An Email Oopsie, By A Legendary Litigatrix
It's not just Pepper Hamilton. Email screw-ups are committed by even the most renowned lawyers -- like longtime Skadden Arps partner Sheila Birnbaum, a living legend of the product liability defense bar. As we previously wrote, "Birnbaum, who heads Skadden’s Complex Mass Tort and Insurance Group, has a nickname reflecting her expertise: 'The Queen of Toxic Torts.'"
From the Insurance Coverage Blog:
Some of [Mississippi Attorney General] Jim Hood's proneness to gaffes must have rubbed off on Sheila Birnbaum of Skadden, Arps, a lead counsel for State Farm, when she was down in Mississippi to hear Hood testify February 6....Birnbaum accidentally replied to all the people on the distribution list for an e-mail Hood's press spokeswoman sent out this morning to a number of people, including reporters. Birnbaum thought she was responding to other State Farm lawyers.
Ah, the perils of "reply all." Perhaps a CLE course should be given on how to use it properly?
(Part of the class could be devoted to client confidentiality issues. I Can Haz Ethics Credits?)
P.S. Birnbaum, by the way, does very nicely for herself. Back in May 2001, Forbes published an interesting list of some of the country's highest-paid corporate lawyers. Birnbaum reportedly earned $3.8 million a year -- and that was back in 2000-2001, before the latest Biglaw boom.
State Farm attorney mistakenly sends query about having Hood held in contempt to reporters, Hood's press spokesperson [Insurance Coverage Blog]
Email May Hurt State Farm, Miss. Truce [AP via Forbes]
Highest Paid Corporate Lawyers - 2001 [Forbes]
Sheila L. Birnbaum [Skadden]
Earlier: ATL Practice Pointer: When Emailing Super-Sensitive Settlement Information, Double Check the Recipient List
Separated at Birth: Sheila Birnbaum and Harold Koh?
(21) Comments
First to reply all
i was the first one to love state farm
Sheila Birnbaum, for all of her success in a pretty ugly field of law, is actually a very nice, somewhat approachable woman.
"Litigatrix" is a weird word. Female litigator sounds better. I think the only permissible use of the suffix "trix" is dominatrix.
I'm not sure that her gaffe is that big of a deal. It's dumb that she didn't realize that the e-mail was not from her client, only including client personnel on the e-mail, but all that she did is say that he misrepresented things and that they might do something about it. That's true, and it is not like she let some cat out of the bag.
Anyone else think she might have done it intentionally?
1:31--
What about "executrix"? Is that out too?
Personally, I love Lat's use of "litigatrix" (not to mention "legislatrix"--always to describe Hillary).
Does the response by Hood's spokesperson, "No you can't" act as an admission to the falsity of his/her statements regarding the "settlement"?
Absolutely intentional ... as a way of bringing attention to herself. Remember that there is no such thing as bad publicity. This was a very calculated move by a very cunning person.
The -trix feminine suffix used in place of -tor is a bit out of date. Perhaps for a good reason. Are we to assume that a female litigator is somehow different than a male litigator in any way that is pertinent to litigation? It's like that right-wing army surplus store owner in the movie "Falling Down" who suggests that we should call female police officers "officer-esses." Maybe that's how they do things at the Federalist Society, Lat, but these days we don't treat gender as relevant enough to make necessary different titles.
Yet its relevant enough to subject innocent people to a long-winded, poorly thought out diatribe, huh 2:06trix?
2:06, unlike officer, litigatOR and executOR are specifically gendered words. It would be nomalizing the masculine ideal as standard, while marginalizing the female as other, to use litigator to refer to... uh... all litigators?
Litigator and executor are "specifically gendered words" in the same sense that author and actor are "specifically gendered words," yet the use of the feminine "authoress" and "actress" have fallen out of accepted use now.
This is why old partners shouldn't be allowed to use a computer.
Definitely intentional. She was able to get into the press her position that Hood is full of it, without (provably) violating any confidentiality provisions/orders, or at least maintaining plausible deniability. Brilliant.
A conflict check just went around my office with "Dominic" as the first name of the "executrix." Dominexecutrix. Sheeeeewwwww.
My husband took her class at NYU law. He said she was totally mean and nasty. A friend of his used to work at Skadden and she treated him like shit. I've heard nothing but horror stories about her. If you look closely at her picture, she looks really unplesant.
1:42 - My thoughts exactly.
Gender freaks -- what about litigatron? Gender neutral and machiney.
Proof that Skadden is a TTT firm through and through.
Most female attorneys will eventually look like her-