3 pieces of advice to product managers working with product counsel

Part of the Stakeholder Management Series: Working with Attorneys

“We [PMs and Attorneys] have a lot more in common than people think,” says Alexis Liu, Senior Legal Counsel @ Dataiku. “I care about scaling and user friendly design. When I’m drafting Terms and Conditions, I’m drafting that so it’s understandable, for the user.” But the law is complicated and no single attorney knows everything. To become a practicing attorney, you need a Juris Doctorate, pass the bar exams, and obtain a good character assessment. Contrast with product management, a profession with no degree requirement, examination process, and limited certification, and it’s no wonder sometimes product managers and attorneys clash. So, here’s some practical advice for PMs working with lawyers.

1. Be direct and candid. Attorneys want the details because good legal advice is situation dependent. Small details may reframe the situation or problem. For example, I was working with an attorney on website accessibility. I shared that certain functions are only accessible after the user creates an account and logs in. The attorney responded that the accessibility law is applied differently to public facing versus after login. Hiding details because you’re afraid it may cause problems or extra work is a recipe for creating a bigger problem and more work.
2. Manage the project. “We [Attorneys] never want to do the actual product manager’s job”, says Yumi Lawlor, Associate General Counsel @ Instacart. “Attorneys want to rely on the product manager to follow up on deadlines, deliverables, and keep other functional teams informed, as there isn’t enough time in the day to also fill the product manager’s role.” Part of being a product manager is good project management. Staying organized and keeping others informed showcases your execution skills and build goodwill.
3. Determine if you’re receiving business advice or legal advice. Attorneys working in-house don’t operate in legal abstractions. They care about the company’s success and will have business opinions (e.g., product features, improvements ideas). PMs need to understand when receiving advice from attorneys, if the advice is business, legal, or a combination. It’s easy to mix the two (e.g., sending email for this type of communication violates Florida regulation ABC so the product needs to send regular mail to all states). PMs need to treat legal advice as factual (e.g., doing XYZ violates ABC), but consider business advice in context (e.g., operational, cost, implementation difficulty, etc.). If the attorney had experience working with PMs implementing the business advice, ask them to give you the details. Don’t ignore it out of hand because you’re the PM. Then, explore additional solutions (e.g., sending mail to only Florida users, replace email with a secure mail box that requires the user to login). Share those solutions with the attorney will allow you to co-create a solution. It’ll also allow you to share inputs from other stakeholders, showcasing to the attorney the considerations on your mind. Ultimately, as a PM, you have to weigh the various factors and make a decision.

[This is a portion of the article published on 11/13/2020 on my substack, The Elements of Product Management. Follow me there to get a weekly newsletter delivered to your mailbox.]