News
Large Firms
Feb. 19, 2002
'You've Got Mail' Echoes Across Lawyer Laptops Faster Than a Mouse Click
LOS ANGELES - As O'Melveny & Myers partner Christopher Murray talks on the phone, there's a faint clicking noise in the background. "I've been going through e-mails the whole time we've been talking," Murray says as he taps away on his computer mouse.
"I've been going through e-mails the whole time we've been talking," Murray says as he taps away on his computer mouse.
It's appropriate that, as he discusses a national survey saying attorneys receive 48 e-mails a day, he's deleting his junk e-mail.
Earlier this month, International Communications Research in Media, Pa., and Menlo Park-based legal recruiting firm The Affiliates released a report that found that in an eight-hour work day, a lawyer receives an e-mail every 10 minutes.
The Los Angeles lawyer, however, far exceeds the national average. An entertainment attorney who represents motion picture studios in the areas of copyright, trademark and merchandising rights, he gets hit with at least 100 e-mails a day.
The bulk of Murray's electronic correspondence comes from clients, intellectual property associations and newsletters that cover the financial health of his clients, which include New York's Warner Bros. and Santa Monica-based Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
He tackles the computer screen full of e-mail with a game plan in mind.
"First and foremost, I think that having a methodology and a mind-set to do a lot of intelligent screening is important," Murray said. "If you're not pretty aggressive [in your methodology], you can waste a lot of time reading a lot of meaningless e-mail."
A plan of attack for opening and reading e-mail?
That's absolutely what busy lawyers must have, Melissa Rosen, an executive at The Affiliates, says.
Rosen suggests that attorneys talk with their firms' information technology department about using software to organize and prioritize e-mails.
"They're the ones responsible for making your day more efficient," Rosen said. "I think people who own software don't even know what they have. The IT team can show you in a half-day orientation what these [software] packages offer."
Microsoft Outlook, for instance, enables users to filter personal e-mails, newsletters and business correspondence into different folders. The filters help the attorney determine whether to open the e-mail immediately or later in the day.
And except for urgent messages, Rosen suggests that attorneys set aside a block of time each day to check e-mail.
While Murray uses filters, he never sets aside a block of time to handle digital messages.
"I access e-mail to the exclusion of other activities," he said.
Whether he is answering questions from a reporter, discussing a case with an associate or talking to his wife, one hand is glued to the mouse, and one eye is focused on the computer screen. A multitasker extraordinaire, Murray insists he must keep on top of his e-mail as it arrives or be overwhelmed with messages by the end of the day.
Murray sorts the e-mail through the subject line. If the header doesn't succinctly address the purpose of the message, it will either be read before he leaves the office at night or discarded altogether. And once Murray starts erasing messages, it's hard for him to stop.
"The delete icon is like a machine gun," he said. "I could delete 70 in a row."
Yet, no amount of time-management techniques can persuade Nick Yocca, an intellectual property attorney at Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth in Newport Beach, to use e-mail. He gave up using electronic correspondence a year ago.
Like many computer users, Yocca can't resist clicking the "yes" button when the systems asks him whether he would like to open new e-mail.
"Whenever I see an e-mail, I'm not sure if it requires immediate attention, so whether it's significant or not, I'll check it," Yocca said. "By the time I find out it's unimportant or junk mail, it's already interrupted something else that I've been doing. It's kind of a nuisance."
Yocca, however, hasn't abandoned the digital age altogether. His assistant of five years, Maxine Hetherington, acts as a human filter, weeding out the junk mail and only presenting Yocca with business-related messages.
Hetherington estimates that Yocca receives 35 e-mails a day.
She has come to loathe returning to work from an extended break during which the e-mails have piled up.
"I hate three-day weekends," Hetherington said.
Although many younger, tech-savvy attorneys are connected to e-mail through their cell phones, BlackBerrys and laptops, 72-year-old Yocca has no trouble snuffing the digital revolution.
"No doubt, I am a minority in my method of using e-mail, but my method works for me, and that's OK." Yocca said.
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Marisa Navarro
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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