The Japanese Office Environment

Ever been in a situation where a person does not understand the situation and just keeps putting his foot in his mouth?

We were asked to provide legal advice recently to a foreign company on various commercial/intellectual property aspects and there was 1 question on the tax aspect of the deal. As the partner I was working with is not a tax lawyer, he roped in a junior lawyer from the tax department to assist us.

Now, the junior lawyer was giving us the most ludicrous of advice. It just absolutely did not make sense. The partner very patiently tried to indirectly/politely help him along, to reconsider his position/advice, by putting questions to him. But the junior lawyer just did not understand the situation, did not understand that the partner was politely helping him, and with a straight-face and in all earnesty, kept reflecting away/dismissing those little pointers. I thought it was so hilarious, I would never dare to speak to a partner like that. It did not help that this partner has rather animated expressions and it showed on his face each time the junior lawyer rejected his pointers. Alas, the junior lawyer could not also read faces. (As an aside, I think this is one of those situations where EQ is definitely more valuable than IQ!)

Finally, the partner gave up and said "I think you should consult with the tax partner". To which the junior lawyer replied, in all sincerity and earnestness "No, I will not consult with the tax partner." By that time, my face was totally contorted from trying to stop bursting out laughing.

How can anyone be so clueless? It is so hard to describe the scenario, but that was how "blind" the junior lawyer was to his mistakes as well as how his advice was being received.

The next day, the partner sent me an e-mail to tell me not to relate this incident to anyone (I understand that to mean anyone within my firm, blogging about it to the rest of the world is fine! :-) ) as he wanted to "protect" the reputation of the junior lawyer. I took the opportunity to tell the partner "I personally thought yesterday's meeting was good entertainment and had to control myself from laughing ......", to which he responded "you did laugh but without making sounds. Good job!".

That's the difference between working in a law firm in Singapore and in Japan. Had that junior lawyer been working in Singapore, I don't think a partner would be so concerned about protecting his reputation. In fact, he would probably be telling all other partners and working on getting that junior lawyer fired (indirectly, by not giving him any work). And instead of patiently giving the junior lawyers pointers, the partner would have been yelling and a book may even have flown across the air in the room, headed towards the junior lawyer.

It is incidents like these that remind me (and many fellow foreign lawyers) why Japan is such a great place to work!