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The Perils -- And Pleasure -- Of 'Reply All'

When can "Reply All" be a GOOD thing?

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We’ve extensively discussed in these pages the dangers of “reply all.” As you can see by paging through those archives, numerous members of the legal profession — associates, partners, deans of prominent law schools — have embarrassed themselves, often in entertaining fashion, with one little click of a button. They thought they were sending a private email to one individual, but whoops! They actually just hit “reply all.”

It’s great when hilarity ensues upon (mis)use of “reply all,” but it’s more common for it to be just annoying. In our age of overcommunication, people need to think more carefully about whether everyone on the original email needs to receive your reply. Do all the other people invited to the holiday party need to know when you’re arriving and what you’re bringing?

(In fairness, sometimes the sender is to blame. Protip: use “bcc.”)

But sometimes “reply all” can actually be a good thing. No, seriously….

Say hello to Zach Abramowitz, a lawyer turned tech entrepreneur. After graduating from a top law school and working at a leading law firm, Zach left to launch ReplyAll, the world’s first “blogcasting” platform. If you don’t know what blogcasting is, Zach explains the term — as well as his interesting professional journey, going from stand-up comic to teacher to lawyer to startup founder — in this interview with Spencer Mazyck of Bloomberg Law:

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If you enjoy having wide-ranging discussions with your friends over email about everything under the sun, from politics to sports to movies, you should check out ReplyAll. We’ve used several threads from the site to start conversations here at Above the Law — for example, this thread on wasteful Biglaw billing practices. As Abramowitz notes in the interview, conversations at ReplyAll have featured such thought leaders as Bill James, Noah Feldman, and Will Leitch.

Although the site soft-launched just a few months ago, it’s already getting thousands of unique visitors. Congratulations and good luck to Zach Abramowitz and the ReplyAll team — and thanks to them for turning an annoyance into an asset.

ReplyAll [official website]
Stealth Lawyer: Zach Abramowitz, ‘Blogcaster’ [Bloomberg Law via YouTube]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of career alternatives for attorneys

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