You've Got Mail!

Like most attorneys, I do a lot of my work by email. Many of my clients have joined the paperless trend, requiring electronic communications. More and more courts have embraced electronic filing, especially the federal courts. I keep my emails like the firm keeps its paper files, in separate folders organized by client and matter. All of my active files are in one folder and all of my closed matters are in another.

Storing things electronically has a lot of advantages for me. I can use an indexing application to quickly find things it might take a paralegal a half an hour to locate. This makes me more efficient, more effective and saves money for everyone. However, not everyone is a fan. I recently had a more or less friendly discussion with our firm's IT guy, who told me my 5 GB-plus mailbox was unstable.

While I like saving my emails, I also assumed that I was required to keep them as part of my obligation to retain client files. I said as much to our IT guy after he strongly suggested I start pruning. Lucky for me our IT guy is not a lawyer because it turns out my obligation is not so clear after all.

Lawyers are always playing catch-up when it comes to technology, so I guess it's not all that surprising that there are no clear rules on what we have to keep. It is now generally accepted that an attorney is obligated to retain his client's files. That is, most jurisdictions say you have to keep those things that were "reasonably necessary to the client's representation." So does that include email? Not necessarily, according to the Pennsylvania Bar Association. They concluded that email was something "that the client would not normally need or want, and therefore would not typically be" considered part of a client's "file." I think a lot of my clients would disagree, and since they're the ones in charge, I'm keeping my bloated mailbox.