It’s vacation time, and everyone I know is headed off for somewhere relaxing. This is especially true of lawyers who are always in need of a vacation.

It’s fairly common practice today for attorneys to send an email notifying clients of the time away from the office and providing emergency contact information. That’s a smart practice. I’d encourage you to send the notice a week before you leave so that clients will have a chance to call and get it out of their system before you go.

When you send the notice, be careful not to breach confidentiality. Be sure you don’t inadvertently identify all of your clients to all of your other clients.

How do you make that mistake? I speak from experience: horrible, upset, freaking out, terrible experience.

I’ve put a list of my clients email addresses in the cc field of my email when sending out a mass email notice. Putting the addressees in the cc field makes the addresses visible to everyone receiving the email. They all see one another’s names and email addresses.

Oops. Big, big, oops. Don’t let it happen to you.

Use the BCC field (blind carbon copy) or do it one email at a time. Do a test before you hit the send button. Be especially cautious when sending these emails because this is a very big error. It really undermines client confidence when you make this mistake. It might even result in discipline.

Be sure you really understand what you’re doing when you send these mass emails. Make sure you’re doing it right, and don’t get caught in the pre-vacation rush to get out the door.