Biglaw goodbye emails

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to work for the COO of a large big law firm. They hated the all-office goodbyes. I was young and impressionable so I took their lead and when I left I sent an email to about 40 people that I hand picked and let them know they could share my info. 20 years later, I think that was the way to do it.

I think they hate it because it plants in people's minds that you can leave.

[Anonymous]

I used to love them or at least find them non-offensive. Also, you’re going into something non-law firm, give them hope that they can leave too! Seriously, though, I would at least email those people that you’d like to retain your connections with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t send to the whole firm or whole office, but basically to everyone I had ever worked with. (This was a huge office of a huge firm, so my note went to maybe 100 people, but whole office including support staff would have been like 400.)

I kept it fairly short, but went out of my way to praise support staff, including calling out specific departments who no one appreciates, like duplicating. And I got tons of responses from attorneys, not even people in those support roles, telling me how much they appreciated me using my note to thank the staff. So although it wasn’t my purpose in doing it, it helped my reputation in that sense.

a

In my firm, everyone bends over backwards to thank support staff in their goodbye emails. I find this cringe because it’s pretty transparent they are trying to look like a good guy. I also hate when people call out specific attorneys for praise.

PP here. When I thanked support staff in a goodbye email, no one had ever done it before in my memory. I did mean it, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to work for the COO of a large big law firm. They hated the all-office goodbyes. I was young and impressionable so I took their lead and when I left I sent an email to about 40 people that I hand picked and let them know they could share my info. 20 years later, I think that was the way to do it.

I think they hate it because it plants in people's minds that you can leave.

This. My current company does it, and I suspect it’s also to hide higher than desired turnover and cover up for bad managers that keep losing people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to work for the COO of a large big law firm. They hated the all-office goodbyes. I was young and impressionable so I took their lead and when I left I sent an email to about 40 people that I hand picked and let them know they could share my info. 20 years later, I think that was the way to do it.

I think they hate it because it plants in people's minds that you can leave.

I'm in a business field. I like it when people say goodbye officially to me. At a scale that's somewhere between 5 people and "entire business unit of hundreds of people". Let's say 50 people or so. Preferably with an invite to connect on LinkedIn. This lets me know they care enough to welcome further contact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to work for the COO of a large big law firm. They hated the all-office goodbyes. I was young and impressionable so I took their lead and when I left I sent an email to about 40 people that I hand picked and let them know they could share my info. 20 years later, I think that was the way to do it.

I think they hate it because it plants in people's minds that you can leave.

Yep, this is why they hate it. They want to control the narrative around departures/turnover and avoid sparking FOMO among those who are still there.