Interview with Jess Lee, Hard Rock Digital

Though the mountains divide and the oceans are wide, we are living in an increasingly small world. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Jessica Lee, an in-house solicitor, to discuss her observations as an English attorney at an international company.

This London-based attorney has a deep breadth of experience, and regularly communicates with both English and American attorneys. Ms. Lee graciously shared her observations on the cross-continental nuances between the U.K. and the U.S. in the interview below.

While U.K. and U.S. law are both rooted in Roman law, we’ve had a few hundred years to develop separate jurisprudence. With your experience with both, are there any slight or significant differences you can perceive in our legal systems?

Having separate federal and state legal systems is a big difference which we don’t have.  The litigious nature of Americans, the number of procedural steps in litigation, and the ability to file multiple motions early on are others.  The split legal system on my side of the pond is a very big difference Americans find hard to grasp.  And there are more subtle things –trade mark law requiring use, how you don’t disclose against an entire data room in M&A but we do, and so on.

A fun U.K. word that is not generally used in the U.S. is “whilst.” Are there any U.S. words or expressions that are not commonly used in the U.K.?

Funny you ask this because I had a U.S. attorney amend my use of “whilst” to “while” just the other week!  I think many American words are familiar in the U.K. because of TV shows and social media; in the legal space, American lawyers use “form” when we would use “precedent”.  I tend to find it more problematic the other way, with some of my U.S. colleagues not understanding colloquial English phrases or words.  One colleague who I have worked with for over a decade still finds my use of “jumper” (the English word for “sweater”) very odd!

Are there any details of etiquette in the English legal bar that seem more specific to the U.K.?

We don’t have a legal system covering the entirety of the U.K.; instead, it is split into Scotland, Northern Ireland and England & Wales.

For England & Wales, we have a split legal system, meaning you have barristers and solicitors.  Barristers are the lawyers who appear and speak in any court; they are the ones you see wearing the wig and gown (which are different depending on your level).  Solicitors tend to undertake more transactional work such as M&A, contracts, property work, etc.  Solicitors are involved in litigious matters, but if the matter progresses to court, most of the time a solicitor will instruct a barrister to undertake the advocacy.  This is especially the case when the claim is in the High Court or above where solicitors have very limited rights to speak to a judge.

Two classic legal films in the U.S. are To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and 12 Angry Men (1957). Are there any similarly classic U.K. legal films? 

I, like many my age, watched To Kill a Mockingbird in school as it was a set text for English Literature exams.  I still vividly remember Atticus Finch’s court room scenes.

Rumpole of the Bailey was a classic TV series about the law.  A slightly more modern TV series about the law is This Life, which first aired a few years before I went to university; it’s about a group of friends starting out on their legal career.  It’s a lot less glamorous than Suits, but probably a lot more accurate!

A classic Dickens novel relating to law that I hope to one day (finally) complete is Bleak House. Are there any notable English novels you would recommend to Americans interested in English law?

Rumpole of the Bailey started as a book series, written by John Mortimer who was a practising barrister.  I’ve not read them myself though.

Will I be judged in the U.K. for taking my tea with cream? 

100% yes!  My Dad took his tea very seriously and I grew up in a household where we only used tea leaves, the teapot had to be warmed first with boiling water before the kettle was re-boiled for the tea itself, and the cup had to be china.  Whilst I use teabags myself, there is no way I would ever use cream instead of milk.  And I pour the milk in last.

In the U.S., there has been a growing trend for the law to be drafted in what has been called “plain English,” i.e., simple language that is easy to understand. Have you noticed any related trends in the U.K.?

We have the same thing here.  Nobody wants “legalese” in contracts and the demand is for shorter, “plain English” contracts; clients (whether your colleagues or external clients) don’t want to revert to lawyers for a translation!

What are the qualities and habits of your “favourite” outside counsel? 

I like short emails with practical solutions to reach the goal I’ve outlined.  These tend to presume a certain level of legal knowledge but offer to expand on the law if needed.

I also love it when outside counsel send me cases or articles they think I will be interested in.