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As a client who sometimes has to catch up on emails later at night, I do not expect my attorneys to respond to anything I send until business hours on the next day.
Are you sure that you aren’t self-imposing these expectations? Has your client explicitly expressed this desire or otherwise complained about responsiveness?
P.s., you really shouldn’t assume your client is intentionally sitting on this information all day just to inconvenience you. High ranking in-house counsel will often be putting out daily fires and participating in back-to-back meetings all day with the C-suite and other executives in ways that prevent dedicated focus time on computer work during ordinary business hours. Sometimes things like turning drafts or reviewing detailed filings might need to wait until late at night or early morning to accomplish. FYI only.
Exactly. And if I get a response back, I make sure that counsel knows I don’t expect immediate response. And if some can’t help themselves, I’ll include in the email that I don’t expect them to respond right away
With my clients, I set boundaries early on. Most of my clients know that I will not answer phone calls, text messages or emails after a certain time of the day. Is it necessary for you to acknowledge emails at that time of evening? I understand if there are pending deadlines. It’s difficult because you cannot control third party behavior, but you may need to give clients gentle reminders.
I don’t answer emails outside of work hours absent a true emergency. As soon as I stopped I got a lot less emails outside of work hours.
I don't answer "promptly" outside conventional corporate work hours. If there is a reasonable expectation that I would be otherwise unavailable like during sleep hours, for example, I just don't respond (unless it's a true emergency/deadline). No explanation needed. Do that often enough and clients will know when they can habitually "get" you. Now I don't mean that if it's 7 pm, I won't respond, but it might take me the length of dinner and time with the family / time for a networking event to get back to them. They catch on to patterns soon enough.
I tell my associates and partners that I don’t need or get a ton of sleep, so emails will come at all hours. I do not expect a response, but my process is helped by getting it out there so it will be seen early the next day.
Also, if your billable rate has a comma in it, you should suck up getting a late night email. I’m guessing it doesn’t, but you know….if.
And pay the associates less, which they will complain about, and round and round we go.
I read your post with interest and and sadness. You will need to reassess what is reasonable and checking your emails after you depart work at 5 pm or 6pm is not reasonable. This is where you need to draw a line on the sand as a boundary beyond which you do not move to accommodate clients. Are they paying an incredible hourly rate to the law firm to get the service you seem to be providing? If so, is your law firm paying you a higher salary in recognition of these requirements.? Getting control of clients is one of the essential skills that need to be acquired early on if you intend to remain in the legal profession.
Just...don't respond until normal business hours resume?
"Training clients" is a thing and a very valuable ability for mental health
If you feel overly compelled to respond immediately to an after-business-hours, I recommend you set you your “do not disturb” settings so you won’t get notified by those emails. Keep in mind that some of us ADHD types have a need to send the information immediately as soon as it pops into our heads because otherwise we will forget about it.
On the other side, because my legal assistant tends to feel obligated to respond to my after-hours emails, I make a point of scheduling the send/delivery until the next business-day morning.
Unless your firm pay you big checks, you work 8-8
Some partners/ client relationship managers train their clients to have confidence in them and their team and to know that they are getting the best and most timely service.
Most, however, seem to have such a palpable fear of losing clients that they make the client dependent on only them or only a few who are expected to be available 24/7 and ask how high when they say jump. Some clients are jerks from the get go, but others are enabled or in fact encouraged to act in such a manner bc they have been trained that way based on course of dealing.
It’s self defeating imo and makes life miserable not only for them but also for everyone who works for them.