Behind the Scenes of Urgent Requests
- By : Wong Mei Ying
- Category : Lawyering, Linkedin Post
In legal work, some urgency is expected (hopefully not all the time).
No one has ever said to me, “Take all the time you need to complete the work.”
Most of the time, the instruction is to get the work done by X date, turn it around fast, asap, or some variation of those words. That is fine when the timeline is reasonable, or at the very least, the scope of work is clear.
Once, a lead adviser asked all other advisers to reply to queries urgently by a certain timeline. The problem? The queries were not attached to the email (a small but important detail😆). I had to ask what the queries were.
On one occasion, I was asked to complete an urgent legal due diligence exercise, which was fine, except the documents required for the due diligence were not provided.
In another instance, I received an email requesting a reply within half an hour. While I was reviewing the email and planning the next steps needed to achieve the outcome requested, I received a follow-up email marked URGENT asking for a response.
In my line of work, urgent requests are common. Judgment and clarity are required to achieve the desired outcome. Otherwise, it is all haste and no speed.
This post was first posted on LinkedIn on 4 January 2026.
