Friendly Reminders

To me, “friendly reminders” aren’t friendly at all in the context of legal practice. In fact, friendly reminders are often somewhat hostile in intent. When a client sends you a friendly reminder, for example, it conveys annoyance at you for something they think you should have already done. One time, around 9 PM on a Wednesday, I sent a friendly reminder to a client for a file he promised to send me that day so I could complete a project for him by the following morning. He said, “I told you I would send it today and, last I checked, the day isn’t over for another three hours.” I thought that was pretty neat so tried using it myself when a client sent me a friendly reminder.  Next thing I knew, I received a friendly reminder from my partner supervisor to be more friendly to my clients.