Kirkland partner offers 'Top 10' list of email topics that don't require a firmwide blast
Solicited within an hour of arriving at his Chicago office Wednesday with multiple firmwide email requests for information on specialized topics in distant locations, a Kirkland & Ellis practice leader responded with a blast of his own on the topic of unnecessary email.
Provided by Above the Law, the lengthy email from Kenneth P. Morrison to all the firm’s attorneys summarizes the three requests for information (RFIs) from far-distant lawyers that sparked his missive, and acknowledges that his own position may be at odds with the culture of cooperation encouraged by Kirkland management.
Nonetheless, he suggests, it does seem that an email seeking input about whether wire transfers of funds into the U.S. could violate customs requirements, for instance, might be sent to a more limited distribution list.
“Is it just me, or is there a flavor to the RFI on this topic that the ‘travelers from Germany’ who are soliciting this advice have some possibly inappropriate motives?” he writes. “No doubt I am leaping to inappropriate conclusions, but I’m just wanting to give the best advice possible. Anyway, I went back to the Kirkland website and did a search for ‘customs,’ and it gave me 27 results. Awesome!”
“I even found out that we have an international trade practice, and the practice description uses the word ‘customs’ 12 times,” Morrison continues. “Maybe those lawyers would be helpful on this topic? But, then again, I’m probably thinking too parochially.”
Morrison concludes with a sarcastic Top 10 list of topics he expects to see in firmwide email communications in the future. Two, he notes, have previously been used in actual Kirkland email blasts some time ago.
The Top 10 topics include: “Has anyone ever taken a deposition somewhere?” and “Whether or not you went to Yale Law School, would you like to make a contribution to it?”
Morrison was out of the office Thursday, according to his assistant, and didn’t immediately respond to messages from the ABA Journal.
