Post has a reassuring quality. You can see it before you sign it, think about it a bit more before approving it, and have a printed copy on your file for ease of reference.

Email, by contrast, isn’t tangible; it’s common to have second thoughts after responding in haste; and you can’t be sure whether or not it has been received.

No, post is much safer, let’s stick with that. But is that the right way of doing things in this day and age? Is it what clients want?

Provided you have secure systems, email is safe for most business purposes. Your clients are increasingly likely to deal with just about everyone else by email. When other entrants move into the legal market, they will not use the postal service wherever it can be avoided. Lawyers sticking to this method will be conspicuous as old-fashioned and out of touch with the rest of the business world.

The benefits of using email as a matter of course are practical as well as reputational. Even if every letter you send to a client or another firm is posted on the day it is approved, you add at least one working day to the time the transaction will take - three days if the recipient responds in similar fashion. When you are busy, you might prefer the breathing space that posting a letter gives you, but is this commercially viable? You can easily add ten or more days to a transaction by foregoing email. This slows down your turnover and inhibits your cash flow.

Don’t underestimate postage costs either. Conservatively, in an average matter you might write at least 20 letters that could have been sent by email - £7.80 for each transaction. Let’s say your firm completes 200 matters a month; that amounts to £18,720 a year. Add stationery and print costs and you are easily exceeding £20,000.

You will not be alone in moving with the times. I am aware of a City firm of solicitors that reduced its volume of post by 95% in five years.

Try making email your default mode. Get that trumpet out for the ‘Last Post’.