People tend to forget that you can give off just as good or bad a first impression from the quality of your emails as you can by delivering more substantive documents. It’s therefore essential that you learn how to draft highly professional emails and avoid the mistakes that lawyers often make.
Emails should generally be as clear and concise as possible. Always consider whether your supervisor is likely to read your email on their mobile phone; if so, an essay won’t be appropriate. For longer emails, adopt a clear structure that enables the recipients to quickly identify the key information that is relevant to them.
To that end, you could include headings throughout, ensure key information is underlined or in bold (e.g. deadlines), use bullet points where necessary (which can make it easier to take in the information on a quick skim), make it very clear if you need specific people to review or take action in relation to particular points (I sometimes write “@Name” next to specific comments or queries to ensure the person reads it, especially where a number of others are copied into the email), and so on.
Subject lines
Always use a helpful subject line (e.g. not just “Hi” or “Legal work”). This will help the recipient to decide whether the email needs to be opened right away (and therefore help them to prioritise their time), whilst also ensuring both you and your supervisor will be able to find the email more easily in the future if you need to reference its content.
Consider starting with the project name (supervisors are likely to be juggling multiple matters at once, so this helps to give immediate context), followed by a description of what the email relates to, for instance “Project Cockerel – Director Appointments”. Perhaps avoid using client names in subject lines, as this might have confidentiality-related implications if those emails are being read in public places.
Common mistakes to avoid
There are so many things that can go wrong when sending emails, so below is a list of common mistakes. Burn this list into your brain and avoid the easily-avoidable!
Forwarding an email chain with stray comments
Forgetting to attach attachments
Accidentally hitting reply all
Emailing the wrong individuals
Misjudging your tone of voice
Mistakes that slip through the net
John Trimbos: it’s worth bearing in mind that some of the most commonly misspelled names are: Jo/Joe, Lesley/Leslie, Catherine/Katherine and Stephen/Steven. People can understandably be sensitive about this!
In addition, unless you are told otherwise, you should always copy in a more senior colleague to important emails. This helps them to keep abreast of what’s going on and improves the chances of a mistake being picked up at an early stage (you might be able to recall the email if it has not already been read by all the recipients), plus you might be required to keep a supervisor copied from a compliance perspective anyway.
Top tips
In light of the above, when sending out any email – internally or externally – always bear the following questions in mind:
1. Would you be happy to see the email on the front page of a newspaper or in Court (bar any confidentiality issues)?
2. Should you deliver this message by email, or would a phone call be more effective or efficient? If in doubt, call.
3. Are you definitely sending the email to only the intended recipients?
4. Does your email have a helpful, descriptive subject line?
5. Will all recipients clearly understand your message and is it clear what you want each recipient to do?
6. Have you carefully proofread the email?
7. Have you attached any necessary attachments and if so, will the recipients know what to do with them?
9. Is the confidentiality of the contents appropriately protected?
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