Shoe Bottoms and Hyperbole Can Be Cultural Faux Pas, Law Consultant Says
Lawyers need to be aware of cultural differences, whether they are traveling or using social media, a law consultant says.
Gerry Riskin tells Lawyers Weekly that law firms and clients have cultures that vary by country, region and city. “There are no two places on Earth with cultures that are as different than San Francisco and L.A.,” says Riskin, a former managing partner at a Canadian law firm.
Riskin offered an example. “In the U.K., hyperbole is despised,” he told Lawyers Weekly. “In walks an American lawyer and says, ‘That’s just super, that’s fantastic, that’s wonderful,’ and the British lawyer is listening to fingernails on an old chalkboard.”
He also said lawyers can offend without leaving their offices—because of a videoconferencing faux pas, their posts in social media, or their articles in e-newsletters.
“I saw a communication that was about to be sent by a global tax expert and in the photo of him, I could see the bottom of his shoe,” Riskin told the publication. “I politely told him he needed to crop that picture. … While it certainly didn’t offend me, it was certainly capable of offending people over the world.”
