This post will be one part status update and one part vision statement. At the end, I will announce an exciting development in my educational career and identify two fascinating issues I’ve been following, which I believe make living here a bit more interesting.
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Having grown up in Santa Monica and worked in the California
internet industry, I initially had little interest in Washington, DC. I sported an exclusively private sector resume
and my professional interests were mostly in emerging technologies investment, financial
services, and management consulting.
Paradoxically, writing about legal technology led me to become interested in Washington. Because the first year of law school was just not demanding enough, and because I had questions about how technological diffusion might dictate the way I should allocate my attention in law school, I began writing this blog in the spring of 2017. I didn't (and still don’t) know of any other student at my school who writes a blog, but that did not deter me from publishing. I think that is because my first job after college was at StartEngine, which was then an early-stage technology investment firm. That role required me to develop an uncommon blend of skills, which most lawyers lack, that includes tunnel-vision-like pursuit of competitive advantage, marketing, sales, public relations, and contrarian thinking.
This background led me to believe the most pressing question for law students was, essentially, “when will computers do lawyers’ jobs?” Investigating this question led me to discover Ben Heineman’s excellent book, "The Inside Counsel Revolution," which was the foundation for my substantial analysis of corporate legal departments, published back in 2017. I felt that, as former General Counsel of General Electric, Heineman's credibility was high. I thought reading his book, which details broad-based changes he observed in his own legal department, as well as across the legal industry more broadly, would provide most of what I needed to know about legal technology. But what I learned from the book was mostly legal career-related, and almost entirely non-technological. Indeed, one of the biggest takeaways for me was, “I should learn more about the government.”
What further cemented my conviction to act upon this impulse was seeing how legislative and regulatory developments, specifically the passage of the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which permitted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate equity crowdfunding, permitted StartEngine to transform from a financier into a financing platform. Seeing the company where I’d worked grow markedly illustrated the impact that developments in Washington could have as far away as California.
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Intuitively, it seems to make sense that as the nexus of federal power, there is something unique about the dynamics of this town, and understanding them is valuable for lawyers.
As it turns out, there is evidence to support that intuition. Last fall, after breezing through uncomplicated second-year coursework such as securities regulation, taxation of business entities, and corporations -- sometime during the final exam study period -- I became aware via TaxProf that a Pepperdine professor published a book entitled, “Lawyering in the Nation’s Capital” (LNC).
To flesh out the seemingly-intuitive hunch described above that, since so much legal activity occurs in Washington, there is unique value to being in and understanding Washington, I present three voices in support, pulled from LNC:
- On attaining excellent results: “Washington is the hub for the fusion of law and policy. Lawyers in and around Washington are in an unparalleled position to understand and influence laws and policy decisions, and to parlay that knowledge into effective advocacy for their clients . . . Obtaining experience and knowledge [of the diverse bodies of government] better equips Washington lawyers to attain favorable results for their clients . . . ” – Nancy Hunt, Professor at Pepperdine University
- On the portability of a Washington lawyer’s skillset: “Attorneys practice in DC and then may take their skills across the country—very rarely is it the other way around. In other words, by starting a career in DC, attorneys unlock opportunities across the country (and around the world) at entities that recognize and value the quality demanded of attorneys that cut their teeth in the DC legal market.” – Joe Cardosi, former Associate at Jones Day
- On the personality and value proposition of a Washington lawyer: “A Washington lawyer is very different from, say, a New York lawyer. When I think New York lawyer . . . I think aggressive, in-your-face counsel that will fight you at every turn. By contrast, Washington lawyers better understand the intersection between law, government, and policy. When I think of a Washington lawyer, I think of someone who is not necessarily defending their client on page one of the paper but doing so more behind the scenes, using their knowledge of the government and the agencies, finding the pressure points the government may have, and trying to achieve the best outcome for the client.” – William White, Partner, Allen & Overy; formerly Senior Trial Counsel, SEC Division of Enforcement
For those thinking about buying it, I will tell you that because it's city-specific, LNC stands apart from typical law school textbooks. It does rely on appellate caselaw, but not exclusively. For example, it contains the author’s insights about important Washington legal dynamics, which often deviate from the strictly jurisprudential into the executive and legislative, as well as topics that seem to have recently "come out of nowhere" such as special and independent counsel, which are not particularly new phenomena in Washington. For the entrepreneurs among us, it explains what can be done by litigants or by Congress to neutralize undesirable regulations. Finally, the transcripts of experienced legal professionals explaining how Washington (really) works it contains are probably most accessible to a general audience.
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By purchasing LNC, I hoped I would get more insight into where I could work in the District to maximize learning. I spent nearly all of mid-to-late-December and some of early January, yes, the sunny Southern California winter break, trying to find an externship placement in Washington for the spring 2018 semester. With the help of Professor Nancy Hunt, author of LNC, I ultimately landed full-time at Invariant, a government relations firm with some interesting clients, and enrolled concurrently in the companion course to LNC and advanced legal writing, both evening classes. I plan to return and more fully detail that educational troika soon, if time permits.
I chose to live here in Washington for the summer. Philosophically, I believe Washington is a great place to be right now, especially having a background in technology, in addition to law. I’ve learned that knowledge tends to compound. Currently, I think knowledge of how the government and agencies work seems highly relevant for scaled businesses, the sorts of organizations I’m most interested in. More specifically, I have at least three more or less concrete reasons to be here: (1) I was admitted to take summer courses at Georgetown Law; (2) a topic I have been following fairly closely, distributed ledger technology, is subject to more than a few interesting developments that seem to originate from Washington; and (3) I would like to learn more about a few select topics which essentially blend national security and the private sector, including inbound transaction review regimes, export control regimes, and the Treasury’s secondary sanctions apparatus.
This summer in the District, I look forward to meeting interesting people, developing useful skills, and gaining valuable insights in my coursework. If you’re in town this summer and reading this, I would love to meet you.
Please email me at john.conkle@pepperdine.edu, or, if you prefer, jc2967@georgetown.edu.