Reply to Boomer outside counsel who insists on calling me incessantly, basically demanding I call him back

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As you say, you are the client. He serves you and he should fear you.

By letting him run up the bill, you are wasting your company's money and you are also wasting your own time.[/quote]

He shouldn’t “fear” her FFS.  That doesn’t a productive relationship make.

What she needs to do, besides insulting him as a “boomer“, is see if he is in fact, billing her for these calls. And if he is, she needs to simply grow a pair and tell him that he needs to limit the calls because they’re running the bill up. Every client does this all the time. It’s nothing. If she can’t handle this, she’s in the wrong job.[/quote]

OP here. OF COURSE he is charging for these calls. And I have said to him over and over 'we are watching our outside counsel spend, I'll call you when we need something, right now we are at a standstill on X project..." [/quote]

Then just tell him you’re happy to take the calls but he can’t bill for them.  How long have you been managing outside counsel?   You sound like you’re 12.  [/quote]

are you the one suggesting copying 'his boss'? hmmm.... lolz[/quote]

No I’m not.  I’m with Biglaw.   I understand how these things work.  Every client has their eyes on the bill and every client calls out inefficiencies.   OP needs to act like the manager she claims to be and call this out.  She’s being ridiculous.  [/quote]

Cool, OP here. I would love your perspective. So here's the deal. Yes, the bills are managed and occasionally we/he will cut them, and admittedly partner is giving us a discount from his normal rates. He is the relationship partner, so there's no one else to go to, unless I wanted to escalate to someone else in his firm, which would be like throwing a bomb, so I'm not going to do that. Even though he cuts his bill at times, I don't want to waste time chatting (and yes, I know I'm wasting time here, but that's my choice) and although I appreciate his perspective- he has institutional knowledge-  there is also a fair amount of time that can feel wasted and even, well, sort of annoying. The business lead feels this way too, but there is a long relationship history so we are trying to manage this as there is an end in sight. Partner is VERY smart, but definitely has some blind spots socially which impacts things. He has invited the business lead (and me) out for drinks numerous times, as one example, even though we/she has declined over and over. And he does seem very touchy about substantive things- not only the phone calls, but if I correct him on anything, he gets defensive. Obviously the answer could be that we replace him with someone else at Big law firm, but he has kept associates out of these deals (which I don't like) and so now there is no one up to speed. I don't want to insult him as I suspect that aging is part of his defensiveness, so I want to manage this passively without blowing anything up into an 'incident'. You may find that wimpy, but my corporate culture is a very nice one, and that's the way we do it. So other than just ignoring his calls, and responding by email, is there anything else you'd suggest? [/quote]

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