<p>Well, first you did say a corporate OR tax lawyer and I did say that it could help a corporate lawyer and didn’t mention tax. </p>
<p>Lots of corporations are involved in scientific research or have products that involve science applications. Being able to understand what it is your clients do is a major advantage. First, it is just human nature that clients tend to think that if the lawyer clearly doesn’t understand the process or product, (s)he is incompetent and they’ll go find one who does. That’s not that unreasonable when the lawyer is being paid by the hour. No client wants to spend $1,000 + in fees explaining to a lawyer just exactly what a polymer or some such thing is. If you’re the lawyer who HAS that understanding already, it can be an advantage. </p>
<p>So, using a hypothetical, if you’re an attorney who is working on the prospectus for the initial public offering of a company involved in scientific research of one sort of another, it helps in writing the prospectus if you actually understand what you’re writing. </p>
<p>If you are representing a conglomerate that wants to acquire a biotech company which is privately held and you’re trying to figure out how to value the target company, being able to understand what it is that the biotech company does will help. Yes, you will hire an expert, but there are a gazillion experts and a gazillion ways to value any company. If you have some understanding of what it is the biotech company does, you’ll have a better understanding of which of those gazillion methodologies will work.</p>
<p>And what if the CEO of the conglomerate asks you whether the acquisition might raise antitrust concerns, both here and in the EU. I think you’d have to understand the products of both the target and acquiring company to answer that question. </p>
<p>As for a tax lawyer, well, I’m not one, but I can imagine that there might be times when in preparing the tax returns of a corporation, it would again help to know how buying a watchmallit for the lab should be treated for tax purposes. And it really might not be self evident how it should be classified. And, if the company has to have someone spend an hour giving you some understanding of what a watchmallit (made up) is and the purposes it is used for, the client may be more than a bit annoyed.</p>
<p>In my experience, there’s a lot more lawyers who understand econ and business than there are lawyers who have a good grasp of science. So, when a client needs a lawyer who understands science, the lawyer with scientific knowledge has an advantage.</p>