Email Tips For Lawyers
How to send better, more professional emails to clients and colleagues
How to send better, more professional emails to clients and colleagues
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.
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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 Emanuel | n/a | n/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) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | DLA Piper* | £3,010,000,000 | £2,400,000 |
2 | Clifford Chance | £2,300,000,000 | £2,040,000 |
3 | A&O Shearman | £2,200,000,000 | £2,200,000 |
4 | Hogan Lovells | £2,150,000,000 | £2,200,000 |
5 | Freshfields | £2,140,000,000 | Not disclosed |
6 | Linklaters | £2,100,000,000 | £1,900,000 |
7 | Norton Rose Fulbright* | £1,800,000,000 | £1,100,000 |
8 | CMS** | £1,620,000,000 | Not disclosed |
9 | Herbert Smith Freehills | £1,300,000,000 | £1,300,000 |
10 | Ashurst | £961,000,000 | £1,300,000 |
11 | Clyde & Co | £844,000,000 | £739,000 |
12 | Eversheds Sutherland | £749,000,000 | £1,300,000 |
13 | BCLP* | £661,000,000 | £748,000 |
14 | Pinsent Masons | £649,000,000 | £793,000 |
15 | Slaughter and May*** | £625,000,000 | Not disclosed |
16 | Simmons & Simmons | £574,000,000 | £1,076,000 |
17 | Bird & Bird** | £545,000,000 | £696,000 |
18 | Addleshaw Goddard | £495,000,000 | Not disclosed |
19 | Taylor Wessing | £480,000,000 | £915,000*** |
20 | Osborne Clarke** | £456,000,000 | £771,000 |
21 | Womble Bond Dickinson | £448,000,000 | £556,000 |
22 | DWF | £435,000,000 | Not disclosed |
23 | Fieldfisher | £407,000,000 | £966,000 |
24 | Kennedys | £384,000,000 | Not disclosed |
25 | DAC Beachcroft | £325,000,000 | £700,000 |
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:
Here’s what that looks like:
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 you’re ready to hit send? Just take a moment.
Here are some tips to consider before sending your emails:
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.
Always do this whenever you’re responding to an email. Check, check and check again who’s copied on that email.
Ask yourself:
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.
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.
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 |
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.
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