/ 22 April 2005

Young Dutch lawyer makes e-mail blunder

Even for his fellow lawyers, a Dutch law-school graduate may have gone a bit too far in expressing a desire to strike it rich.

Reinder Eekhof, a freshly minted lawyer, recently wrote in an e-mail that he had ”finally finished this stupid education”, and was ”now looking for someone crazy enough to dump a suitcase full of money in my lap every month”.

The e-mail was meant for a friend at the Houthoff Buruma law firm. But Eekhof mistyped the address and his missive landed in the inbox of someone in the human resources department instead.

That person forwarded it, and soon the e-mail was being read at law firms across The Netherlands.

”Good luck with your career,” wrote one lawyer who saw the e-mail. Another noted that ”the advantage is that now everyone in the legal profession in Holland knows your name”.

Still, it appears Eekhof’s e-mail hasn’t turned off law firms looking for a young lawyer to fill their ranks.

”We’re having him in for an interview about an internship,” said Marry de Gaai Fortman, managing partner at Houthoff. ”But I understand he’s also in talks with several other firms about a job.” — Sapa-AP