Meeting for Coffee Concerns with Conflict?

[hiccups]

Hi everyone! I am a junior associate and there is a lawyer in the same city as me that I would really like to meet. He is very well established in a particular area of law that I am very interested in. 

At my current firm, I am junior counsel on at least 3 matters where he is opposing counsel. We have communicated before and all 3 matters are not yet wrapped up (and probably won't for years).

Would it be ok for me to reaech out to him for coffee?  Anything I should keep in mind? 

[crazy4u]

I wouldn't do it. Imagine if your clients, on the 3 matters, saw you drinking coffee in public with the lawyer who is opposing them? 

[KOMODO]

I meant to reply to this when I first saw it a few weeks ago, and must have clicked away too quickly, sorry. It's an interesting question!

My gut instinct is that it would be fine for you to reach out to this lawyer for coffee. I suspect that whatever area of law he specializes in might have a small bar, and it would be unreasonable to say that you could never socialize with lawyers on the opposite side of files that go on for years at a time. However, I would consider the following:

• Were you hoping to keep this coffee meeting private/secret from the partner you currently work for? If the bar is small or collegial, there's a decent chance that this lawyer and your partner are on good terms, so the other lawyer might mention to the partner that you met. If you have a good and open relationship with the partner you work for, maybe ask them if they think it's an issue / get their backing first. If you want it to be a secret meeting, you should let the other lawyer know that you're reaching out confidentially because you're interested in developing more of a specialization in that area, but you aren't ready to tell Partner X about it yet, so you would ask that the other lawyer keep the meeting between the two of you for now.
• Are you hoping to work for this other lawyer, or are you just looking for information? If you're hoping to work for him, you probably wouldn't mention that from the start and would try to organically develop a relationship by meeting for coffee, etc. However, if you already know that you have no interest in working for him but just want information, sometimes saying that explicitly helps make coffee a bit more casual and fun for the other lawyer, as there's no pressure or uncertainty about whether you're asking for a job.
• In terms of the files, I would probably mention in the first email that of course you recognize that you both act on opposite sides of matters X, Y and Z and accordingly you would not discuss anything relating to those clients or files at your coffee meeting, but if he is uncomfortable with meeting due to this work, you completely understand. He is the senior lawyer and is in a better position to determine whether the meeting itself poses an issue, so let him decide. Assuming he agrees to meet, you don't need to mention it again, just steer away from any client/matter related discussions (including things like, how would you tackle X issue, if that's an issue or could be an issue in any of your active matters). Note that if you are currently conflicted out of large parts of his work, that could impact your ability to be hired by him in the future. 
• If this doesn't work out (either because you ask your partner and they say no, or the guy says no, or you just decide it's more trouble than it's worth, etc.), I would still encourage you to reach out to other members of the bar for coffee so that you can have a similar experience with someone else.

Good luck, and I hope you're able to find the mentorship that you're looking for!

[Jaggers]

I would say that there is no issue whatsoever inherently in having a social/professional discussion over coffee with a lawyer who represents opposing interests on files. You would just have to keep in mind that if for any reason you did discuss any file-related issues, all of your obligations to your client apply, regardless of it being a socialoccasion. Which is why Komodo's suggestion to just not discuss that stuff while not wearing your "professional hat" is probably a good guardrail.

An actual mentoring relationship with a lawyer who acts for clients on the other side of files probably does raise more issues, if you want to have the type of relationship where you can be candid and discuss challenging issues you face.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Jaggers