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Email Tips For Lawyers

How to send better, more professional emails to clients and colleagues

Last updated:
January 20, 2025
Email Tips For Lawyers

Email is where most of a busy lawyer’s correspondence happens - especially with clients.

Despite the growth of instant messaging tools like Teams, email is still the preferred channel for all external communications in a professional environment and it's difficult to see that changing any time soon.

It needs to be done professionally and with a certain degree of care.

Typos, sloppy formatting and unclear structure might seem like minor issues on their own (and they are), but in the context of a wider project that the client is paying handsomely for, they can point to a lack of attention to detail and thought across the entire matter.

This is a short guide - primarily targeted at junior lawyers - on how to email professionally as a lawyer in a corporate law firm.

*This is guidance only. Your firm may well have its own set of guidelines or best practice which should be followed and take precedence over anything set out below.

Style and formality

Email Tips For Lawyers

When initiating communication or if you’re unsure, it’s always better to be too formal than too casual.

Using “Dear” and the recipient’s full first name maintains professionalism and respect, especially for first interactions.

If you’ve communicated with them before, it’s often best to match their choices in salutation, closing, and tone.

For example, if they signed off using their first name, it’s usually appropriate to address them by their first name in subsequent emails (unless you have a specific reason to use their title and last name).

Law Firm
Trainee First Year
Trainee Second Year
Newly Qualified (NQ)
Addleshaw Goddard£52,000£56,000£100,000
Akin Gump£60,000£65,000£174,418
A&O Shearman£56,000£61,000£150,000
Ashurst£52,000£57,000£125,000
Baker McKenzie£56,000£61,000£140,000
Bird & Bird£47,000£52,000£98,000
Bristows£46,000£50,000£88,000
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner£50,000£55,000£105,000
Burges Salmon£47,000£49,000£72,000
Charles Russell Speechlys£50,000£53,000£88,000
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton£57,500£62,500£164,500
Clifford Chance£56,000£61,000£150,000
Clyde & Co£47,000£49,500£85,000
CMS£50,000£55,000£110,000
Cooley£55,000£60,000£157,000
Davis Polk £65,000£70,000£170,000
Debevoise £55,000£60,000£173,000
Dechert£55,000£61,000£165,000
Dentons£50,000£54,000£100,000
DLA Piper£50,000£55,000£110,000
Eversheds Sutherland£46,000£50,000£100,000
Farrer & Co£47,000£49,000£88,000
Fieldfisher£48,500£52,000£95,000
Freshfields£56,000£61,000£150,000
Fried Frank£55,000£60,000£175,000
Gibson Dunn£60,000£65,000£180,000
Goodwin Procter£55,000£60,000£175,000
Gowling WLG£48,500£53,500£98,000
Herbert Smith Freehills£56,000£61,000£135,000
HFW£50,000£54,000£100,000
Hill Dickinson£43,000£45,000£80,000
Hogan Lovells£56,000£61,000£135,000
Irwin Mitchell£43,000£45,000£76,000
Jones Day£56,000£65,000£160,000
K&L Gates£50,000£55,000£115,000
Kennedys£43,000£46,000£85,000
King & Spalding£55,000£60,000£165,000
Kirkland & Ellis£60,000£65,000£174,418
Latham & Watkins£60,000£65,000£174,418
Linklaters£56,000£61,000£150,000
Macfarlanes£56,000£61,000£140,000
Mayer Brown£55,000£60,000£135,000
McDermott Will & Emery£65,000£70,000£174,418
Milbank£65,000£70,000£174,418
Mills & Reeve£45,000£47,000£82,000
Mischon de Reya£47,500£52,500£95,000
Norton Rose Fulbright£50,000£55,000£120,000
Orrick£55,000£60,000£140,000
Osborne Clarke£54,500£56,000£94,000
Paul Hastings£60,000£68,000£173,000
Paul Weiss£55,000£60,000£180,000
Penningtons Manches Cooper£48,000£50,000£83,000
Pinsent Masons£49,500£54,000£97,000
Quinn Emanueln/an/a£180,000
Reed Smith£50,000£55,000£125,000
Ropes & Gray£60,000£65,000£165,000
RPC£46,000£50,000£90,000
Shoosmiths£43,000£45,000£97,000
Sidley Austin£60,000£65,000£175,000
Simmons & Simmons£52,000£57,000£120,000
Skadden£58,000£63,000£173,000
Slaughter and May£56,000£61,000£150,000
Squire Patton Boggs£47,000£50,000£110,000
Stephenson Harwood£50,000£55,000£100,000
Sullivan & Cromwell£65,000£70,000£174,418
Taylor Wessing£50,000£55,000£115,000
TLT£44,000£47,500£85,000
Travers Smith£54,000£59,000£120,000
Trowers & Hamlins£45,000£49,000£80,000
Vinson & Elkins£60,000£65,000£173,077
Watson Farley & Williams£50,000£55,000£102,000
Weightmans£34,000£36,000£70,000
Weil Gotshal & Manges£60,000£65,000£170,000
White & Case£62,000£67,000£175,000
Willkie Farr & Gallagher£55,000£60,000£165,000
Withers£47,000£52,000£95,000
Womble Bond Dickinson£43,000£45,000£80,000
Rank
Law Firm
Revenue
Profit per Equity
Partner (PEP)
1DLA Piper*£3,010,000,000£2,400,000
2Clifford Chance£2,300,000,000£2,040,000
3A&O Shearman£2,200,000,000£2,200,000
4Hogan Lovells£2,150,000,000£2,200,000
5Freshfields£2,140,000,000Not disclosed
6Linklaters£2,100,000,000£1,900,000
7Norton Rose Fulbright*£1,800,000,000£1,100,000
8CMS**£1,620,000,000Not disclosed
9Herbert Smith Freehills£1,300,000,000£1,300,000
10Ashurst£961,000,000£1,300,000
11Clyde & Co£844,000,000£739,000
12Eversheds Sutherland£749,000,000£1,300,000
13BCLP*£661,000,000£748,000
14Pinsent Masons£649,000,000£793,000
15Slaughter and May***£625,000,000Not disclosed
16Simmons & Simmons£574,000,000£1,076,000
17Bird & Bird**£545,000,000£696,000
18Addleshaw Goddard£495,000,000Not disclosed
19Taylor Wessing£480,000,000£915,000***
20Osborne Clarke**£456,000,000£771,000
21Womble Bond Dickinson£448,000,000£556,000
22DWF£435,000,000Not disclosed
23Fieldfisher£407,000,000£966,000
24Kennedys£384,000,000Not disclosed
25DAC Beachcroft£325,000,000£700,000

Formatting and structure

Email Tips For Lawyers
Definely co-founders Feargus MacDaeid and Nnamdi Emelifeonwu are former lawyers at Freshfields (Credit: Definely)

What do City lawyers actually do each day?

For a closer look at the day-to-day of some of the most common types of lawyers working in corporate law firms, explore our lawyer job profiles:

The aim of the game with email is to keep your message concise, well structured and easy to read.

Think about the feeling of dread you get when you receive a long email consisting of two or three long blocks of unbroken text. No one likes reading this.

Some tips to format and structure your emails like a pro:

  • Top-down communication: Apply the ‘Pyramid Principle’ and start with the answer or key piece of information you need to convey to the reader. Then set out your supporting arguments or evidence to support your answer or recommendation. To learn more about top-down communication, see our guide on communication skills for lawyers.
  • Use headings: Sign-post the different sections of your email to make it as easy to follow as possible.  
  • Use short sentences and paragraphs: The best business communication is simple, using ordinary words, short sentences and short paragraphs. If a paragraph is more than three or four lines long, break it up into two separate paragraphs.
  • Use bullet points or numbered lists: Group your ideas using ordered lists, with each point dealt with by its own bullet point or number. Numbers are preferred - that way, when the recipient is responding or you’re discussing over the phone perhaps, they can reference “item 5” or whatever it may be.
  • Use bold text: Start a paragraph or emphasise key points in bold. Bold text naturally catches the eye, making it easier for readers to identify key points. Use it sparingly, though, and only for the most important elements of your email.
  • Include next steps: Always include a “Next Steps” section in your email. Either right at the start or at the end, clearly labelled.

    A next steps section outlines what actions are expected, removing any confusion about what needs to be done after the email is read. It moves things forward and says that you are organised and focused on outcomes - exactly what clients are paying for!

    Keep deadlines as specific as you can. “Please provide your comments by 3pm on Thursday” is miles better than “Please provide your comments by Thursday afternoon”.

Here’s what that looks like:

Which of these would you rather read?

Subject line

Email Tips For Lawyers
Alexander in a team meeting with co-founders Dr Izzidien, Professor Gardner and Elliot Wright

Subject lines should be brief so they can be read quickly and they display fully on the recipient’s screen.

Keep them professional and consistent. Use the project or matter name, followed by the issue your email relates to e.g. “Project Acme: Warranties”.

It’s a good idea to assume that the recipient’s inbox is stuffed with dozens of unopened emails at any one time. If you need them to respond to push things forward, add something to that effect in the subject line.

E.g. “Project Acme: Warranties (PLEASE ACTION)”.

Law Firm
Trainee First Year
Trainee Second Year
Newly Qualified (NQ)
A&O Shearman£56,000£61,000£150,000
Clifford Chance£56,000£61,000£150,000
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer£56,000£61,000£150,000
Linklaters£56,000£61,000£150,000
Slaughter and May£56,000£61,000£150,000
Law Firm
Trainee First Year
Trainee Second Year
Newly Qualified (NQ)
A&O Shearman£56,000£61,000£150,000
Clifford Chance£56,000£61,000£150,000
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer£56,000£61,000£150,000
Linklaters£56,000£61,000£150,000
Slaughter and May£56,000£61,000£150,000
Law Firm
Trainee First Year
Trainee Second Year
Newly Qualified (NQ)
Ashurst£52,000£57,000£125,000
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner£50,000£55,000£105,000
Herbert Smith Freehills£56,000£61,000£135,000
Macfarlanes£56,000£61,000£140,000
Travers Smith£54,000£59,000£120,000

Think before you send

Email Tips For Lawyers

Think you’re ready to hit send? Just take a moment.

Here are some tips to consider before sending your emails:

To reply all or not to reply all

Whenever you’re on a group email with multiple recipients and you need to respond to the email, just take a moment to think whether you should ‘reply all’ so that all recipients get your response or just ‘reply’ so that only the sender gets your response.

Clearly, if you're working on a matter as part of a wider team then it’s good practice to keep everyone in the loop so ‘reply all’ is usually the default mode.

An exception is where your response only concerns the original sender and the information is of no value to anyone else. Then, simple replies are more appropriate.

Junior lawyers are often guilty of sending simple replies to group emails on matters when they should have sent a reply all. This can be frustrating for others who then don’t have all the information they need and feel like they’re out of the loop.

Equally, we’ve all received the infamous email from someone who’s inadvertently ‘replied all’ to a firm-wide 2,000 person email. A quick way to make yourself known for clogging up other people’s inboxes.  

It’s a habit thing more than anything. Just start getting used to making that choice between a simple ‘reply’ and a ‘reply all’ before you respond to emails.

Triple check who’s copied

Always do this whenever you’re responding to an email. Check, check and check again who’s copied on that email.

Ask yourself:

  1. Is everyone who should be copied cc’d on this email?
  2. Is anyone who shouldn’t be copied cc’d on this email?

Email platforms like Outlook often auto suggest recipients for the CC field. Treat with extra caution. You don’t want the wrong people copied on confidential emails, otherwise it’s a call to compliance and it can get very serious.

It might not even be your fault - you may spot a strange name or organisation email address on the long list of names on CC on the matter you’re working on. If you do spot it, tell your manager or the matter partner straight away.

Don’t forget attachments

If you need to attach files to your email, make sure you actually attach them.

It happens yes, but it looks careless when you have to send a follow-up email with the attachments you forgot. Especially on busy transactions with dozens of emails being sent every day.

Set a delay on your emails

This is one of the best professional life hacks you can implement.

You can reduce the risk of you making an email slip-up - replying all when you shouldn't have done, copying someone you shouldn’t have, attaching the wrong document - by setting a delivery delay on your emails.

Outlook has this option.

You can defer the delivery of your emails by a number of minutes - 1 or 2 minutes should be fine. After you hit send, the email stays in the outbox folder for the time period you’ve set before it gets sent.

Giving yourself a 1 or 2 minute buffer to realise you’ve made a mistake after hitting send on an email and being able to correct it can be an absolute life-saver.

Law Firm
Trainee First Year
Trainee Second Year
Newly Qualified (NQ)
Ashurst£52,000£57,000£125,000
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner£50,000£55,000£105,000
Herbert Smith Freehills£56,000£61,000£135,000
Macfarlanes£56,000£61,000£140,000
Travers Smith£54,000£59,000£120,000

Leave the right impression

Email Tips For Lawyers
Alexander with co-founder and chief scientist Dr Jonathan Schwarz
Which of these would you rather read?

Emailing might seem like a small part of your role as a lawyer, but it’s one of the key ways you communicate with clients and colleagues. How you communicate as a lawyer says a lot about your professional self.

By keeping your emails clear, professional and to the point, you’ll come across as someone who’s organised and on top of the key issues. Clients will appreciate that you value their time, and your colleagues will like working with you.

The tips in this guide are designed to help you get into good habits early on. But remember, every firm has its own way of doing things, so always check and follow your firm’s specific guidance.

In the end, professional emails aren’t just about getting the job done, they’re about leaving the right impression. With a little care, you’ll set yourself apart as someone who’s detail-oriented and focused on delivering results. That’s exactly what clients and senior colleagues want to see.

Email Tips For Lawyers
Author of blog post.
Olivia Rhye
11 Jan 2022
5 min read

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