Stephen S. Herst readily admits he’s as “guilty as anyone” of texting with clients. The government services and corporate partner in the Wilmington, Delaware, office of Barnes & Thornburg says sometimes texting is the only way to deliver important information quickly.

But, he adds, “my phone doesn’t know the difference between a Sunday-morning fantasy football text and a Sunday-morning client emergency, and frankly, neither do I until I’ve had my coffee.”

Texting, lawyers note, is a speedy way to exchange information, but it also encourages informality and blurs the lines between their work and personal lives. While clients increasingly prefer text to email, lawyers say they are balancing efficiency, recordkeeping, professionalism and clarity when picking the best mode of communication.

“The greatest advantages of text messaging—efficiency and informality—are also its greatest weaknesses,” Herst says. “Texting is not a great medium for detail and clarity, which can lead to confusion.”

Wendy Muchman, a professor of practice at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, notes that under American Bar Association Model Rule of Professional Responsibility 1.1, lawyers are required to provide competent representation. Part of competent representation, Muchman says, is organizing and protecting client files.

“If you are texting with your client on a regular basis, communication can be helter-skelter and hard to keep in an organized format,” says Muchman, an ABA Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

Kim Life, general counsel and chief of staff at Lōkahi Therapeutics in San Diego, admits some bewilderment over the glut of communications choices, pointing out that there’s also WhatsApp, Slack and Teams.

“One of my biggest work challenges is platform-juggling,” she says. “I’ll see a notification flash on my laptop, ignore it … and then later lose 20 minutes try to suss out which app it came from.”

Simi Kaplin Baer is a partner at Kaplin Stewart in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, where she specializes in real estate transactions and land use. She says she’s noticed a shift in communications preferences since the coronavirus pandemic. Before, most communications were via email or through the office number. Now, she says, her clients have her cell number, so it’s only “natural” for them to text her to communicate.

“The personal service business requires you to adapt and meet the client where they are. But at the same time, be cognizant that information is sacred and must be handled with care,” Baer says.

Baer says for substantive discussions, she wants “everything in email.” 

There have been times, she says, “when I’ve screenshot a text from a client and emailed it to myself so that the information will be saved in our document management systems.”

Lauren O’Malley, an attorney at Triangle Smart Divorce in Cary, North Carolina, also tries to guide clients to email or scheduled conversations for “anything substantive” because that’s where she can “show up fully” and give her clients “the level of attention their cases deserve.”

While some lawyers say texting is becoming ubiquitous in all age brackets, others say there’s still a generational split when it comes to preferences.

Baer points out that none of her 70-year-old clients text her, but they were also slow to adopt email back in the day. 

And while lawyers who have been practicing for a while say they are more hesitant to text, newer lawyers say they are more apt to put fingers to phone.

“Many newer attorneys are accustomed to real-time communication, but the legal profession still depends on precision and a clear written record,” says Emily R. Greene, a partner in the Baltimore office of Kramon & Graham who has been practicing law since 2016. “The key is balancing responsiveness with maintaining professional standards.”

The Model Rules provide some guidelines for attorney communications, says Seth Katsuya Endo, a law professor specializing in civil procedure and professional responsibility at Seattle University School of Law. 

In addition to Model Rule 1.1, Model Rule 1.4 requires lawyers to keep clients reasonably informed in a timely way so they can make decisions. Model Rule 1.6 requires lawyers to keep their communications with clients confidential.

Jonah Perlin, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, specializes in the intersection between legal ethics and technology. He points out that lawyers need to consider relevant duties of confidentiality when communicating, such as attorney-client privilege, statutory and regulatory concerns, and rules regarding health care data.

Endo says that the “abbreviated and intermittent nature of text messaging” might raise concerns under Model Rule 1.4 because “it can be hard to convey complex ideas, and it is not necessarily a true dialogue that allows the lawyer to answer questions and gauge the client’s actual understanding.”

Dyane L. O’Leary is the director of the Legal Innovation & Technology Center at Suffolk University Law School as well as a professor of legal writing.

O’Leary says lawyers should ensure that the tone and content of any communication with a client is clear and concise—it’s still legal writing, and “that shouldn’t change just because we’re tapping on a smartphone.”

“I’ve heard lawyers refer to the ‘one-scroll rule,’” O’Leary says. “If a text message requires someone to scroll down more than once on a smartphone, it’s probably too long and not appropriate for that medium.”

Nivea A. Ohri, a partner at Baldwin, Briscoe, Steinmetz & Ohri in southern Maryland, says she prefers texting to other forms of communication because it facilitates quick questions and answers. But she also says that when she’s reaching out to other lawyers, she often wants to “chat on the phone” and then follow up with an email.

Phone conversations allow for more collegial discussions and the opportunity to build relationships with other lawyers practicing in the area, says Ohri, who has been practicing law for four years.

“Chatting with other attorneys in our close-knit community often leads to more successful settlements in cases,” she says.

Carrie B. Rainen is an attorney at the Rainen Law Office in North Andover, Massachusetts, a firm dedicated to commercial and residential real estate title matters.  Rainen says she “often won’t respond to texts at night or on the weekends.” 

In addition, she says, “if I respond before normal work hours, I’ll do it by email.  It is part of the boundaries I set and try to maintain between work and home.”

Rainen adds that she still runs into attorneys who don’t use email to communicate.

 “But maybe they’re on to something,” she says, “because I hate how the technology has basically let people interrupt every part of our lives.”