Litigation associate screwup Forum

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

Litigation associate. Sent opposing counsel an internal tracker with my own markups and opposing counsel is now claiming that my typos are evidence of sanctionable misconduct from the client. They’re not – it’s my own comments unrelated to client.

Really stressed and wondering if any other associates have made similar mistakes.

Immediately contact the senior attorney/partner on the matter and candidly explain everything. Do not attempt to resolve it on your own or conceal any aspect of it from the senior people on the team. Shit like this happens. It sucks but if you're fully transparent it shouldn't be too bad.

[Anonymous User]

Litigation associate. Sent opposing counsel an internal tracker with my own markups and opposing counsel is now claiming that my typos are evidence of sanctionable misconduct from the client. They’re not – it’s my own comments unrelated to client.

Really stressed and wondering if any other associates have made similar mistakes.

Immediately contact the senior attorney/partner on the matter and candidly explain everything. Do not attempt to resolve it on your own or conceal any aspect of it from the senior people on the team. Shit like this happens. It sucks but if you're fully transparent it shouldn't be too bad.

Biglaw litigation partner. Agree with escalating to the partner or whatever senior you report to. Also, not legal advice and not something you should do without consulting with a partner, but you should send a clawback email ASAP - the tracker you sent is work product that you inadvertently disclosed to opposing counsel and something that most states require them to delete if you promptly claw it back.

[Anonymous User]

Litigation associate. Sent opposing counsel an internal tracker with my own markups and opposing counsel is now claiming that my typos are evidence of sanctionable misconduct from the client. They’re not – it’s my own comments unrelated to client.

Really stressed and wondering if any other associates have made similar mistakes.

Immediately contact the senior attorney/partner on the matter and candidly explain everything. Do not attempt to resolve it on your own or conceal any aspect of it from the senior people on the team. Shit like this happens. It sucks but if you're fully transparent it shouldn't be too bad.

Biglaw litigation partner. Agree with escalating to the partner or whatever senior you report to. Also, not legal advice and not something you should do without consulting with a partner, but you should send a clawback email ASAP - the tracker you sent is work product that you inadvertently disclosed to opposing counsel and something that most states require them to delete if you promptly claw it back.

Agree (but not legal advice). Call cell phone numbers for partners/seniors on the case until you reach someone about this as it should be resolved ASAP. If you can't reach them, call your firm's GC or someone in a similar position. It will all be fine as long as your honest and diligent.

After the dust settles, definitely spend some time thinking about how to avoid this in the future. My $0.02 is to:
1) Never hit reply all and then attempt to remove opposing counsel (or anybody for that matter). Instead hit forward and populate the necessary emails yourself.
2) Talk to your firm's IT group to see if you can get notifications when sending an email outside your firm and don't make a habit of ignoring those notifications. I double check the to list whenever one pops up.
3) Hold off on populating addresses in a draft email until you're literally about to send. You never know when you'll accidentally fire away.
4) When sending an email to a client or opposing counsel (at a minimum), open all attachments once before sending. That way, you can avoid sending something you didn't mean to.

[Anonymous User]

Op here. thanks for input. flagged everything for the partner and she called the otherside up to explain. seems like its more or less resolved, but very embarrassed.

[Anonymous User]

Op here. thanks for input. flagged everything for the partner and she called the otherside up to explain. seems like its more or less resolved, but very embarrassed.

As long as you don't do it again and I promise they will all forget it happened.

[12YrsAnAssociate]

This post gives me the cold sweats.

[RaceJudicata]

Litigation associate. Sent opposing counsel an internal tracker with my own markups and opposing counsel is now claiming that my typos are evidence of sanctionable misconduct from the client. They’re not – it’s my own comments unrelated to client.

Really stressed and wondering if any other associates have made similar mistakes.

Immediately contact the senior attorney/partner on the matter and candidly explain everything. Do not attempt to resolve it on your own or conceal any aspect of it from the senior people on the team. Shit like this happens. It sucks but if you're fully transparent it shouldn't be too bad.

The right answer for this, and any similar situations. Shit happens, chin up.