Top Lawyer Coach, LLC

What Kind of Email Mistakes Have You Made that You Regret?

We're all guilty of making an email mistake at one point or another. But, instead of hiding under a blanket of embarrassment, readers of Top Lawyer Coach have candidly shared their own experiences - no holds barred!

From B. Banowsky:

"I was handling a FCPA investigation for an audit committee of an international construction company regarding allegations of bribery in Nigeria, Bolivia and Equador. DOJ lawyers in Washington,. DC were handling the investigation. One Friday afternoon, I was driving home from work when my son called me and said that someone from the Justice Department had just called the house looking for me. (never a good call). I then remembered that I included my home phone number on my business card-the only one on our team who did."

"When I got home, I called the two lawyers in DC. They proceeded to dress me down because one of the company's employees had paid a $1 million cash bribe the during the pendency of the investigation. (Of course, we had discovered the bribe in interviews that week and had prompty reported it to the DOJ. The employee has since pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison). For some reason, these two guys were really unhappy with audit committee's counsel and 'ordered' our team to come DC from Dallas for a meeting the following Monday morning."

"After I got off the phone, I emailed my partner (I thought I emailed him) who was working with me on the investigation. Here is what I said: 'Call me. I just spent an hour on the phone getting my a** chewed by ____________ and ____________.'

"A few seconds later I recieved an email from the junior DOJ lawyer stating: "I assume you did not mean to send this to us." I had sent them the email meant for my partner. To this day, I still don't know how I did it. I was fortunate that my email was as short and succint as it was--I could have said a lot more that would have been more ticklish if I had said what was really on my mind. And the email was factually correct--I had just been chewed out for an hour."

"As a post-script, when we arrived in DC for the meeting, the two DOJ lawyers were very professional. Over the weekend, I think they had decided that audit committee's counsel did nothing wrong and were in fact advancing the investigation, but I was the only one they could reach on a Friday evening."

From G. Lowrey:

"If you are at your desk print the email and proof it very carefully before sending. The reduction of embarrassing mistakes is worth a little time and cheap paper."

From G. Killian:

"Copying opposing counsel on confidential communcations by mistake because I didn't carefully review the "cc" list on a particular case. Fortunately I didn't transmit anything too valuable - just embarrassing! I've been on the receiving end of that gaffe, too."

From O. Meehan:

"Well, I guess we've all been guilty of the wrong/missing attachment mistake at some point or another."

"The issue with email seems to be that because it can be dealt with so quickly (as opposed to traditional correspondence) is that sometimes an email is sent without a proper check-read before sending, a review of who the email is supposed to go to, or even if it is appropriate to be simply replying to a chain of emails or sending a fresh email without a long trail of replies sitting at the foot, possibly containing something that you didn't want a later recipient to see."

"As more and more people use mobile email devices (eg iphone/blackberry/etc) these days, what I find is that my inbox will get clogged up with, instead of one email that confirms all relevant issues have been considered, several short emails, each seemingly fired off as an idea occurs to the sender. Trying to piece together where a matter is at from this type of correspondence can be time-consuming."

From R. Leonard:

"I have begun to print out and proof read before emails are sent. I also send attached correspondence by email to opposing attorneys, rather than writing directly within the body of the email. My mistakes with emails have been typos, rather than sending them to the wrong parties. But, typos are still embarrassing, Everyone wants their attorney to pay attention to details. It really only takes a minute to spell check, so now typos are few and far between."

From K. Chern:

"I think one big email mistake occurs when people check emails on their phones and forget to check the "mark as unread" box or cc responses to their inbox. It can be really easy to forget about a message that you read if you don't ensure that you will see it when you are able to focus on the email at your desk or on a full-size screen."

From K. Watkins:

"After attending my seminar on email, a participant sent me a follow-up message to say how much she’d learned in my session. She mentioned an attachment, BUT FORGOT TO ATTACH IT. A few minutes later, she sent another email (with the attachment). She expressed her embarrassment. Then she assured me she hadn’t slept through my tips on 'how to remember the attachments.' We both laughed."

From B. Ndedde, Esq:

It is hurting to miscalculate a billing in an email and re-send another to correct it. It makes one seem clumsy!

From S. Savchuk

"One day I sent an e-mail to my supervisor with a draft reply to our client.

After I got the confirmation I pushed the button "Reply", inserted the text of response confirmed by my supervisor and sent it to the client. A couple of seconds later I realized that I sent e-mail with confirmation of my supervisor to send that and even with my earlier request to confirm draft reply ;)

At the time I sent that blunder, I was already a mid-level associate.

What I want to say is don't let the work overwhelm you: even if you are entirely wrapped up in work, be sure to double-check every e-mail, every piece of communication you make on behalf of your company.

Although this "accident" happened about 2 years ago, I still remember it - it helps me to stay tuned, particularly, when I am involved in big projects with large volumes of correspondence."

Thank you for sharing your experiences!