Everyone likes to know the answer to questions that come their way at work, none more so than in-house lawyers.  Lawyers take special pride in being able to respond to practically any question, on any topic, at any time.  They can do this because they are, typically, very smart, well-read, and at ease with murky situations.  However, occasionally, and usually at the worst possible moment, someone in the business will ask an in-house lawyer a question and they will have no idea how to answer it.  This happened to me on more than one occasion and it was incredibly frustrating for me and whoever was asking the question – usually the CEO or a board member.  Why were they frustrated?  Well, because like most people on the business side they believe two things that make your job as in-house counsel even harder: 1) all lawyers know everything about all areas of the law regardless of their background or specialty, and 2) that there is a “Big Book of Law” we keep on a shelf that has all the answers to every legal question and all we lawyers have to do is take it down and find the right page.  Yeah, right…. So, what do you do when you get a question you don’t know the answer to (especially when they are looking right at you across the table)?  This edition of “Ten Things” set out some strategies to help you navigate this tricky situation:

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