Read on Twitter
The replies here demonstrate that lots of lawyers find lots of (often inconsistent) things to gripe about in the e-mail habits of other lawyers. There are some good points here, but I think it’s also really important (maybe more) to teach lawyers how to *read* e-mail. 1/ https://twitter.com/elliemargolis/status/1310012671069126656
You typically can’t control how other lawyers (and other *people*) write, and even when you can, a lot of the things I see in the replies seem awfully petty to burn supervision cycles on with junior lawyers. 2/
Letting yourself get annoyed and judgmental about e-mails you receive isn’t very productive or empathetic. If lots of people do something that bothers you and that you can’t change, maybe you need to do something to restructure your reading habits. 3/
Learning to manage an inbox, filter, folder, read, skim, and scan for important content, understanding how to navigate power dynamics and hierarchy, structure and time your reading and responsive habits, etc. are all important. 4/
Much of how effective your e-mail writing is depends on the norms of and your rapport with the person or people you’re corresponding with. And that depends on being able to pick up cues and adapt to the person you’re e-mailing with. 5/
E.g., super terse replies might be appreciated by a super-busy person who reads all their e-mail on their phone, and more elaborate constructions might be more appreciated by the old-school lawyer who still prints all their e-mails out. (They exist!) 6/
Different people write differently! And that’s okay. Unless you want to be a petty tyrant toward everyone you interact with, being a good lawyer (and a good writer) means being an empathetic reader. /fin
Another great idea. https://twitter.com/patentjosh/status/1310273285289017346
