Lawyers at a US firm have been directed to be less polite to save time.
A Sidley Austin New York tax lawyer has warned his colleagues not to waste his expensive time by sending ‘thank you’ emails.
Paul Wysocki, who was recognised in the 2016 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, must be sick to death of people being polite to him.
“Going forward, please don’t send ‘thank you’ emails but if you decide to do so (notwithstanding my instructions not to do so) please do not include partners. Just a complete waste of everyone’s time,” the grouchy email read.
Legal Cheek pointed out that Wysocki is not alone in his thinking. Back in August last year, an associate at US litigation firm Quinn Emanuel was sent a surly email in response to a thank you email. It directed him to a 2009 memo by the firm’s founding partner, John Quinn.
“We have all been raised to be courteous in our dealings with our fellow man, and woman,” the email read.
“I submit, however, that in the context of email, we should all be relieved of the obligation to send the routine ‘thanks’ email to acknowledge a response to a routine request. I won’t do the arithmetic here, but I think any of u can calculate the time cost of opening an email, reading it and deleting it. It’s not worth it.”
