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Chief
In my experience the best partners do acknowledge when an associate was right about something they insisted against.
Chief
Yes, but sometimes it is more of an oh, how about that rather than the apology you’re probably looking for
Rising Star
This will continue until either 1) you are the client or 2) have the book of business under control and can make up the rules as you go. Accept it. Act accordingly
Yes. When I was an associate I was working on a VC deal and I insisted to the client and partner that something seemed off about the investor. I would point out that XYZ things he was doing were very unorthodox and made no sense and that I thought something was off. For example, he did not care about any of the terms of the deal at all, conducted no diligence. Practically every day I was pointing out red flags and saying “who is this investor? Do you really trust him?” They brushed it off and insisted we plow forward with this deal even requiring me to work 30 hours on a week I was in Disney World with my kids (vacation had been planned for months). Then, we get to closing and the investor said he needed us to wire $100,000 to a bank in China before we closed to defray costs associated with converting his currency (rubles) to dollars (he was a Russian investor). I said “we are not doing that” and he said “ok... $20,000”. He impressed that time was of the essence and he could not wire the money until we sent him this money ASAP. I told him we would be willing to let him to reduce his investment amount $20,000 to account for these costs but we would not pay it for him especially not before closing. He went radio silent. We later learned he scammed a bunch of people in a “Nigerian prince” esque / advance fee VC scheme. I caught it but in the end the only person who was scammed was me, for ruining my vacation, and our law firm who never was paid for around $50,000 in legal fees for a deal I had said we shouldn’t do from the beginning! 😢
Raise the issues as you see them in as diplomatically a way as possible. "Can I ask the thinking on this strategy? To my admittedly inexperienced eyes it seems like such and such could backfire"; or when asked to provide research or briefing support on the strategy, include a note in the cover email like "There are potential drawbacks such as this and thus."
That discharges your duty, and some partners will notice even if they don't say anything. In this situation I've had a partner casually mention in passing months later when discussing the issue "as [x] predicted, we didn't win that one" or whatever. There's no ticker-tape parade, but it is nice to know people notice.
Just take care to keep some perspective and humility. There have also been times I thought I was perceiving the idiocy in a strategy and then it results in a resounding victory, where my approach would have netted at most a lesser result. I try to make a point to admit I miscalced.
I agree with LA1 but would add: We all should be keeping track of our successes. Not just monetary but intangible too. You might find a way to document this. That way if you need it during evaluation time or when applying for new jobs, you have specific examples.
Certainly not an I told you so, but rather if you're present during a discussion of the failed strategy, bring it up again like it was a new idea. Maybe they listen maybe not. But document anyway.
I'm short so I have difficulty being heard or seen! 😊
They wont acknowledge it but they all know you were correct. Take pride in that; your recognition does not go unnoticed.
Rising Star
Nobody will acknowledge it or nobody has done so? Lawyers are busy people. We don't go out of our way to acknowledge we were wrong.
Make a teaching moment of it and ask someone if they would have done anything differently knowing what they know now when presented with your earlier analysis of the strategy.