shit while they grit their teeth over the bullshit the asshole is pissing them off about.
Then again, with the kind of stuff I do, anybody who says they have any particular experience that is very relevant to any given situation is pretty much full of shit - we're mostly making it all up as we go along, and he who wins is he who thinks best on his feet on 8 hours of sleep a week. Rattling techniques are more effective if no one has a clue what they are really looking at anyway.
