The K&L Gates partner discusses a concerning trend among young lawyers
Last week, Rodolphe Ruffié-Farrugia shared his love of language with Australasian Lawyer. In the second part of this interview, the K&L Gates partner tells us why games – especially chess – can help develop a lawyer’s skills in strategy, and discusses a worrying trend he’s observing among young lawyers.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned in your career and what advice can you give fellow lawyers about it?
Assuming, consciously or subconsciously, that the other side thinks the same way you do and will raise the same arguments that you contemplate. My advice (and own discipline) therefore is: do not front-load, pick your battles, let them come, and strike back where it hurts.
The philosophy behind this approach is accepting that you cannot – and, therefore, should not seek – to control everything; instead, embrace chaos to better harness it. Strategy is paramount, not just in disputes: if it does not come to you naturally, play more games (chess is king)!
What should the profession focus more on?
Magnifying the "human element" at the core of what we do as legal practitioners. Because even when we fight for companies or governments, at the end of the day, there are always people behind, above, and under these deceptively abstract entities.
There appears to be a common misconception among many lawyers that the rationality of legal reasoning and business endeavours somehow leaves no room for emotions. While it is unquestionable that feelings must not dominate thought, suppressing the very part of ourselves that makes us human – especially at the dawn of the AI age – can only lead to more burnout and alienation. It seems to me that mentalities are slowly evolving in the right direction, mostly as sporadic reactions to this unsustainable status quo, but the much-needed shift of paradigm on that front can only occur through proactive and deliberate action.
What challenges are particularly pressing in the country’s legal industry?
Conjugating the legitimate expectations of the newcomers to the profession and the objective demands of legal practice. Work/life balance cannot be a mere slogan: it must be a reality because it is a necessity. I want to believe that, especially since COVID, we collectively have started becoming better at accommodating personal circumstances – and respecting personal boundaries.
In parallel to this improvement, however, I have also been witnessing an increasing number of young lawyers (or even interns/trainees) drag their feet to take on work during regular business hours and, perhaps more worryingly, stand out by their absence when the rest of their colleagues are all hands-on-deck tackling an unexpected emergency. The practice of law comes with heightened responsibility and thus rarely is a 9-to-5 job – which is why, in most countries, it is heavily regulated.
While spending countless nights in the office week after week is not an acceptable norm, there should conversely be a mutual understanding that efforts made toward ensuring reasonable working hours are in exchange for extended availability in time of (genuine) need.
What are your thoughts on new technology and its impact on the legal profession?
It already sounds like a broken record but, without a doubt, we need to prepare ourselves for the profound changes that AI will bring from today onward. We are only at the very beginning of this revolution and there is no telling how far it will take us nor how much it will impact our work – and, frankly, our lives.
Those of us who have been practicing for a while will probably benefit from most of what this technological progress has to offer but the youngest members of the profession (especially those in the making) are the most at risk of ending up in competition with AI. We collectively need to ensure that AI will grow together with the new generation of lawyers, not stunt their growth.
What are you looking forward to the most in the coming year?
Continue serving my clients, building my practice, bonding with my new colleagues at K&L Gates, and meeting more people. One of the many strengths of K&L Gates is its broad jurisdictional footprint, which matches in full my own geographical coverage: notably Perth, Tokyo, Taipei, Paris (in addition to the firm's many US offices). I am energised by the opportunity to leverage the firm’s broad networks and capabilities to elevate the quality of service we provide, creating meaningful impact for our clients as well as continued personal and professional growth opportunities for myself.
