blog.cuyler.com

Are employees’ e-mails privileged if they’re sent to their lawyers from the office computer?

From Truth In Large-Firm Advertising:

“But I wonder whether Big Firm advertising has the same impact. I just cannot imagine MegaCorp Executive sitting at an airport and seeing Winston, the Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice bulldog mascot and then thinking to himself, “I need more ‘tenacity’ from my outside legal counsel. I think I’ll call Womble and ask them to defend the next class action lawsuit that gets filed against my company!”

OK, I know that really isn’t the point of Winston or any other Big Firm advertising campaign. They want to create a brand image that will separate them from the herd. But selling Big Firm legal services is not like marketing the latest smart phone. I am not sure I could even tell you what most of my Big Firm colleagues do on a daily basis, much less convince you to pay $400 an hour for it.

In September I celebrated 16 years as a Cuyler Burk employee, next to Marian our wonderful receptionist, I am proud to say, I am the most senior person on staff.

I started at Cuyler Burk in the summer of 1990 as a temp. I knew WordPerfect 5.1 and this firm in Florham Park (one town over from home, where I was living during summer break between my junior and senior years of college) needed someone who knew WordPerfect 4.2 to fill in. I can downgrade with the best of them…

So I jumped at the chance to make $12/hr — my earlier temp stint at an Asian clothing warehouse (”Preppy Boy!”) was only netting $8.50/hr, so this was a big bump up… and it allowed me to live my credo: no heavy lifting.

I worked for two attorneys, a senior associate and a junior associate that summer, and it was standard office work. I was told I was special since I could stand to work with this senior associate who had a reputation for being difficult; but she and I got along famously, and I learned all about clumsy Club Med vacationers who, once sobered by the mainland, filed slip-and-fall lawsuits hoping to subsidize their vacations. (Do I sound like a defense lawyer or what?)

Summer ended and it was back to college. I was a communications and theatre major with an emphasis on directing TV and Stage, so my senior year was spent directing a mainstage drama and an hour long TV comedy. Graduation came and went, and I was putting the finishing touches on my TV project when the temp agency called and asked if I wanted to go back to Cuyler Burk & Matthews. I said I was flattered they thought of me and I would love to return, but I couldn’t because I had to finish this project for Emmy submission and I was committed to do some semi-pro theatre construction work through the end of July. If they could wait, I’d be interested. They couldn’t wait, and so I missed the boat.

Or so I thought.
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Imagined Monologue: “My Workplace Eulogy, as Given by My Boss, in Office Jargon.”

“… It has been said you’re either an assister or a resister. Eric Feezell was the former, and needed to meet his early demise like I need a hole in the head. Of the bananas we’ve got, he was definitely more of the green variety, still fairly new to the ways of things. Irregardless, he will be greatly missed.”