“I think it was a case of blind arrogance.”

 Former World Bank General Counsel Roberto Danino on the Paul Wolfowitz scandal

LESSON #1: Selective disclosures compromise the independent judgment of counsel and lead to Swiss cheese legal opinions that offer little protection when the sauce hits the fan.

LESSON #2:  Doggedly pursuing an end result with an “ends justify the means” attitude can blind smart people to important information and typically drives costs much higher than expected.

While on the one hand e-mail encourages people to write, on the other hand it discourages people to write thoughtfully.

Mary Mitchell, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Etiquette as quoted in “‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations,” New York Times, Nov. 26, 2006.

E-mail sign-offs can set the tone of the communication and can even undercut the intent of the message according to Mitchell.  A product complaint letter, for example, sent to a company signed off with “warmly” miscommunicates the customer’s displeasure with the product. 

How true.

Unfortunately, employees unknowingly create potential smoking gun documents everyday when they fail to write thoughtfully.  Slap dash communications create misunderstandings.  Misunderstandings create frustrated customers and deal partners.  They can escalate into lawsuits in a heartbeat or at a minimum detract from the business relationship.

The easiest way to avoid litigation and dented relationships is to write clearly — to say what you mean and mean what you say.  It’s one of my 12 rules for avoiding smoking guns.

For more information about how to avoid smoking gun documents and the benefits of legal literacy please join me for the BNA audio conference on Legal Literacy this Thursday, November 20, 2006.  Reserve your seat today.