Premium Subscriber Q&A
SAExploration offered David Rassin the GC job in March 2020. There were a few things they thought he should know: the last GC and CEO had been fired and faced federal criminal charges; the SEC was investigating the company for securities fraud; the company was restating five years of financials and faced being delisted by Nasdaq; and bankruptcy was a possibility. Rassin accepted the challenge and SAE is glad he did.
Rassin is a finalist for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department. The Lawbook’s Mark Curriden had a chance to question him about how the role of in-house counsel has evolved over the past decade and what he looks for in any relationship with an outside firm.
The Texas Lawbook: What are the biggest challenges for GCs like you at energy companies?
David Rassin: Every energy GC will say that the biggest challenges are with the energy transition. The knowns and unknowns. There will be opportunities and there will be amputations. The challenges will be finding resources and then not misallocating them. It’s not enough to see around a corner, you also have to figure out what to do about what’s there. These aren’t just challenges for energy GCs, though. I think this is the biggest challenge for most of my peers in any industry – what’s around the corner and what do we do to prepare
Lawbook: You have been in-house for 10 years. How has the job or role of in-house counsel changed in those years?
Rassin: One of the things I enjoy most about meeting my in-house colleagues is seeing just how similar each of our roles are. There are variations for positions and industries, but you’d expect that. The surprising part is just how much we all have in common. The challenges as well the skillsets needed to flourish are surprisingly similar across industries.
Lawbook: What has been your best day at SAExploration so far?
Rassin: I know exactly what it was and I can’t tell you! SAE in 2020 was like a John Grisham novel. There was a moment where I found a solution to something that was so elegant and so surprising that it could have been a season finale cliffhanger. I still get excited thinking about it, and I can see myself pacing the floor in my home office – quarantine, right? – having the pieces fall into place. It all worked out, and I can’t tell you.
For Mark Curriden’s full profile of David Rassin Click Here.
Lawbook: What do you see as the most important legal and business issues facing corporate legal departments such as yours in the year or two ahead?
Rassin: That’s a trick question – the most important legal and business issues are not legal or business issues, they are people issues. Building consensus. Finding commonality among disparate constituencies. Legal issues are always variations on a theme. There are exceptions, but you generally come as close as you can to the right legal answer, and then you have to work out the human element. There’s seldom something so bloodless as to be purely a “legal” or “business” issue.
Lawbook: What do you look for in hiring outside counsel?
Rassin: There are countless smart and capable lawyers. What differentiates some from others is their interest in being a part of our team. They have to care about our business and want to succeed together. We have no interest in long term relationships with people who “tolerate” our business. At this point, our relationships with our primary outside counsel are excellent – we work with lawyers who are extraordinary in their ethics, insight, responsiveness and ability. We’re very lucky to have those relationships.
Lawbook: Do you have pet peeves regarding outside counsel?
Rassin: They should work at least as hard as we do, and they should care about the quality of their work. If we’re having to chase them for work product or motivate them to do a good job, it’s probably not the right relationship. You’d think it goes without saying. I used to think that, too.
Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about you?
Rassn: I can take bad news, don’t worry about my feelings, tell me if I’m wrong – let’s get this right for the company. Also, it’s okay to call me even if it’s late.
Lawbook: How important is diversity in your hiring of outside counsel? Have you ever fired a law firm for its lack of diversity or would you under what conditions?
Rassin: We do business on a global scale. The diversity of our workforce, and also of our legal service providers, is innate. It is essential to have many voices address a problem, and we’ve been privileged to work with very diverse groups of people. I’ve never had to force the issue.
Lawbook: Any other lawyers in your family?
Rassin: I am the only lawyer in my family. But even though my dad wasn’t a lawyer, what I do all day is pretty similar to what he did. It’s also where I always saw myself going. Let me explain what I mean.
Whether you’re a lawyer or an accountant or an engineer, you should start with some kind of skill. As you grow into management positions, less of your day-to-day involves applying that skill. As you spend more time sitting at tables with executives from other disciplines, you still see the world through the lens of your discipline. What my dad did as an engineer wasn’t daily engineering. What I do at SAE isn’t daily lawyering. Sure, there’s a tremendous amount of lawyering, but where I bring the most value is when I’m at a table with my cross-disciplinary peers. By shining the lights of our respective disciplines, we’re able to see deeper into a problem and come to solutions no single one of us would have seen. Sometimes you need a geologist, sometimes you need an accountant, and sometimes you need an engineer and a couple of lawyers. So no, no one in my family was a lawyer, but I think they sat at the same tables and it’s what I always saw myself doing.