When I ask students to come back with a brief verbal report of their findings before they commit anything to paper, I get everything but the actual answer. Any words of advice for articling students on how to verbally communicate conclusions…borrowing, perhaps, from the principles of brevity and clarity in your public speaking column? Recently, I’ve found that it is the rare individual who can articulate and synthesize his or her thoughts coherently. It’s that darn Internet.
— Old Curmudgeon
I will do my best to rise to the challenge, Old Curmudgeon. Nervousness and inexperience probably account for some of the poor delivery that you are seeing. Old curmudgeons can sometimes be a little intimidating. Fortunately, much of that nervousness and inexperience can be alleviated with adequate preparation and a thorough understanding of subject matter. Kids: When you get an assignment, your goal is to give the partner a warm fuzzy feeling that there is one less thing on her plate to worry about. If you are delivering your answer verbally, remember the Sausage Rule. The partner does not need to know in agonizing minutiae what the sausage contains or how it was made. I assure you that she is not interested in the fact that you pulled an all-nighter to produce the sausage (they never are…no offence, Old Curmudgeon). The partner is just looking for a finished product, an answer or conclusion that will withstand the, er, BBQ of her scrutiny.
The inability to deliver an answer usually starts with a failure to understand the question posed. Guess what? Not only do you not know the answer to the question, you probably won’t understand the question right away. The solution, and I learned this the hard way, is to ask lots of questions. Get all the information and clarification you can from the partner during your initial meeting and go back shortly afterwards with follow-up questions. Get the partner to reiterate the issues and repeat her instructions if need be. Never leave the room without asking about the when and how: deadline and deliverable. It is one hundred times better to annoy the partner with many questions than to come back a week later with exploratory questions that should have been asked from the get-go — or worse still, with a deliverable that misses the mark…or the wrong deliverable.
You’ve done your research, went all the way to Osgoode Library, recorded your methodology, extracted the relevant principles from case law and stayed up late to summarize the main arguments between periodic bouts of intense vomiting. That is the sausage-making process. You also found the answer to the question. That’s the sausage. Your work is not done. Prepare for your meeting with Old Curmudgeon by drafting a one page script. At the top of the page, write down your conclusion in one sentence. Briefly state what the conclusion is based on, for example case law, judicial interpretation of a statutory provision, administrative ruling. State how many supporting arguments you will be covering and summarize them, again briefly. Make a note to stop talking and wait for questions. You should be very comfortable with your subject matter and prepared to go into significant detail if you need to. But when it’s time to meet with Old Curmudgeon, just give him the sausage: answer the question.
Sandra Rosier is a former Supreme Court of Canada clerk who has worked at large firms in Toronto and Boston. Having come to her senses, Sandra currently works as a tax advisor at a Toronto-based organization. Her etiquette column for lawyers appears every other Monday at lawandstyle.ca. Got a question for Sandra? Email us.
Photo by Rachel Tayse