InsideCounsel » August 2008
Another Round With Thomas Lalla
To read the original Profile, click here.
Web-exclusive excerpts from the Q&A with Thomas Lalla, general counsel of Pernod Ricard USA.
Q: Are there any personal philosophies you try to impart on your legal department?
A: Though I’m a big advocate of technology, I’m a firm believer in direct personal contact. I try to encourage people to leave their offices and spend time with the business people and talk to them or to pick up the phone and call people, not to rely upon e-mail as the only method of communication. I think that is a real problem in any company where people communicate solely by e-mail. I think what’s happened in the business world is that people rely so much on e-mail that we’re losing that sense of interpersonal contact. That’s something, as lawyers, that is very important, and we need to maintain that and continue to practice it.
The lawyers here generally tend to be very hands on, and I’ve encouraged that kind of involvement. I was always very hands on. That’s something that, as you get more advanced in your career, you get less of, although I still try to do some of that myself. I love being a lawyer and I don’t want to lose those skills.
I also try to encourage the lawyers to be on the frontline. Everyone in my department basically has their own clients—departments—that they deal with on a regular basis. They know their business, and have a good sense of what the client is trying to accomplish. At the end of the day, if the client can’t do it a certain way, understand what they want to accomplish and try to help work with them to achieve their goal. I always tell [my department] if someone makes a mistake, it’s my fault, but if they do a good job, they get the credit. That’s something I think you have to have as a general counsel.
Another thing I’ve learned over the years: I used to be apologetic about being a generalist, but I think that’s something that has probably helped me more than anything else. I know a lot of different areas of law, and I also know the issues, although I may not know how to resolve them. So in using outside counsel, I can at least do some preliminary research. Basically I’m trying to either validate what I already know with the outside counsel or I’m bringing the issues to them because I’ve already spotted them. I try to learn from the outside lawyers so the next time I can go back and do it internally.
But I know when I don’t know something. That’s always dangerous, and I think some lawyers are afraid to say “I don’t know.” Clients expect you to know a lot, but when you hold yourself out as knowing everything, that is when lawyers get in trouble.
