DealLawyers.com Blog

April 19, 2005

Conclavic Dealmaking

The 115 Cardinals’ seclusion in the Sistine Chapel is a reminder to us all that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Namely, even in this age of conference calls, emails, webex meetings, and those prehistoric things called faxes, there’s simply no substitute for face-to-face meetings when there’s a complex deal to be made.

There’s only so much that phone calls and emails can do – and oftentimes, they are fertile media for miscommunication. I don’t know why but conference calls encourage people to posture and grandstand more than if they were performing in person. (Hint: people yelling into speaker phones). Maybe it’s the impersonal nature of just hearing a lot of voices babbling on and on. Emails also have a tendency to be misconstrued without the ability to see that slight gesture that signals that the speaker was just kidding and otherwise not intending to offend anyone.

On the other hand, face-to-face meetings give you the ability to observe body language. More importantly, meetings allow you to observe how the opposing counsel and her client interact. Even more important, face-to-face meetings allow you to build relationships with the other side’s lawyers and business people that are important to creating a collaborative atmosphere. Like that airline commercial said: You just can’t fax a handshake or a look in the eye.

True, conference calls and emails do make the dealmaking process more efficient but you just can’t beat getting all the people into the room and declaring that no one leaves until a deal is cut. Face-to-face meetings tend to force people to make decisions on the spot, obviously, favoring the creative, quick-thinking, and well-prepared types.

Phone calls and emails are not always the money savers that we think they are. Working with different time zones alone will extend turnaround times by days. For example, in a recent deal, we had 3-4 hour daily conference calls for 2 weeks straight but we soon realized that we had to go face-to-face. We accomplished more in a 2-day meeting than during the previous 2 weeks combined.

An in-house friend told me of one deal which was on-going for 18 months before she broke the log-jam by calling a conclave that resulted in a deal being made in less than 2 weeks.

My guess is that 2 weeks of full-time (and usually, overtime) work was more efficient and cost-effective than 18 months of sporadic brushfires. Let’s face it, we all juggle several deals at a time, so can you imagine the inefficiency of gearing up and down for a deal over the course of 18 months?

So, if your deal is stalling, take a lesson from the Cardinals and maybe you too will be seeing a puff of white smoke sooner rather than later.