A friendly contest · the fixture
In-house v private practice. Somebody has to win.
Two of your lawyers against two of theirs, twelve matches at once, one shotgun start and a result nobody knows until the last ball is in. A question the profession has been arguing about for a hundred years, finally settled — until the next one.
One day · nobody stays overFirst edition
Why FutrGC exists
The relationship comes first. The business follows.
The best conversation at any event happens after the agenda ends, once the titles drop and people just talk. We stopped treating that as a happy accident and built the whole thing around it, through experiences people remember and want to repeat. Three things follow from that.
Assembled
A world-class room, built one name at a time, on the biggest change the profession has seen in a generation. Not a delegate list and not a headcount — the people whose decisions are the change.
Captured
Thought leadership filmed rather than written. Human moments rather than staged ones, and the pauses where somebody actually stops and thinks. Nobody forwards a webinar.
Remembered
Work has always been won through relationships, and relationships come from the person, not the position. Get it right and they are still talking about it in ten years.
Why it works
Your clients meet your prospects, and for once nobody’s managing the moment.
A general counsel will not take a firm’s word for it. They will take another general counsel’s word for it, unprompted, said on a golf course by someone with no reason to manage what they say. You cannot buy that sentence. You can only build the room where it gets said.
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01
The in-house room is free, and it is theirs
Every in-house lawyer at a contest is there without paying, playing or not. Nobody has bought a place, and the draw decides who plays with whom rather than a sponsorship line. That is what makes them talk to each other honestly.
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02
The roundtables are theirs alone
The afternoon sessions are in-house only, and no supporter is in one. That rule is what the whole day rests on and it is not negotiable at any price.
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03
The round is where you actually meet somebody
Five hours with three people you did not choose, and no way to leave the conversation. It is the opposite of a stand at a conference, and it is the reason the day is a contest rather than a reception.
The match
Two of yours against two of theirs. Twelve times over.
Matchplay fourballs, one practice pair against one in-house pair, all twelve going out together. Nobody is fielding their own side and nobody is playing to impress the person they sit next to at work on Monday.
Teams are drawn, never entered. No firm chooses who it plays, and no in-house lawyer is put in front of the firm that already acts for them. That single rule is what makes the round five hours of actual conversation, and it is the first thing anybody senior checks.
The result carries between editions, so the contest has a memory. Lose it and you have a reason to come back. Win it and you have a reason to talk about it. You cannot fake a second year.
The day
One day. Nobody stays over.
11:00
Shotgun start
Twelve matches away at once. Two practice lawyers against two in-house lawyers in each.
Everybody
13:00
Roundtables
For the in-house counsel who are not playing. Subject sessions chosen by industry, with a putting competition running between them.
In-house only
17:00
The last ball in
Everybody at the clubhouse to watch the contest finish. The result is not known until it is.
Everybody
18:00
Drinks on the terrace
Straight off the eighteenth, still arguing about the fourteenth.
Everybody
19:00
Pizza, cocktails, auction
Not a gala dinner and not trying to be. A charity auction, then coaches home by half nine.
The mixer
One day, start to finish. There is no accommodation and nobody stays over, which keeps the whole thing inside a working day and inside most people’s policies.
The rules of the day
Who is where, and when.
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01
Two against two, drawn not entered
No firm chooses who it plays, and nobody is drawn against a firm that already acts for them.
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02
The afternoon sessions are in-house only
Subjects chosen by industry, and no supporter in the room while it works. The written account of a session is non-attributed, always.
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03
Nobody buys a session or supplies a speaker
No session is named after a company and nobody leading one arrives from a supporter’s payroll. That rule costs money and it is not for sale.
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04
No fee for the in-house seat, playing or not
Prizes go to charity in the winner’s name rather than home in a bag, and anybody whose policy would rather they paid their own way can.
In a Contest the game is the format. In a Table Talk the evening follows the conversation.
In short
- Format
- Matchplay fourballs — two practice lawyers against two in-house
- The teams
- Drawn, never entered. Nobody plays the firm that acts for them
- The day
- One day. Shotgun start, clubhouse finish, coaches home
- The afternoon
- Roundtables by industry, in-house only, for those not playing
- The result
- Carried forward, edition to edition
Where it stands: in design, for a first edition.
One ask, and only one
Ask for an invitation.
Tell us who you are and which kind of room interests you. There’s no membership fee — every seat is decided, not sold or signed up for. A person reads every one.