Risk aversion and “scheissenbedauern”

Thanks to the October 2005 newsletter of Laurence Simons, the international law department recruiters, we can all add this German term to our vocabularies and recognize its meaning (For another useful Teutonism, see my post of May 20, 2005 on “schadenfreud.”).

The term describes the feeling of disappointment one gets when something doesn’t turn out as badly as you had predicted. Risk averse in-house counsel, who worry clients with too many potential legal pratfalls from a deal, may suffer frequent bouts of scheissenbedauern. The cure is to say aufwiedersehen to over-stressing legal risks.