Artificial Intelligence, Center For Practice Management, Cloud Computing, Email Management, Productivity

Advanced Gmail Tips for Lawyers

December 22, 2025

Many lawyers use Gmail, whether you’re using Google Workspace or a personal account. Discover how to leverage Gemini AI for drafting and refining emails, streamline your workflow with time-saving templates, and maintain confidentiality with robust security features. From managing unwanted business emails to organizing your inbox for maximum productivity, these tips will help you take control of your email practice and safeguard sensitive information.

Gemini with Gmail

Gmail in the paid Google Workspace, Google One Pro or Ultra, now comes with Google’s Gemini AI. You can summarize lengthy emails, get help with drafting, leverage contextual Smart Reply, and get better search results by using Gemini to search your inbox.

Unsubscribe

Do you get a lot of gray mail? Gray mail consists of newsletters, announcements, promotions, and other emails that aren’t spam but clutter your inbox. Now in Gmail there is a straightforward way to unsubscribe from these emails. Click on “More” under your Inbox and go to “Manage subscriptions”. There, you will see all the emails you receive that you may not be reading. The filter shows the email address, sender, and the number of emails you have recently received. Click “Unsubscribe” to easily stop receiving them. Or, if you want to keep them can always create a label, like “newsletters” and add a filter to bypass your inbox. Here are some other tips for cleaning your inbox.

Email Templates

Gmail has a “canned responses” option if you find yourself copying and pasting from old emails. Enable this feature from the Settings area by going to the Advanced tab and clicking “enable” on the Templates option.

Once enabled, as you draft a new email or email response, click the vertical dots (more) menu and choose “Templates”. You can add the text and save it as a new template. You can also manage existing templates or drop in text from an existing template from this menu. For more info, see this in-depth setup guide for Gmail email templates.

Turn On Two Factor Authentication

Two-factor, or multi-factor authentication, is one of the best things you can do to add an extra layer of security to your account. This additional protection layer is applied to your entire Google account, so head over to https://myaccount.Google.com and login. Under “Security and Sign-In” click 2-Step Verification. Follow the steps to get set up. The strongest security choice is to use an authenticator app like Google Authenticator, or one found in your password manager like Keeper or NordPass. This will require you to input a code from your mobile device whenever you login to your Google account from a new location, but it will vastly improve your email security. Be sure to capture and keep the backup codes in case you lose access to your phone or get a new one.

Confidential Mode

Google’s “Confidential Mode” is NOT a substitute for end-to-end encryption. However, depending on the sensitivity of the email, there are some useful options in Confidential Mode. You can prevent forwarding, copying, printing, or downloading an email or attachment. You can set an expiration date (up to five years) after which time the recipient will lose access to view the contents. You can revoke access to the email at any time, beyond the 30-second “undo” feature. You can also require the recipient to enter a one-time passcode sent via text message to their phone to access the email.

How does this work? First, you’ll need to be using Gmail in your browser, versus accessing it via IMAP or POP protocol on a different email client like Outlook or Thunderbird. Confidential mode holds outbound email on Google’s servers, versus sending it to the recipient’s email server. Thus, you have some control over the recipient’s ability to access information on Google’s servers.

To enable Confidential Mode, compose an email and then, from the menu at the bottom, click the lock icon. This will automatically disable the recipient’s ability to forward, copy, print, or download an email or attachment. You will see options to set an expiration date and/or require an SMS passcode. If you set a passcode, you will need the recipient’s phone number for a device that can receive text messages. A further caveat is that if the recipient does not use Gmail the code will be emailed to them.

If you want to revoke access to the email at any time, go into your sent mail, find the email that you applied Confidential Mode to, open it and click “Revoke Access” in the body of the message. Revoking access removes the message but will not keep someone from reading it if they have already done so. You’ll still need to use “Undo Send” in 30 seconds if you send an email to the wrong addressee(s) or with the wrong attachment.

Google’s Confidential Mode has limitations, including the recipient can screenshot the message. This article has listed seven limitations on Gmail Confidential Mode to keep in mind.

Remove/Add Automated Tabs

By default, Gmail shows three main tabs in your email inbox: Primary, Social, and Promotions. They have also added Updates and Forums. These tabs leverage automated algorithms that sort your mail for you, and they don’t always get it right. You can see which, if any, of the tabs you want to use by going to Settings, clicking “Configure Inbox”, then un-checking the boxes next to any of them.

Gmail has an additional label that has been created, but is not available as a tab. It is called “Purchases” and can be found below the Inbox in the left rail.

Inbox type

Another option for viewing your inbox is choosing your Inbox type. The default shows the newest emails at the top, but you can choose to show unread, important, or starred first. Two other options are Priority inbox and Multiple Inboxes. For Priority Inbox you can choose to have your inbox sorted by important and unread, starred, select “show all from label” and choose emails that have specific automated labels, and then everything else. You can change the order as you wish. Your inbox will then be sorted by these sections, which you expand or contract.

Multiple Inboxes

Another option in the inbox settings is to show multiple inboxes. In the Inbox type choose “Multiple inboxes”. You can then set up to five custom sections based on search criteria. Your inbox will be subdivided into Inbox plus the custom sections you create. In the settings, you can choose to view the custom sections above, below, or the right of your main inbox.

Send Mail As

Do you have multiple email accounts? You can send emails from your Gmail inbox from another email account, including email providers outside of Gmail.

In Settings, select Accounts and Import. Under Add another email address, choose Send mail as. Include the secondary email account on the list, and you’re ready to start sending messages from a different account after verification.

There are a few options to note when you set this up. You can choose to send an email from a different account as an alias. If you uncheck “Treat as alias” this basically lets you manage 2 email addresses in separate accounts or mail systems from your Gmail account. You can also change the reply-to address so that responses go to the other email address. In essence, you can send and receive emails from a different email account all from your primary Gmail.

When you want to send an email from a different account, just compose your message and click the arrow next to your email address in the “From” line and choose the alternate email address. Here are the details from Google Support.

Address + or .

To help create more effective Gmail filters, you can make up email addresses on the fly. For instance, when you sign up for a newsletter, take your base email address e.g. [email protected], and add a plus (+) to create [email protected]. You can then create filters based on that email address, skip the inbox and sent it to a label. Another possibility is to use a dot (.), which you can use by adding it to your base email like this: [email protected]. You could use this variation when you are signing up to get a whitepaper or purchasing an item to help filter the graymail you get after the transaction.

Delegation

You can create a delegate for a shared email account. Delegates have control over your Gmail account to read, delete, and send mail, and edit Gmail settings on your behalf, though they cannot modify your Google account settings or change your password. They can open any message, respond, create filters, change signatures, schedule emails, change Gmail settings and appearance, block accounts, and delete messages.

Each Gmail account can have ten delegates in total.

Create a delegate by opening Gmail on your computer. Select Settings then choose Accounts and Import, then Grant access to your account. Click Add another account and input the delegate’s email address.

Choose Next Step, then Send an email to grant access. The delegate must confirm within a week to assume the new responsibility.

After establishing a delegate, you can now hide or show their name when sending emails, use more labels to track messages, archive your messages, and create rules or filters for automatic email sorting.

Learn more about delegating accounts in Gmail.

Mute a thread

Did you get cc’ed on an ongoing email thread that is irrelevant? You can mute the conversation. Select the email and click on More and then Mute. Gmail will automatically archive the thread. If any of the recipients add you to a CC or write to you directly, the email will go back to your inbox.

Learn More

Here are a few additional posts about how lawyers can leverage Gmail From the Center:

Conclusion

Efficient email management is essential for lawyers juggling busy practices. By using Gmail’s organizational tools like templates, inbox customization, and automated filters, you can save time, reduce clutter, and keep your workflow running smoothly. Make these strategies part of your routine to boost productivity and stay on top of your communications.