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The Pitfalls of Technology and Communication

Posted on May 26th, 2010 by Mark C. Goldenberg

This is going to be risky. Anytime a baby boomer speaks out regarding technology, they are painted as an old curmudgeon who is afraid of progress. That couldn’t be further from the truth. As the Managing Partner of our Firm, I have made every effort to maintain pace with technology both personally and as a Firm in order to help our clients and grow our business. Our Firm is probably one of the few in the area that allows our employees access to their Facebook accounts during business hours. As people adopt new ways of communicating with each other, it’s important to make sure you keep pace and encourage your employees to do so as well.

However, I fear we have lost the ability to differentiate when various forms of communication are better utilized than others. While I think voicemail, email, texting and tweeting are wonderful, sometimes you just can’t replace leaving a personal message, speaking on the phone or having a face-to-face conversation.

As an attorney, most of my time is billed hourly. It’s of the utmost importance that I am flexible in my modes of communication both to satisfy my clients’ preferences and to ensure I am efficient with my time. After all, my time is your money. And that is a relationship I take very seriously. That’s why we’ve made the effort at GHAR to ensure that when you call, a live person who sits in our offices answers the phone. When dialing me directly, my assistant Melissa is happy to patch you through, take a message or send you into voicemail. So if I’m unavailable and you need to explain the nature of your situation to a person rather than just leaving a voicemail, you have that choice.

The reason I’m writing this is because I saw an email communication go horribly wrong, with dire consequences on each side, and it never would have happened if either party had just picked up the phone. As a commercial attorney, I understand more than anyone the benefits of rapid, documented communications. And for that, email has no equal. But let us not forget that sometimes casual, undocumented communication is what is called for and I for one hope that we aren’t forgetting how to do that.

In the future I’ll follow this up with a post detailing how to use email in a way that protects your legal interests.

Please feel free to contact the author, Mark Goldenberg, to discuss this topic or for a free consultation.