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71 Md. L. Rev. Endnotes 1 (2011-2012)

handle is hein.journals/endnot71 and id is 1 raw text is: THE NEW LEGAL WRITING: THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING LAW STUDENTS HOW TO USE E-MAIL PROFESSIONALLY KENDRA HUARD FERSHEE* I. INTRODUCTION Anyone who has worked in a legal capacity in the last ten years can attest to the meteoric rise in the use of e-mail as a means of pro- fessional communication. Recent empirical research demonstrates that e-mail is the most common method for professional legal com- munication today.1 Professor Kristen Robbins-Tiscione researched the decline of the interoffice memorandum as a tool in lawyers' ar- senals and the rise of e-mail as a more straightforward and informal medium to convey legal analysis.2 As Professor Robbins-Tiscione de- termined through her research, lawyers have retreated from writing formal memos to instead distilling the salient arguments of their legal analysis into an e-mail that recipients can read and share quickly and efficiently.3 The reality of this change is raising questions in the legal writing community about the usefulness of the traditional written memo and whether legal writing professors should be teaching stu- dents how to distill their analysis into this new, shorter, more direct form of legal writing. The discussion has brought about an even more intense need for legal writing professors to address professional- ism and effective communication in e-mail with their students.4 Copyright © 2011 by Kendra Huard Fershee. * Assistant Professor of Law, University of North Dakota School of Law. 1. See Kristen Konrad Robbins-Tiscione, From Snail Mail to E-Mail: The Traditional Legal Memorandum in the Twenty-First Centuy, 58 J. LEGAL EDUC. 32, 32 (2008) (discussing her survey of practicing attorneys, which showed that the traditional format and substance of the legal memorandum has become nearly obsolete in favor of substantive e-mail as the preferred method for communicating with clients). 2. See id. at 32-33 (discussing a survey of recent law school graduates that revealed they are more likely to communicate with clients through informal media-such as e- mail-than through a formal legal memorandum). 3. See id. (stating that recent law school graduates frequently e-mail informal memo- randa to clients, composed of a statement of the legal issue and the attorney's conclusion or advice, followed by supporting analysis). 4. See Maria Perez Crist, Technology in the LRW Curiculum-High Tech, Low Tech, or No Tech, 5 LEGAL WRITINGJ. OF THE LEGAL WRITING INSTIT. 93, 10 1-02 (1999) (noting that an overwhelming majority of attorneys use e-mail, and that it is imperative that the rules and conventions of professional legal e-mailing be taught in legal writing courses).

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