Quote from B on February 25, 2023, 5:47 pm

Hi Guys!

Context

I am a lawyer. I was entrusted by a group of owners of apartments in a condo with recovering documents and monies from a counterparty.

I sent two legal warning letters to this counterparty and, in response, obtained the documents my client was requesting (but not the monies, so far).

I then sent an email to my client informing it of the good news, and included a fee quote for the lawsuit to recover the monies in court.

My "client" is the whole condo, but I sent my emails to a group of four people: the condo manager and three "delegates" (the two of them who exchanged the emails below being Mark and Jim).

The email thread

This thread of emails then ensued in response to mine (I didn't respond to any of these, as they were fired in a rather quick succession):

1. Mark responding to me

Mark: Dear Bel,

great news! Thank you!

So we can now proceed with the lawsuit to recover the monies?

Kind regards

(My thinking here was: Mark was not asking this to me but to the condo manager, since in my email - to which he was replying - I had included my quote and said I awaited approval. So I didn't reply)

2. Condo manager responding to Mark and me

Condo manager: Good day to all. Thanks a lot Attorney Bel excellent and quick result!!! Now I can quickly close accounts. So Attorney may I ask how should we go forward now so that if we need to provide for something in a meeting of the condo I will quickly do so. Thank you a lot for your effort and availability and I remain at your disposal for any need. Also please let me know if there are fees due to You and I will settle them immediately.

(My thinking: very kind, I think she was grateful I solved a problem she had that was making her job difficult. But, before I could reply, Jim wrote the email below)

3. Jim, bypassing the email by the condo manager and responding just to Mark's email under no. 1 and to me

Jim: Good day,

I would submit the decision how to proceed to the condo meeting.

I thus await a convocation by the condo manager... plus the other themes we have open

(my thinking: very disrespectful... especially to the condo manager to whom he was talking indirectly)

4. Mark to Jim

Mark: Good day,

the condo meeting has already decided on this the last [date].

So the manager can already entrust the Attorney with the lawsuit.

I personally think we should not wait more.

5. Jim to Mark

Jim: Good day,

First I don't remember what was written in the decision... I will verify, in any case:

• we were talking of a criminal action and I don't think this has been done
• the decision was not supported by a fee quote at the time so we should approve it

So to better evaluate, in light of these, in the next meeting.

(context: the criminal action was out of time, and I told them so at the outset when they contacted me. But Jim is being very disrespectful both to the manager and to me)

6. Condo manager, bypassing Jim's email under 5 and responding to Mark's under 4

Condo manager: Good day, we are in absolute agreement on this. I was asking to Attorney Bel how to proceed concretely... thank you all and have a good weekend.

7. Condo manager now answering Jim's email under 5

Condo manager: Sorry I only read Mark's email...

On seeing emails no. 6 and 7 by the condo manager, I suppose she returned the "ostracizing" power move to Jim (who first did it to the manager with email no. 3, when he responded to Mark but bypassed the condo manager).

What I did

I thought about how to respond to this whole email thread, but ultimately decided to call the condo manager on the phone.

On the phone, I told the manager I preferred to align with her directly instead of "fueling the email thread".

I then told her what the alternatives were, and that whether to submit the decision and my fee quote again to the condo meeting or not was their choice; if they did, this could be the opportunity to adopt a decision that included some more monies to be requested to the counterparty.

She told me she preferred not to resubmit the decision to the condo meeting, as a previous meeting had already decided to go against the counterparty, and that she would wait some days and then directly send me a formal approval to my fee quote.

Question

During this whole email thread, Jim (I feel) was subtly disqualifying both the condo manager's performance and mine.

Did I do the right thing in "staying out of the email thread altogether" here? Or should I have intervened in the discussion at some point? And if so, how?

My take is: after this whole exchange my responding would have "dignified the attacker" (Jim).

And, at this point, I also think I should wait for the manager's email, and only then thank her for her thanks. In some ways, by calling her on the phone I paid “respect” to her.

Happy to read any thoughts on this.

EDIT: I now also called Mark, and he told me Jim was behaving curtly with everybody in the condo, and everybody is getting distance from him.