Hi, this is Dan Cohen. I’m an attorney with K&L Gates in Washington DC, and a member of the Longitude advisory board. I’m so encouraged by the work that Longitudes fellows are doing, because I think connecting smart, passionate, curious students, with leaders in their professional fields of interest is a great recipe for success. And for the development of future leaders in fields, from engineering, to medicine, to law, to politics, to whatever it is, I think it’s a great way for the next generation to really succeed. And I think it’s really important for our current leadership and successful individuals in different parts of our economy to think critically about what’s made them successful, how to continue being successful, and sharing that knowledge with others while they refine it and further development themselves. And for all those reasons, I am very thrilled to be a member of the advisory board.

It’s also my honor to be part of the podcast series. I’ve been asked to talk a bit about communication, my philosophy on communication, and some practical tips. As an attorney, my whole life, my whole career and value-add is the ability to communicate, not broadcast, and I’ll talk about that in a bit more depth.

But to give you a little more background on myself, I’m a graduate of Rice University. I graduated in 2014. I graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2017.

During law school, I was on Virginia law review. I interned with the Virginia Attorney General’s office, the United States Senate Committee on Banking, as well as my current law firm K&L Gates, which is an international full service, one stop shop firm. We assist clients in every industry with every type of legal question from tax, corporate transactional merger, M&A to regulatory oversight, supervision, investigation, to insurance, litigation, the list goes on and on. But working at K&L Gates with my really talented colleagues in 46, or 47, offices across the globe, has really impressed upon me the need to communicate and not broadcast.

To me, broadcasting is disseminating or sharing information. Now, broadcasting can sound good, and in some circumstances it is. It’s important to share information. But when you broadcast information, you’re not necessarily considering whether your audience is receiving that information in a manner that’s accessible, digestible, and can be operationalized or put into action for their strategic purposes. So my definition of communicate and what I try to develop and utilize in my own practice, is sharing information in a manner that my client can best deploy that information for their own use, or said another way, sharing information in a way that my client can use it strategically.

What’s critical in the practice of law is understanding what your client is trying to achieve and understanding the facts surrounding that goal. Because the law is very fact-specific. The same law can apply or not apply in 10 different situations if the facts and the strategy are different. But what’s critical is helping clients think through the intersection of their business model and the law, and how to achieve their goals. You know, whether that means creating a new business model, partnering with someone else, designing contracts in certain ways, deploying new policies or procedures. The “what” is very critical to understanding the “how,” and the how is what clients really need me to communicate. They need me to provide them information in a manner that they can take it, and then create new systems or hire new folks or enter into new partnerships so that they can provide very real services or goods to very real people. And at the bottom line, it’s a practical exercise in everything, it’s not just about sharing what the law is, theoretically, it’s about showing very serious nuts and bolts on how it applies. And the only way I can do that is through communication, not through broadcasting. So I have three tips on how to communicate. I think these tips are general applicability. So don’t worry if you’re not an attorney or you know you’re not working with an attorney.

Though in every field, every business, you’ll eventually work with attorneys either in house or outside counsel. So hopefully these tips can help you in your communications with attorneys so they can serve you as best they can. So my first tip is be clear on expectations. Again, the whole point of a legal service is to help the client put something into practice because of a legal obstacle or challenge. So understanding what it is the client is trying to do when they’re trying to do it, what logistical, what operational or structural features of the client’s, you know, business or just activity in the case of a non for profit entity, what they’re doing, how that applies to the law, and how that applies, you know, in their everyday challenges.

As an example, I work with a lot of banks and these banks have questions about what types of financial services they can provide in what states to specific types of consumers, and what the terms of those services have to be. Similarly, I, I work with companies who buy and sell cryptocurrency as a business. So I help them think through how to model their business, how to provide services in a manner that meets their strategic goal. You know, whether that goal is providing a particular type of service or providing service to a particular marketplace. So be clear on expectations, which includes understanding the facts put before you about the client, but understanding what it is they’re trying to do. So if you have a client who’s trying to give loans to a particular group of people in a particular state, don’t give them advice about providing a different type of service. So just again, be clear, you know, people want an answer to question A don’t get them answered a question B.  Even more practically, understand what the deliverable is, you know, again, part of expectations is meeting what’s asked of you. And you could put forth the best presentation, the best brief, the best speech possible, but if what your client needs is something else. So for instance, if you write a 20 page memorandum that’s very intense in depth and helpful in explaining the legal issue or explaining the use case or business model, or you know, if you put together a dataset explaining the data set, whatever it is, but what your superior, what your client needs, is a high level overview, or what they need is contractual language that they can share with a business partner. Or, you know, a more philosophical thematic discussion for a regulator to understand what you’re trying to achieve. You’ve not met the expectations. You have not communicated in an effective manner, and thus you’re not serving your client or your audience well. So whenever I start a new project, I always communicate with my superior or with the client directly on what problem they need an answer to. And in what form do they need that answer so they can use it best. So often, that means I’ll write a memo. Often, that means I’m just writing an email with bullet points. Sometimes it means I’m drafting a contract. Sometimes it means I’m drafting a letter to a third party. And other times it means I’m writing a regulation or statute for consideration. So tailor your communications to the expectations given to you.

Number two, whatever you do, put the bottom line right up front. We live in a high tech, fast pace world where information is constantly moving back and forth, facts are changing, opportunities are coming and going. People just do not have the time. And there’s increasing information inundation because we’re connected 24/7 to each other  through the internet and our phones, and the ability to share too much information is too easy. So people naturally become tired. So, put the information right up front. Help people understand the answer to their question right at the beginning, so if they read nothing else, they know what the answer is and how to put into practice to meet their strategic goals.

Do that by being clear, be concise, and at a high level, put in important caveats. Don’t let people come away with the wrong impression because you want it to be clear on your conclusion. Help people to understand if your conclusion has caveats what they are, and again, you can always go into more detail, you know, in a supplement further on and whatever deliverable you’re giving, but make sure people understand what the answer is and what to do right up front.

And third, I really encourage you to communicate how the information you’re providing fits into your client, your audience’s strategy. Again, don’t make people do the work they’re asking you to do. You know, especially if you’re a junior person, this is an opportunity to shine. Take that extra step, don’t just tell them what the answer is, tell them what it means to them, how they can take it and use it, and give them practical next steps. So often what I will do if I’m asked a legal question, I’ll give an answer. So for instance, I work with various companies seeking insurance recovery for contamination of their products, so someone produces a food product that gets contaminated. They’ll come and ask me, “Does my insurance policy cover this?” Of course, I need to tell them what the answer is, yes or no? If yes, how much? If no, why? But what I need to tell them is, “Yes. And here’s how you’re going to get the money,” or “No, but here’s how we can get you some recovery. We need to take these steps. We need to talk to these people in this way, and we need to make our case in this way. And we need to avoid, you know, certain issues or certain facts or address them as they come.” So if you want to be a successful communicator, it’s not enough just to answer the minimum question. Help people think through the strategy. Help them take what you’ve learned, and especially in law for anyone here who’s either interested in being a lawyer or if you’re working with lawyers. Make sure that you tell them (a) how the law affects their business model or their business activity, but (b) even more importantly, what they need to do concretely to comply and to use the facts to help advance their goals as a business, or whatever activity they’re doing.

So thanks so much for your time. I hope this is useful. If you have any questions you can reach out. My email is Dan.Cohen@KLGates.com again, I’m an attorney here in Washington DC. So the caveat, of course, is none of this is legal advice, though I don’t think it sounds like legal advice, but just in case. And thank you so much for your interest in Longitude. If you’re a student and you want to get involved, please reach out, if you are professional and want to be involved also reach out. We’d love for resources, but communicate, don’t broadcast your interest, you know, help us help you get involved. So thanks so much. I hope this is useful. Please check out all the other resources and good luck in your careers.

As a lawyer, Dan is often responsible for delivering actionable information to advise his busy clients about their complex legal concerns; therefore, it is incredibly important that his communication with clients is efficient and effective. Daniel described some of the common pitfalls that a broadcaster makes compared to an effective communicator. He provided three great pieces of advice to become an effective communicator. The first being clear expectations. The second was to prioritize important information and the third was to adapt your message to fit your audience.

In hearing his advice regarding communication, I believe that many connections can be drawn between his philosophy toward communication and effective leadership. After all, part of what distinguishes a boss and a leader is to be able to communicate goals rather than broadcast demands.

In my experience with the Army, I have been under the command of both communicators and broadcasters. Often, the most common downfall for leaders in the Army is that they fail to provide the why. The why is so important because, without it, soldiers tend to act out of selfish nature. Sure, they may still get the task done, but only because they are forced to do it. This demeanor often produces incomplete, late, or sub-standard results.

On the other hand, a leader that provides the why correctly will have convinced their subordinates that the task needing to be done is necessary to meet their personal goals. Essentially, they have incentivized them. This can be done in many ways, but the point is that it should always be attempted whenever possible. 

Connecting back to Dan’s ideas about communication, the why that I spoke about earlier is greatly associated with his third piece of advice, which is to adapt your message to the audience. His example about taking the extra step to not only provide accurate analysis of law but deliver actionable advice to support a client is sound advice for anyone. We should always consider how our message will be useful to our audience as a means to retain their attention but also to create a more effective and efficient message.

Now, I know I learned something from Dan and I hope you did too. I highly suggest that you practice this idea of communication versus broadcasting. Whether it’s with your cat, a professor, or even your boss, you will begin to see positive results using this advice. Well, maybe not as much with your cat.