Case study

Financial Services General Counsel returning to private practice

Our client was tempted to hire this fairly high-profile GC, who covered a distinct part of the financial services market that our client wanted to penetrate. We were instructed to find out what we could about him.

Through the course of our discussions it became clear to us that the individual was personally engaging, charismatic and well-connected. However, people liked him because he was good company but that didn’t mean that his fellow GCs would consider instructing him in private practice. In fact, on further probing, it seemed that very few were inclined to instruct him. Supplementary investigation showed us that he had what appeared to be a cavalier approach to expenses and, although intelligent, an aversion to hard work.

Our client concluded that whilst the GC might be able to bring prospective clients through the door, he was unlikely to be able to convert them into actual clients and, when that was combined with concerns regarding expenses, they decided to pass on the opportunity to hire him.