On Sep 13, 2004, at 1:06 PM, Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:
>
I don't recall ever having a lawyer advise me to take a particular
course of action for anything other than purely defensive reasons.
Lawyers are rarely true decisions makers for that very reason, give
them four alternative choices for action and they will provide you
with reasons against five of them.
<laugh>..only five?
Seriously - I can guarantee you that what is going on up in Redmond
right now is that the _lawyers_ are figuring out what to do about this
situation (as no doubt are others). Now, it's likely that they will
make a recommendation to other suits, so if that's what you meant by
their not truly being decision-makers, well, yes, I don't disagree -
perhaps "decision influencers" would be more appropriate a term, but
don't underestimate the influence of those decisions. I certainly have
been in situations as an in-house counsel where buy-off on my
"recommendation" was a formality only, and I was actually the one
making the decisions.
I'm not about to put words in Harry's mouth here, but I wouldn't be at
all surprised if people in Harry's position are frustrated by what is
going on with legal, and would conversely be very surprised if they
have the ability to do a blessed thing about it.
Anne