In-House Counsel See Generation Gap
Younger lawyers are more likely to use e-mail and text messages to communicate and less likely to respect authority.
Those were the conclusions of some in-house lawyers and a diversity consultant at a discussion last week sponsored by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. A reporter for the publication attended the discussion and summarized the comments.
“This younger generation doesn’t respect you because of the title,” said 39-year-old H. Eric Hilton, general counsel of H.J. Russell & Co. “They’re not going to respect you just because you are the boss.”
Robin Sangston, the 46-year-old associate general counsel for Cox Communications Inc., said she notices that younger lawyers spend more time working outside the office. “We do worry about face time. You can’t build relationships if you are not in the office,” she said.
Diversity consultant Arin Reeves of The Athens Group agreed that lawyers have different views of authority based on age, the story reports. The World War II generation tends to automatically respect authority. Baby Boomers hated authority when they were young, but now that they have it they love it. Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1980, is not intimidated by authority, while Generation Y, those born between 1981 and 1995, is impatient with authority.
Reeves said that some of the conflicts arise because of different technologies used to communicate as each generation grew up. Younger lawyers are comfortable with technology and think nothing of responding to a request to talk with a text message or e-mail.
“They are not being disrespectful,” Reeves said. “They just think they are talking to you. If you want them to come see you in person, you’ll have to tell them that.”
