Guest Chapter 21

Name: Nikki Stitt Sokol

Current Position: Director & Associate General Counsel, Litigation at Meta (Facebook)

Previous Positions: Mayer Brown (Chicago); Hogan Lovells (Boston, via merger with Collora LLP); Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (Palo Alto)

Legal Practice Area: Litigation

Law School and Year: University of Michigan, 1998

Time between undergrad and law school: None

One or two books I recommend: Becoming by Michelle Obama; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Why I went to law school

I decided in 5th grade that I wanted to be a lawyer, which is really rare these days. A classmate's parent came into the classroom to talk about the Fourth Amendment and search and seizure principles. I loved the idea of standing up to power and knowing my rights so that the police could not take advantage of me.

As a kid, I also felt a sense of deep injustice over the lack of rights kids have and the ability of schools and other adults to control them. This seemed to fly in the face of what I understood my rights to be as an American. Of course, as an adult (and parent) now, I feel a little differently about these issues, but at the time that was part of my initial motivation.

What frustrated me most about coming out of law school and/or what frustrates me with regards to people I work with or hire who are newly out of law school

Junior lawyers tend not to be concise. They've been trained to write long, detailed, analytical memos. What they miss is that in-house attorneys need tight executive summaries. It's hard to distill something down to its essence and explain it in simple terms. We want to know that the deeper analysis is there so that we can test the conclusions, but it's critical to convey the answer to the question in a concise way. And right at the top. Don't bury the lede.

How have you used (or not) the core concepts of lawyering as this book proposes: Empathy, Listening First, Asking Questions, and Giving Advice?

Empathy is one of the most important but often overlooked qualities in a lawyer.

This is particularly true for litigators. Litigation can sometimes be a crisis for a company. Individuals can feel like the future of the company is riding on their shoulders. At the very least, it's an inconvenient, uncomfortable, and uncertain process. If you don't understand the human experience aspect, then you'll fail to adequately prepare your client. Or at best, your client will walk away with a less positive feeling about you.

Always check in to see how your witness is feeling about the process and what you can do to make them more comfortable. You'll be surprised how much it will matter.

Biggest mistake(s) you made while in law school

My dad never went to law school (he's an engineer), but he always told me when I was in undergrad to pick my classes based on the professor, not the subject matter. As with most things, he was right, and his wisdom applied equally to law school.

The biggest mistake I made in law school was to ignore this advice and focus too much on the subject of the class rather than figuring out who the best professors were and take their classes no matter the topic. A magical teacher can open your eyes and engage you thoroughly in a subject you never would have expected to enjoy.

Bonus: The same rule applies at law firms. Pick your work (to the extent you can) based on the partner with whom you will be working.

What class(es) did I wish I had taken while in law school? In or outside the school? What about today?

I should have taken a negotiation class in law school. Whether you're a transactional lawyer, a litigator, or never formally practice, negotiation skills are useful no matter what. You can be the best brief writer and advocate, but at the end of the day most cases settle, and you'd be amazed how many litigators aren't good negotiators.

Most useful classes in law school

The most useful classes I took in law school were civil procedure and torts. Civil procedure admittedly is quite dry, but it is really the bread and butter of your daily practice as a litigator. You'd be surprised how many times I've been faced with a situation that would make a perfect civil procedure final exam hypothetical.

Torts was not enjoyable for me, because as someone who tends to the analytical, the concepts felt amorphous and uncertain—even unfair. But in retrospect, that class more than any other taught me how to think like a lawyer and how the law frames issues relating to fundamental issues of human interaction, like how responsible people should behave toward others.

How did you decide what to do post-law school? With hindsight, how good of a job did you do?

I wanted to be a trial attorney. I'd had visions of myself in a courtroom since I was in elementary school. When looking through firm profiles during on campus interviewing, I kept my eye out for inklings that a firm could provide me real trial experience.

The hardest question was the city in which I would do this. I was part of a dual career couple. My now-husband was in medical school while I was in law school. I went into fall interviewing my 2L year with no idea what city I would end up in because residency match results would not come out until the following spring. So I had to pick a handful of cities that we were both interested in, interview with firms there, and then pick one offer in each city, as allowed under a NALP exception for people in my position. (Actually, it was even more complicated than that because my husband is an identical twin, and so we had to factor in where his medical student brother might land, too.)

In the end, I got really lucky. I had an offer at a great firm in Chicago and my husband matched with a residency program there—and so did his twin!

In retrospect, I'm glad I started out at a large, brand name law firm.

Biggest mistake you made at your first job

The biggest mistake I made early in my career was submitting a draft to a partner that was a half-baked brief that really was more like an outline with a few case quotes. I foolishly thought that when people said to send them a draft, that they meant a rough version of where I was trying to go with the document so that they could give me feedback. I quickly learned that “draft” meant the best, final product I could generate. Anything less was an “outline.”

Best advice you received or have given for those coming out of law school

Try to take a job in the city or region in which you ultimately want to live. Don't go to New York or another large legal market just to get the big city law experience or briefly live in an exciting place with the idea that you will eventually move where you really want to settle down. Relationships are critical in law, and the sooner you can start to build relationships with people in the community you ultimately want to serve, the better for your career.

Because I married a doctor who had to move around as part of his medical training, I did the opposite of this. I have practiced in three different states (and taken three different state bar exams) and felt like I had to start over each time. I don't recommend it—and not just because taking so many different bar exams is no fun!

How have you remained happy in your profession? Have there been times when you were not? If so, what did you do to improve your situation?

I have remained happy as a lawyer by doing three things. First, I bring my authentic self to work.

The times I have been most unhappy as a lawyer have been the times when I was doing work that I didn't truly enjoy but felt that I was “supposed” to do well. I am an extroverted person who loves to engage with others and figure out the real story behind the allegations. But when I was in a role in which I spent all my time alone in my office reading cases and writing briefs—doing what was considered really “prestigious” work—I was miserable and lonely. The lesson here is that you should figure out what you enjoy, and then do that. Because if you like it, you're probably good at it, too. Don't force yourself to do work you don't enjoy. In the end, it doesn't help anyone.

If you could go back in time and tell your younger self something about making the transition from law school to the real world, what would it be?

As my dear friend Allison Kluger at the Stanford Graduate School of Business always says, “Offer the solution, not the suggestion.” A slightly different flavor of this is to identify solutions, not just problems. You'll be surprised at what you can achieve and what others will let you lead if you approach your work in this way.