Environmentally conscious e-mail signatures are in vogue these days. Almost everyone has seen that little graphic of a tree along with the admonition, “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.” Regardless of how one views the morality of harvesting farmed pine trees to make paper, at least part of the sentiment expressed by tree-hugging e-mailers is worth considering: Do we really need to print e-mails? Do we, in fact, need much of the paper we maintain?
The paperless office seems something of a holy grail. Some lawyers declare they already have achieved this goal, although I suspect their claims are somewhat exaggerated. Original signatures must be maintained for wills and for certain agreed motions and settlements. The weaknesses in a draft brief are easier to spot by reading a printed copy. And that glowing screen can get tiresome when there are reams of cases to review.
