[brudgers]

  Re: project 

Is a common subject line from clients. Heuristics that work internally, those that allow emails to be ignored, fall by the wayside when big money detail oriented customer service is the job.

What matters is how the client used email. If it is confusing and more work than it should be, so what? Sucking it up is what legal professionals are paid to do. When a deal crashes, there’s no debug and recompile cycle.

[Jugurtha]

  Re: kickoff

The "rule" also depends on what happens if you don't act. If you're in a large organization and CC'd by default and nothing bad really happens if you don't read your emails because your action is rarely needed, then sure.

If you're CC'd but the work won't be done if you don't read the email, because you are the one who will do the work, then it's not viable to skip CC's.