Of course most or all of you have seen this already — the latest reminder that if you don’t want something to possibly be read by most of the English-speaking world, don’t put it in an email.
This arises from a new attorney who agreed to work at a law firm in Boston and then changed her mind after deciding it didn’t pay enough. He was irked, she smarted off, resulting in the following email chain. Unlike past chains of this kind, I actually received a forwarded e-mail that, remarkably, I could trace back all the way to the original sender. I’ll spare you most of it, but here’s the good part (in reverse-forwarded order for easier reading):
—–Original Message—–
From: Dianna Abdala
Sent: Friday, February
03, 2006 9:23 PM
To: wak@kormanlaw.com
Subject: Thank you
Dear Attorney
Korman,
At this time, I am writing to inform you that I will not be
accepting your offer. After careful consideration, I have come to the
conclusion that the pay you are offering would neither fulfill me nor
support the lifestyle I am living in light of the work I would be doing
for you. I have decided instead to work for myself, and reap 100% of
the benefits that I sew. Thank you for the interviews.
Dianna L.
Abdala, Esq.
From: William A. Korman
To: ‘Dianna Abdala’
Sent: Monday,
February 06, 2006 12:15 PM
Subject: RE: Thank you
Dianna – Given that
you had two interviews, were offered and accepted the job (indeed, you
had a definite start date), I am surprised that you chose an e-mail and
a 9:30 PM voicemail message to convey this information to me. It smacks
of immaturity and is quite unprofessional. Indeed, I did rely upon your
acceptance by ordering stationery and business cards with your name,
reformatting a computer and setting up both internal and external
e-mails for you here at the office. While I do not quarrel with your
reasoning, I am extremely disappointed in the way this played out. I
sincerely wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. — Will
Korman
From: Dianna Abdala
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:01 PM
To:
William A. Korman
Subject: Re: Thank you
A real lawyer would have put
the contract into writing and not exercised any such reliance until he
did so. Again, thank you.
From: William A. Korman
To: ‘Dianna Abdala’
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:18 PM
Subject: RE: Thank you
Thank
you for the refresher course on contracts. This is not a bar exam
question. You need to realize that this is a very small legal
community, especially the criminal defense bar. Do you really want to
start pissing off more experienced lawyers at this early stage of your
career?
From: Dianna Abdala
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:29 PM
To:
William A. Korman
Subject: Re: Thank you
bla bla bla
From: William A.
Korman
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 7:59 AM
To: ‘David Breen’
Subject: FW: Thank you
Did I already forward this to you?
From: David
Breen
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 9:47 AM
To: ‘William A. Korman’
Subject: RE: Thank you
OH MY GOD! Where to begin? First of all, how
unprofessional, and secondly, it is "reap what you’ sow,’" not "sew".
If she is going to use a cliche, couldn’t she at least spell it right?
And WTF is with her "bla bla bla"? Does she not read your e-mail about
it being a small community?! So, finally, can I forward this along to
some folks? I am sure they would love to see how the up-and-coming
lawyers are comporting themselves! (Clearly she did not go to BU!!!) J
From: William A. Korman
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 9:55 AM
To:
‘David Breen’
Subject: RE: Thank you
You can e-mail this to whomever
you want.
———————–
And the rest is history.