Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
E-mail and the Lack of Civility Among Lawyers
September 16, 2011
Colleague Fred Kruck sent me the following e-mail in response to my last post about warring lawyers who need remedial education in professional civility.
Sharon,
IMHO your RTL was right on track. Count to 10, go to Starbucks, whatever – they take the place of an “old-fashioned” procedure of writing letters.
In other words, email has greatly contributed to the lack of civility. In times past, my assistant would type up whatever I ranted about; by the time the draft came back to me, I could show the letter to Ed (Matricardi – my partner / mentor) and over the hours my emotions would settle down. Now, I type it, hit send, and off it goes while I am still pissed off. Letters gave us time for reflection – but unless controls are put into place; email causes us to respond too quickly…
Cheers!
Fred
Thanks for writing Fred – and your note inspired me to share a couple of tricks that I use.
First, I never hit send without taking my hands off the keyboard. This gives me time to make sure I'm sending the doggone thing to the right people, to proof the content (and far too many lawyers don't) and to consider whether my words convey what I mean them to convey.
Second, if I am responding to something that's made me angry, I will often draft a response but remove the "to" name so I have no chance of accidentally hitting "send" while drafting. Unlike my usual practice, I will then print out the draft e-mail and give it to my partner John to review, very much in the old-fashioned way you describe with your partner. This takes time, but it settles me down and gives me John's sound advice if I've gone off course – he'll pencil in any suggestions. We don't do this often, but when we do, it's always an extreme case – and it keeps me from doing something monumentally stupid while I'm busy reacting to inflammatory words rather than thinking of the appropriate and temperate response.
As you might imagine, the draft can be highly entertaining – but the finished product is always that of a prudent professional.
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