Before I share, I feel obligated to say I absolutely love this sub. You guys are hilarious, and reading sarcastic, passive aggressive shit posts is one of my favorite pass times (especially on the shitter).
For context, I work at a larger firm in commercial real estate. I have about 5 years experience as a real decision maker (Director & MD). Ive used everyone from a few white-shoe firms to a local group with like 5 attorneys. While I’m not a 20-year veteran, I figured you all might find it interesting to hear a perspective of the ‘new’ generation of young millennial & elder zoomer leaders:
Examples
Recently requested a brief zoning memo for a prospective development, and received a 20 page document essentially regurgitating what I could have found online. I requested this to save me some time outlining what we could build. I was abundantly clear I just wanted a memo as support to make it easier to get approval from committee, but instead I got a giant word salad. Literally had to throw it into chat GPT, which I probably coulda done with just copying and pasting the actual law.
Worked on a template for large capital projects for prospective contractors across our portfolio (think like $10MM+ projects). Received a template that was 50 pages long, included hyper-specific insurance language that confused this shit out of our insurance consultants, and had incredibly verbose and landlord friendly reps and warranties, which quite literally always got struck in practice because nobody is going to guarantee everything.
Being too around the bush when I ask someone for their direct thoughts on certain ‘business decisions’. Like I’m not looking for you to make the decision, I just want your thoughts based on experience, and I don’t need a vague, qualifying, runaround answer on the phone. I’m not trying to get you in trouble, looking for you to boost my ego, or holding you to anything, sometimes I just want an honest opinion. I’ve found white-shoe firm partners & the small shops are the best at this if you don’t have a strong prior relationship.
The rates at the white-shoe firms are getting out of hand, and it’s hard to justify the price unless we need something fast or if something is extremely complicated. Best bang for your buck are the Holland & Knight’s and Quarles & Brady’s of the world (at least in CRE in my area, I know it’s all team-dependent). I will say, when I used Sidley & Kirkland, shit was done so fast it was absolutely amazing. There’s definitely value for that level of service, but like, $2,500/hr my guy? $800/hr for your Associate that doesn’t know shit about fuck yet? I get he/she probably has an IQ of 130 & everyone has to start somewhere, but like…cmon lol. We’re not rocket scientists. I’m just trying to buy a building.
TLDR: To absolutely no one’s surprise: Brevity, perspective, and value are important.