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Sometimes, To Get Things Done, You Must Simply Pick Up The Phone

Email alone is not always the most efficient method to communicate, and it does not always provide the most accurate answer.

By Jillian L. McNeil  
on
Jillian L. McNeil

Jillian L. McNeil

With all of the other alternatives — emails, text messages, social media — literally at the tips of our fingers, it is sometimes difficult to remember that, often, the simplest and most efficient way to obtain or convey information and get things done as a lawyer, is to pick up the telephone and make a call. This is particularly true in my firm’s commercial litigation practice, where even the tiniest of facts may be significant for drafting a pleading, and where each court’s procedural rules and practices are individualized and changing.

This is something that, at some point in my adult life, stopped coming naturally to me. I remember when I was young, rushing home to call my friends, often spending hours on the phone talking — despite having just spent the entire day with them at school. As a young girl (with no access to most of the technology we take for granted today), I thrived off of this type of communication and enjoyed every minute of it.

But, now, my desire to spend time actually speaking over the phone — whether for work or for personal calls — has faded.  Indeed, the thought of a phone call as opposed to an email can sometimes feel like an inconvenience or an interruption to an otherwise productive day.

However, despite this, I have recently been reminded how important and useful a simple call can be to our work.

Just last week, one of my colleagues and I spent multiple hours on the phone with a client going over the details of his complaint line by line. Now, I find that, generally, phone calls or meetings of this length cease being productive after the first half hour or so. But that was not the case here.

Through this conversation, we were able to gather detailed information and ask pointed questions to build a complex narrative spanning decades. We would not have been able to do this through a series of emails. Not only did this phone call provide quick and direct access to information, but it helped further build the relationship with the client.

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I was further reminded of the usefulness of a phone call when trying to sort through a complicated procedural question in a court of appeals. Despite all of the rules available online, nothing addressed my concern. But when I picked up the phone and called the clerk’s office, the clerk was not only able to answer my question but provided detailed insight on what the court’s more general practices were regarding this issue. I would not have received this information had I not made the call.

We are lawyers and do so much of our advocating and communicating through our writing. Thus, email frequently feels like the perfect communication medium for us. It is generally fast, and, by its nature, establishes a record. However, email alone is not always the most efficient method to communicate, and it does not always provide the most accurate answer, particularly when trying to confirm facts with a client or determine a court’s specific procedures. Sometimes, it simply makes sense to pick up the phone and make that call.

Jillian L. McNeil was an attorney at Balestriere Fariello, a trial and investigations law firm which represents clients in all aspects of complex commercial litigation and arbitration from pre-filing investigations to trial and appeals. You can reach firm partner John Balestriere at [email protected].

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