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Avoid Cross-Cultural Communication Snafus

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Being sensitive to cultural differences in communication will impact your success in the global arena.

Messages often get “lost in translation”—literally and figuratively— during cross-cultural communication. When talking or writing to clients, colleagues and competitors from different cultural backgrounds, we often find ourselves in communication snafus. Sometimes the receiver of the message fails to understand the message or, worse,
assumes a contrary meaning. In other words, client communication techniques that work in Shanghai don’t necessarily work in Sydney or Salzburg.

Communication is key to the success of the attorney-client relationship. How can law firms and individual lawyers ensure that their messages accurately cross the cultural divide? How can they trust that their meaning is understood
as intended? Here are some strategies to maximize the effectiveness of your cross-cultural client communication.
Make Every Client Communication Count Every kind of communication—from legal bills to cocktail party conversation— is an important client cultivation opportunity. Before sending out a bill, letter or memo, or before speaking to a client at a meeting or social event, a lawyer should ponder, “How can I communicate with this particular client in a culturally sensitive way?”

Not long ago in London, I led a panel discussion about cross-cultural client development for the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law. During the panel discussion we shared our client communication strategies in different cultural contexts. One panel member was Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, a lawyer with Lang Mitchner’s Toronto office who works in China so often that she has even secured a local cell phone number comprised of “lucky numbers.” Before each trip abroad, she reviews a little tip sheet she has prepared, reminding her of things to bring (lots of extra business cards) and appropriate ways to greet and interact with Chinese clients.
One clear theme emerged from this conference: being sensitive to and mindful of cultural differences in communication decidedly impacts a lawyer’s success in the global arena. But what if a lawyer gets it wrong? Simply apologize. All the panel members agreed that clients will generally understand cultural gaffes, especially if attorneys recognize their mistakes and apologize.

Look For And Understand Differences In Communication Style

Cultural differences impact not only our words, but also our vocal pitch, body language (including how close parties stand when conversing), and eye contact. For example, intense eye contact is often considered rude in Vietnam
whereas many Arabs and Latin Americans often use direct eye contact when delivering important messages. Customary gestures or behaviors can also have radically different meanings depending on the cultural context; for
example, noisily slurping soup is customary in China but considered rude in many other cultures.

As you interact with your clients or prospective clients from other cultures, adapt your vocal pitch and pace to theirs. Pay particular attention to how loudly you are speaking; many Americans inadvertently speak English too
loudly in an attempt to be understood. Match your body language as well. This technique is called mirroring and matching, and it helps to create rapport between two people—even across cultures.  Lawyers may want to learn more about other cultures and their customs by reading Gwyneth Olofsson’s When in Rome or Rio or Riyadh or Roger Axtell’s two books, Gestures and Do’s and Taboos Around the World.

Other books, like those in the Culture Shock series, focus on the cultural nuances of one particular culture.  Thanks to globalization and increased mobility, lawyers have ample opportunities to spend time with people from different cultures and practice their communication skills. To heighten your sensitivity, look for opportunities to interact with educated people from a variety of cultures—whether through business or social circles. Then pay attention to differences in communication style through verbal and non-verbal cues, and practice matching the other
person’s body language, pitch, tone and gestures.

Forge Strong Relationships

Lawyers who want to build relationships with foreign clients should respect and anticipate cultural differences, taking the time necessary to build rapport in a manner comfortable for the client. In their recent book, Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond, Harvard Business School professors Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman explore the importance of relationships as a precursor to trust: “Learning about the other side’s family and their life, spending time with them in informal settings, sharing common friends, and living or working in the same community will facilitate trust.”
Entertaining and gift giving also impact the attorney-client relationship.

Lawyers intent on socializing with their clients (which is indeed important to the rainmaking process) should study their client’s cultural expectations in social situations. Lawyers should also learn any dietary restrictions that their client has—including those arising from religious beliefs—and memorize a few basic greetings, toasts and pleasantries in the client’s native dialect. Culturally savvy attorneys learn to anticipate differences arising from gender, hierarchy and the treatment of time. One of my lawyer clients, frustrated by his meetings with his Arab counterparts, complained, “They showed up late, and then all they wanted to do was chit chat!” Eventually, the punctual American lawyer learned that his Arab counterparts viewed time differently.

The same lawyer also learned that his Arab counterparts prioritized developing a relationship with him through “small talk”; this relationship- building discussion lasted for most of the meeting and covered a wide range of topics before business could begin. Similarly, rituals that may have less importance in the United States may carry great significance abroad, such as the famed Japanese ritual of scrutinizing and appreciating the other person’s business card.   Incorporating a client’s cultural rituals into the attorney-client relationship may take time, but it builds ties that bind.

Consult The Experts

The market is flooded with information about the business customs of various cultures. Along with many insightful books, a few of which are mentioned above, there are several helpful websites like Dialogin.

Speaking to experienced international lawyers also provides invaluable data. Many belong to the international section of local bar associations or the American Bar Association, or one of the global lawyer organizations like the
International Bar Association headquartered in London.  Networking with business people through groups like the Alliance Française and speaking to business people steeped in a particular culture, including foreign embassy personnel, are other good ways to learn about business customs of other cultures.

Client communication today requires cross-cultural sensitivity. Lawyers who respect and appreciate a client’s unique cultural perspective, and know how to communicate in a culturally appropriate way, will be well positioned for success.
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FOOTNOTES

1.   Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman, Negotiation Genius: How to
Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and
Beyond, Bantam Dell 2007, p. 97.

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Categories: Law Practice Communications - Tags: communication skills, expert lawyers, international lawyers, law practice communication, legal negotiation

Global Thinking Goes Beyond Location

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You don’t have to practice law abroad to engage in its globalization. Your firm may compete for new and existing work against a foreign firm because the client is international or because the foreign law firm has just opened a branch in your city. Client industries are consolidating, and US firms are experiencing competition from foreign law firms setting up shop in the U.S. or taking on clients that used to be accessible only to U.S. firms. A relationship with a “local” law firm may now include firms just about anywhere in the world depending on the client’s ownership structure. Likewise, U.S. law firms are setting up more offices abroad.

With careers in law taking on a global flavor, young associates need to build their knowledge of the global market so that they can understand future business development and practice scope.

For example, if a German firm acquires one of your firm’s biggest clients but your firm will continue to handle legal needs for the U.S. subsidiary, how will the relationship change? How can your team proactively position itself as preferred legal counsel? What challenges to the new relationship need to be met?

Even if your primary focus isn’t business development, you can still keep these questions in mind. Here are a few other tips.

Learn What You Can About Diverse Business Cultures

Every country views business dealings in different ways. Customs, greetings, work schedules and case timelines, dress codes, food and drink and even ethics vary.

Use your natural online research skills to learn what is acceptable and expected in the legal environments of different countries. This information can come in handy and impress partners when client relationships change or the firm considers expanding abroad.

It also helps to understand some of the legal jargon and precedent-setting cases among your foreign competitors. Trade publications like U.K.-based Managing Partner can give you a taste of what’s happening in the legal field abroad.

Leverage Contacts

Do you already have friends in other countries with whom you communicate through online social networking channels? You can expand your network by connecting with young associates in other countries who can give you an inside scoop on what’s happening in their fields and in their firms.

Assume that your overseas contacts are just as willing and open to share information as your U.S. colleagues. All you have to do is break the ice and initiate contact. These connections can help you to better understand social and business customs, too.

For international career-building advice, check out the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA), a bilingual non-profit association devoted to lawyers and inhouse counsel aged 45 and under.

Build Alliances

Chances are your firm belongs to an international alliance or association of similar firms. Find out about the group your firm belongs to and investigate ways you can participate. The group may have an emerging leaders track, marketing group or other subgroup that is looking for volunteers.

By joining these organizations, you can lead your firm to new opportunities without incurring the expense of opening an office abroad; you’ll also position yourself well for other leadership opportunities.
Play To Your Strengths

Thanks to our legal environment, U.S.-based firms will remain the best choice for many clients. State and local law in particular requires attorneys who are entrenched in case precedents and the organization of the courts.

However, your team and firm most likely possess other strengths that foreign-based firms can’t match. Knowledge of individual judges, multi-state admissions, the variety or skill-intensiveness of your practice groups, your reputation in a particular industry—all these can be leveraged to enhance your firm’s competitiveness.

Take stock of what your firm does best and what skills you could acquire to add to its global footprint. If you become a thought leader in your own career, you will certainly enhance the bottom line of your firm along the way—in any market.

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Categories: International Business - Tags: big clients, business relationship, career in law, careers in law, challenges, firm, foreign law, globalization, international business, international law firms, law abroad, relationship among international firms, us subsidiary

What Is It Like To Do Business in Latin America?

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Just as you always want to make sure that you know the basics about your prospective client’s business and industry prior to calling on him, you will want to know the basics about the country in which you will be representing him or her. If you are “fluent” in the national history, politics and current events of that country, you will enjoy yourself more and your business and legal partners will, in turn, be more motivated.

Travel books serve as a basic introduction to other countries, but you’ll do better to ask foreign colleagues about local customs. The Internet is also a good place to start. The U.S. government’s The World Fact Book describes all countries and it’s free.

The Business Culture In Latin America Differs From Ours

Keith Rosenn, the pre-eminent academician on Latin American law, states that the Latin American legal environment is characterized by idealism, paternalism, legalism and formalism. From a practical point of view, the region’s tendency toward legalism and formalism will “get in the way” of the typical American’s assumptions more than anything else.

Don’t Assume Anything

Before doing business in Latin America, throw out the legal assumptions you would normally bring to the table. At the onset of the deal, ascertain whether foreign counsel is familiar with a particular kind of agreement, which would most likely be used in your client’s transaction. Frequently, it will be easier to adapt your special concerns to their form agreements than to have your agreement translated into their language or legal system.

The Latin American country in which you intend to do business may have protectionist laws for working with foreign corporations. As such, take special care with those rights of yours, which you would typically expect to be protected by equitable remedies for example, injunctive relief as may be found in non-competition agreements. Other issues, particularly those relating to the start-up or dissolution of a company, are more formal and time-consuming.

Be Aware Of Three Fallacies

Fallacy #1: The contracting parties’ “choice of law” provision will be applied to my transaction.

In truth, a choice of your state’s law may not result in its application in a foreign court. You may then establish a corollary assumption: “I’ll just use a forum selection clause to assure my U.S. court will apply U.S. law in the event of a dispute.” Sorry, but certain foreign courts as a matter of law (and others as a matter of policy) will refuse to:

Recognize choice of law provisions

Recognize forum selection provisions

Forego hearing a lawsuit based upon a similar lawsuit being filed in advance on the same facts in another court abroad (i.e., the U.S.).

As a result, you may have selected U.S. law and forum in your sales representative contract, decided that the representative has not complied with quotas or sales efforts and that there are clear-cut reasons (i.e., “good cause”) to terminate the contract. You give notice to the representative without effect and thus begin litigation. The representative begins litigation in its home country, wins, and (if you decide not to appear or pay), buys your trademark on the courthouse steps in enforcement of his judgment.

Under the laws of certain countries, a sales representative (commission agent) or distributor (one who takes title and purchases for resale to the consumer) of goods or services will be protected under his or her law from a large foreign (i.e., U.S.) multinational corporation that wants to test out the market. Past experience has shown foreign governments that after the multinational corporation gets its product accepted within the marketplace through the local company (which had taken most of the risk of the start-up), the multinational has frequently terminated the local representative pursuant to the terms of the contract, for example within 90 days without cause.

Due to uneven bargaining power, the local protectionist laws were established to “reasonably” indemnify the representative. These laws are difficult to draft around in many circumstances. They will preclude both the termination without cause (and cause is difficult to find by a local judge) and the applicability of foreign law; and impose exclusive jurisdiction upon the local courts, not to mention awarding substantial damages to a terminated sales representative or distributor.

Pertinent issues for discussions with local counsel include alternatives (opening of subsidiaries but be careful with labor law differences and difficulty or inability to enforce non-competition and trade secret provisions) or the use of arbitration (the New York Convention has been recently adopted by several countries although idiosyncrasies may exist in drafting issues and enforceability).

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Categories: South America - Tags: business culture, doing business in Latin America, latin american law, latin american legal environment, legal systems in latin america, legalism

How Lawyers Can Remain Relevant In A Recession

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In the past few months, numerous law firms have either reduced staff or are slowing down, and that figure seems to be growing steadily. For those of you who still have your job, now is not the time to experience survivor’s guilt. Instead, you must be proactive and creative in your approach to remain essential.

Keep A Full Calendar Of Events

Naturally, your first goal is to exceed expectations in your billable work. But once you get out of your office, concentrate on realizing your business development potential. Start by checking your local convention center and reading business-oriented newspapers to identify upcoming programs. Look for events that interest you—whether it’s motorcycles or tourism—and plan on attending so that you will meet people who share your passions.

Law-related conferences are ideal places to exercise your self-promotion muscles. Consider striking up random conversations with vendors to test your ability to clearly describe what you do in a virtually risk-free environment. They are often interested in your feedback and have unique insight on industry trends.

The upcoming ABA Tech Show in Chicago, Legal Marketing Association and NALP events in Washington, D.C., and LegalTech West in Los Angeles are excellent examples of trade shows you belong at. Experiment with your message. The crowds at these events tend to be a mix of entrepreneurs and technophiles (particularly in the case of the tech shows), as well as other lawyers, talented marketers, dynamic training specialists and journalists.

Become An Expert

If you couldn’t care less about meeting people, attend these events to become a trend-spotter. Think of yourself as taking key information back to your office. As the person who knows the most about technology, marketing or professional development, you will become a valuable resource for your firm’s partners and sometimes even clients. People at the firm will come to rely on your knowledge and experience.

Now’s The Time To Travel

When evaluating potential opportunities, bear in mind that although business may be slow in one part of the world, it is thriving in another. Despite the staff cuts in the U.S. and the U.K., major firms are continuing to expand abroad. Many are still issuing press releases detailing the relocation of associates and partners to new offices in the Middle East.

In order to gauge the potential of other markets, including domestically, try to attend a conference outside of your traditional geographic location. Despite the expense associated with such a trip, you will exponentially increase your chances of meeting people in those cities and influencing your career progression.

Most professionals are unlikely to make a trip for an initial meeting, but they are quite happy to extend a trip they are already taking to meet with a prospect. List the prospects you would like to see in the city to which you are traveling and contact each one of them in advance. Ironically, those with whom you would like to connect are more inclined to meet with you, an out-of-town visitor, than someone local. By creating that opportunity, you will be rewarded with an interesting contact that may have great potential to grow.

It is a myth that great business developers are born with natural instincts for engaging people in discussion and sharing information. They are just more effective at placing themselves in situations where they can generate influence.

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Categories: Law Practice Marketing - Tags: advertising, how to be a successful lawyer, how to run a successful law firm, law firm, law firm marketing, law practice marketing, marketing

Lessons From My Three-Week Trip To Kenya

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As we seek to balance life and work, we often think of our next vacation as one of the ways of restoring balance in our lives. In the Midwest, many of us spend weekends at our lake cabins. When I lived on the East Coast, we went to the Jersey shore.

Sometimes we take a big trip, far away from where we live and what we do. These journeys abroad can provide rich learning, not only about the people we meet and the places we visit, but also about ourselves. Such trips are as much an adventure (looking outward), as an inventure (looking inward). Travel provides us with an opportunity to be students of our experiences, reinvent ourselves, and rewrite our personal narratives. My recent trip to Africa was just such an inventure.

I was invited to visit Kenya on a fact-finding mission—to learn about the needs of the country—on behalf of a small non-profit foundation. Not knowing anything about Africa other than what I had seen in the media—haunting images of starving children and desperate people fleeing oppression—I didn’t know what to expect beyond imagining that the three-week trip would be difficult.

Even The Preparations Were Daunting

My first task was to visit the travel clinic to learn about the risks of travel to Kenya. What I learned first was that I am not an intrepid traveler. The nurse talked about the recommended precautions to be taken to avoid being kidnapped, hijacked, assaulted, robbed, or worse; then she lined up a series of injections on her desk and calmly read through the side effects of each, which included paralysis, stroke, and death. All I wanted to do was to run out of there, and I told her so. Eventually, though, I rolled-up both sleeves. She said she would give me the most painful shots first. Somehow, that was scant comfort. When it was all over, I mumbled a “Thank you” and all too eagerly left.

Each of us took a suitcase packed with supplies—clothes, shoes, protein bars, vitamins, books—for the children we would visit in the schools and orphanages along the way. When we checked-in at the airport, our bags were overweight. But the gate agent, wanting to help the children, waived the baggage fees, as did the fellow at the customs desk in Nairobi. I appreciated these small acts of kindness. There would be many more in the days to follow.

In country, we soon learned to drink only bottled water, eat only cooked foods, wear insect repellant, sleep under mosquito nets and drive along rutted roads. We came prepared to do all of that. But I hadn’t come prepared for much of what I otherwise experienced in Kenya.

Kenyans’ Hospitality And Resilience Seemed Limitless

The contrasts between age-old practices and modern technologies startled us. For example, people who had no electricity or running water in their homes asked us to correspond with them by e-mail. We often saw a woman filling a jug with water from a polluted river, balancing it on her head as she carried it toward her home for cooking and bathing, and stopping along the way to answer a cell phone tucked in the folds of her skirt. I had no idea that 21st century technology was so prevalent in such an impoverished country.

There are two other qualities of life in Kenya that I hadn’t anticipated: hospitality and resilience beyond anything I had ever known or imagined.

Kenyans’ hospitality met us at every turn. Each group we visited sang a greeting to us upon our arrival; each meeting began with prayers and blessings for our safe travel and ended with more prayer and song. When our van departed, we all felt the sweet satisfaction of having been welcomed and blessed.

This hospitality met us at the many homes we visited. We were always welcomed with refreshments, often a prepared buffet. Occasionally, a woman invited the eight of us to stay with her. Sabina’s home, for example, was modest, with no running water or electricity. As we had traveled a long way that day, Sabina asked if we’d like to take baths. Gratefully, we accepted her kind offer. Slowly, one after the other, Sabina showed us to a small room toward the back of the house. There, we found a pail filled with warm water. The water had been heated over an open fire behind the house. As I bathed, I thought of the care and concern of the women who were tending that fire. After our baths, we were served a large meal, prepared over that same fire. That night, we slept in spaces that Sabina made available to us. I don’t know where she and her friends slept that night, but it was clear that their priority was that we should be comfortable.

As for resilience, we saw it everywhere—in the many orphanages and schools that we visited, in the projects that provided potable water, in the HIV/AIDS clinics. Typically, these programs were supported locally, on a shoe-string budget. The people we met, who were faced with overwhelming odds, were generous, committed, tenacious, resilient and compassionate. The words of Ram Dass came to my mind, from the introduction to his book, Compassion in Action:

Compassion in action is paradoxical and mysterious . . . It is joyful in the midst of suffering and hopeful in the face of overwhelming odds. It is simple in a world of complexity and confusion. It is done for others, but it nurtures the self. It shields in order to be strong. It intends to eliminate suffering, knowing that suffering is limitless. It is action arising from emptiness.

I Needed A New Way To Understand My Experiences

During our stay in Kenya, my experiences often overwhelmed me. At the end of our first week, I found myself feeling anxious and uncomfortable. As hard as I tried, I had no rational construct with which to organize and reconcile age-old practices and modern technologies, or generous hospitality and undaunted resilience amidst great suffering and abject poverty; I couldn’t sort, sift or reconcile all that I was experiencing. In the midst of this dissonance, I felt myself withdrawing. Slowly, I realized that I might do better if I didn’t rely exclusively on analysis to guide me. Instead, I could incorporate my mind, body and spirit as my guide. Because I’ve studied for years with Richard Strozzi-Heckler, I came to rely on his words from Holding the Center: Sanctuary in a Time of Confusion:

What we actually have to offer one another is the simple but daring contribution of our genuine presence. Techniques and theories abound and we can learn half a dozen in an hour, but it is in the pulsating contact between living things that healing and beauty take place. Presence is being present—a state impregnated with an open-minded curiosity, relaxation, and power that comes from seamlessly knitting together one’s mind, body and spirit.

As I became more centered and open-minded, I was better able to feel fully engaged during the remaining days in Kenya.

On the eve of our departure, we were thanked for coming. Those in our group who had visited before were especially thanked since so few people return to Kenya. We were also thanked for our donations that helped to sustain several projects. Above all, we were thanked for visiting their homes and accepting their hospitality. Never before had white people done that, and it meant a great deal to our hosts. Hearing that, I was stunned. I had spent so much of my time wondering how we might raise money and help them with their various initiatives that it had never occurred to me that the most important thing we had done during our three weeks in Kenya was to accept their hospitality.

My Lessons Are On-going

Our trip home was tiring. Though we were glad to step back into the comforts and routines of life in the United States, the transition was not seamless. A few days after my return, I unexpectedly found myself organizing the shirts in my closet by color: long-sleeved shirts on one side, short-sleeved on the other. I also sorted through my pants, separating the winter from summer weights. Never before had I done anything like this. What was I doing? I think I was simply trying to bring back some order into my life. Although I didn’t know how to line-up my experiences in Kenya, I did know how to bring order to my closet.

Many well-intentioned people asked us about our time in Kenya: “Did you have a good trip? How was it? Was your trip difficult?” I answer by talking about the terrible roads in Kenya, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the countless orphans there, and the unfamiliar food that we did not like.

But I soon realized that I was unwittingly perpetrating common stereotypes of Africa rather than describing the richness of my experience in Kenya. Nor was I honoring the people I had met. I’ve begun, instead, to talk about the virtues of the Kenyans we met and what they’ve taught me about resiliency, hospitality, and compassion in action. That’s a true story, and worth telling.

I encourage you to be a student of your travel experience. Consider where you’ve traveled and who you’ve met along the way. Has your travel caused you to reconsider who you are and what you value? How has your personal narrative shifted as a result of your travel adventures? Sometimes, buying the airfare is the easy part. The challenge is to remain relaxed, curious and open-minded on your journey. That certainly was my challenge, and I am glad to have stepped up to it.

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Categories: Travel - Tags: holiday ideas for lawyers, kenya, kenya africa, travel, travel guide, travel to kenya, vacation for attorneys, vacation for lawyers