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Email Disclaimers From Hell (or Salomon Smith Barney)
Posted by Ernest Miller on Thursday, September 05 @ 18:03:28 EDT Legal Technology
Law.com is running an interesting article on the growth of email disclaimers (Wall Street Buzzword: 'Disclaimer'). The article notes that every email sent from the Salomon Smith Barney research division comes with an 873-word disclaimer. The article continues:
For instance, Credit Suisse First Boston attaches an eye-popping 1,500-word disclaimer to all its research in both print and e-mail; Goldman, Sachs & Co. weighs in at 987 words; Merrill offers 749 words and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., 617.
So far, Salomon is the only major investment bank that automatically attaches the statement to e-mail, regardless of content, from its research department. Most of its rivals append the disclaimer only to research.
This is ridiculous. Sure, electronic transmission makes it easy to add massive amounts of text to every email, but just because it is easy does not make it a good idea. In fact, I would think that indiscriminately shipping around major amounts of "disclaimers" will only reduce the disclaimers effectiveness. I fear that this trend will soon grow beyond Wall Street; the digital world makes it too easy to add massive amounts of "small print" to every transaction. A better solution has to be found.
 
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