The “Tell me when I go wrong” speech
If you worked with me, whether you are a lawyer, pupil, intern, paralegal, or clerk, at some point, you will hear the following speech from me. You wouldn’t have heard this precise version. It always changes in the telling. I keep refining it as I go along. This is today’s version of it: “I know it looks to you as if I know a lot and appear good at what I do. But appreciate that before we are lawyers, we are human beings. That means we are fallible. Of course, I try my best to avoid and evade errors. But those are inherent to the human condition. Understand that most days I have a lot of stuff to get through. There’s my work, your work, my lawyers’ work, educating our pupils, meeting with clients in the office on the phone, calls, texts, dealing with other lawyers, dealing with the admin, and much more – so the chance of missing something is there. It’s always there.” “That is why you must tell me if you think I made a mistake or am about to make one. It is your duty to tell me when you think I am wrong or am going wrong. It is your duty to make me consider your concern. Just like how I am teaching you and nurturing you – this is how you take care of me. This is how you play your part. This is how we have each other’s backs. “I would rather be shown the mistake in my office by my colleagues than a client’s office or during a hearing in the courtroom. I would rather my colleagues point it out than our clients or the court.” “I know what you are thinking: who am I – a mere intern or pupil or X year old lawyer – to tell Encik Fahri, the boss, he is wrong, right? I know how you are feeling. You feel anxious just telling me about it. You don’t think you are confident enough. But you have to get over that. That part you have to do yourself. You’re going to be a lawyer. If you cannot tell your boss he is wrong, how are you going to tell your client? “ “So you must cultivate not just credibility and competency, but courage as well. Courage to point out what is wrong. Courage to stand up when it is right. Courage to do the right thing. And courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing the right thing in spite of the fear. And courage is what you owe me. “ “So how do you tell me I made a mistake? Firstly, know that being right does not give us the right to be rude and disrespectful. Secondly, we need tact. If you haven’t got it, learn it, develop it. It’s easy. Empathise. If someone had to tell us we made a mistake, how would we like them to do it? That someone is likely to prefer that way too.“ “An example of how you could broach the issue is, ‘Excuse me, sir, do you have a moment? If yes, I was giving [the issue] in our submission a think. I have a concern with a section of the argument. I need [x] minutes of your time to discuss this.” or “I was reading the draft [cause paper]. I couldn’t quite understand this portion. Did you mean to say…?” Lots of ways. Being empathetic and courteous should be your guides.” “Telling me how long you will take is very helpful. It helps me decide whether to listen to you now or later. But the point I want to emphasize is you must raise it for me to consider. Don’t hide it. Once you tell me, you have discharged your duty and paid your debt of courage to me.“ “You are not under a duty to convert me to your view. But I hope you give it your best shot. I will respond if I disagree. And I will certainly probe. But you need to stand your ground with me. You mustn’t cave in at the first syllable of my question or counterargument.“ “I will listen but I am not going to roll over. Best thing you could do is immediately show me my mistake and explain why you think so. Did I fail to consider something? Did I make a leap in logic? Is it too long? Incomprehensible? Is my tone off? I will give you the time you ask.” “But that is not all you should strive for. Helping me avoid error is one thing. Improving whatever I am working on is another. If you can do both, you are going to be incredibly helpful to me.” I started delivering this speech after an incident in my father’s firm that made it necessary nine or ten years ago. I have been refining it since. Back then, I supervised three lawyers. I was the mandur of the firm. I had to vet their work, my own, and the pupils, staff, and administrative-related matters. One evening, one of the lawyers gave me a bankruptcy notice (BN) to vet. I skimmed through the documents – the judgment, the request for bankruptcy notice, and the BN. Back then, my main concern with BNs lay with ensuring the interest sum was correct. Many BNs were defective and struck out for incorrect interest calculations. The other important thing to look out for was that the judgment sum was not below the minimum threshold to initiate bankruptcy proceedings. My focus was on errors of those sorts. Since all appeared in order, I approved the draft. Two months later, my lawyer tells me the judgment debtor filed an application to strike out our BN. His reason for striking out was he should not be sued personally for a judgment obtained against the office bearers of the society, of which he was the president. The moment I read his grounds I knew his
