Email Scandals, Technology

6 Annoying Types Of Posts On Lawyer Listservs

Lawyer listservs are a wonderful resource. Please don't ruin them by posting inappropriate topics.

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Last week, Kathryn Rubino wrote about a discussion thread that went to hell at a popular ABA listserv. When I found out what the discussion was about, it didn’t surprise me because that particular topic tends to bring out the worst in people.

Lawyer listservs are generally great. The members can provide you with advice, some sample paperwork, and even referrals. Sometimes, you get a chance to meet them in person.

But certain posts and discussions I find to be very annoying. This is mainly because the responses clog up my inbox. Also, some topics are inappropriate for a listserv designed for business discussions. Below are six posts I find most annoying.

1. Racial Issues. Once in a while, something happens that triggers a discussion on race. A Supreme Court decision, a police brutality incident, or whatever Donald Trump said to piss off yet another ethnic minority.

Sometimes, the discussion is civil with insightful and thought-provoking responses. But in most cases, someone will eventually accuse another of being racist or supporting racist positions or people. These accusations can be subtle or explosively blunt. Being accused of racism in any manner is serious business so the accused gets defensive, which leads to another argument altogether.

Since race is a controversial and emotional topic, it tends to generate a lot of responses. The problem is that the responses never end because because every participant wants to have the last word and tries to refute the last poster. Eventually, the arguments start to get ridiculous and turn into personal attacks. For example, here is a small sample of a long rantfest which took me a long time to delete from my inbox:

Angela: This court’s decision will have a disparate impact on minorities. It’s as though Plessy v. Ferguson came back from the dead. Abraham Lincoln would be hanging his head in shame if he were alive today.

Privileged Pierce: I disagree. This article written by Professor X which was published on Some Law Review says that the effect of the court’s ruling will have minimal impact on minorities in today’s society.

Billy: Pierce, Professor X is a known academic hack. Also, that law review is ranked near dead last according to this website, just below The Esteemed Law Journal of North Korea’s Glorious Freedom and Pure Democracy. I mean, even the Green Bag is cited more often. lol

Catherine: My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend Danielle is a minority lawyer and she doesn’t think the court’s ruling will affect her.

Eli: With all due respect Catherine, I know Danielle and she was fortunate enough to grow up in the suburbs. Maybe if she and Pierce spent some time with non-sheltered people, they would understand the daily injustices and hardships that minorities have to face.

Catherine: Eli, with equally due respect, what the hell is that supposed to mean? Why do you always imply that people who disagree with you are “sheltered”? And before you and Angela try to attack me, I’ll have you know that I have friends of all colors! And in college, I wrote my senior thesis on the great deeds of Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, AND Mahatma Gandhi which got a commendation from the local NAACP. So there!

ADMINISTRATOR: That’s enough. I’m shutting down this discussion. This is not a place for personal attacks. Angela, you should know better than to start a thread that can inflame racial sensitivities.

Angela: I brought this up because I wanted to enlighten this intelligent group about a symptom of bigger issues involving racism in America. But it’s sad that nobody wants to talk about that.

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I like to think that lawyers, due to our training, are more acutely aware of social issues and are more sympathetic towards the marginalized (with exceptions). But discussion of racial issues are not appropriate topics on a lawyer listserv unless it is specifically created for that purpose. These “discussions” tends to unnecessarily create tensions. The numerous responses clogs up my inbox and the email filtering program might accidentally send certain people to my spam folder.

2. Politics. The United States continues to be a global melting pot bringing together people from all walks of life striving to achieve the American Dream: Having a steady job.

But despite our different life experiences, moral beliefs, and philosophical outlooks, our political system mandates that we are either Republican or Democrat. Oh, you registered as an independent? How cute. But when you go to the polling booth next year, you will see how “independent” you are when your only viable choices have either a (D) or an (R) next to their name.

Political discussions are unavoidable in lawyer listservs. When new laws are passed, we criticize the Congress that passed them and the President who signed them into law.

Like race, political discussion tends to be emotionally charged with everyone wanting to have their say and the last word in the discussion. The arguments will eventually degrade into personal attacks.

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Do you hate Bush and think Republicans are chickenhawks? Or do you hate Obama and think Democrats are promoting class warfare? I don’t care who you hate. Just express your hate elsewhere. I don’t need my inbox clogged up with political debates.

3. Request for a pro bono or low bono attorney. Once in a while, someone asks the listserv if a fellow member is willing to take a client on a pro bono or reduced cost basis. Sometimes, it’s for a friend or family member. But other times, it is for someone who the original poster barely knows but believed the potential client’s story of financial woe. Or maybe the original poster is working on the case pro bono herself and needs someone who will extend a similar courtesy.

I find these requests extremely annoying and even offensive for two reasons. First, I think about the other listserv members who have posted about their financial difficulties because of the lack of paying clients. Second, by even considering this proposal, I am in effect letting someone who is neither giving me a paycheck nor paying my student loans and my rent dictate how I work and how I am paid.

I realize that there may be others who are kind and generous enough to help a client who has genuine financial difficulties. These people should set up a pro bono listserv where people can post these requests. People in need of pro bono or low bono services should be referred to Legal Aid or established pro bono programs.

4. The URGENT posts. Writing URGENT on the subject line obviously gets everyone’s attention and requires an immediate response. I assume these requests are common in certain specialties like criminal defense and immigration where an immediate response is needed or the client can face jail or deportation.

The problem is that at times I see these “urgent” requests quite frequently which make them lose their… urgency. And sometimes I see them from the same posters which makes me wonder if they are either really unlucky with clients, paranoid, or are incompetent because they tend to procrastinate.

I suggest that before posting an urgent request on the listserv, the poster should first try to directly contact someone knowledgeable. You might be able to get a quicker response and have more questions answered along the way.

5. The second, third, or fourth request. You post a question to the collective. No one responds. So a few days later, you post the question again, noting that it is a second request. You still don’t get a response, so you post again and start to complain about people unwilling to help out.

Look, if you are posting repeatedly and no one is responding, then this means one of the following: 1) Your question is so narrow and obscure that no one knows the answer; 2) Your question is so broad that the answer will resemble a law review article; 3) Your question requires someone to do research (for free) that you should be doing; 4) Your question makes no sense whatsoever; and/or 5) Everyone is busy.

So if you are not getting an answer to your question, before you repost the question for the 29th time, rephrase the question, or reconsider asking it.

Finally, the post that is most annoying by far…

6. The many, many “Out of Office” autoreplies. Let’s say you submit a question to the listserv. Or you submit an answer to the entire listserv rather than to the original poster directly. But some of the members may be out on vacation or on a business trip for an extended period of time. So they set up their email to send a generic response informing the sender that they are away.

Soon after you click on “send email,” you are deluged with many of these automatic replies with the subject line “Out of the Office.” For those who don’t use Gmail, which groups together emails with similar subject lines, you will have to delete every response, which can get tedious. Or if you still use AOL, hearing “You’ve Got Mail” every five seconds can get annoying.

The autoresponse problem makes it hard to engage in group discussions with the listserv unless you are willing to delete potentially hundreds of these generic responses.

I know you’re doing it to keep the clients informed and not give the impression that you are not ignoring them. I mean, nothing shows personalized attention better than an automatic response. I ask that you please use a separate email address for listservs that does not have any autoreplies.

Lawyer listservs are a wonderful resource. Please don’t ruin them by posting inappropriate topics such as the ones I described above.

Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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