As your ability to respond to emails will usually be restricted during a holiday, you should always ensure that an automated message for your out-of-office facility is activated before departure. Amongst other things, your message should state when you will return and who to contact in your absence. Some suggested wording is set out below (though feel free to inject a little of your own personality if you prefer, especially in any internal automatic reply):
"Thank you for your email. I am out of the office until [date] and will respond to your email upon my return. If the matter is urgent, then you should contact me on my mobile phone [number] or alternatively contact my colleague [name of Keystone individual] on [email] or [telephone]."
You will need to set up appropriate messages to handle emails from within Keystone and all external emails, although there is no reason why the same wording cannot apply to both. Should you wish, the automated facility can be set up to recognise individual email addresses and send a bespoke message that you have drafted for that particular individual. You can set up particular rules in your absence, for example to forward emails containing a particular word or from a particular sender to a colleague. The controls for this are under the tab "Manage Rules and Alerts" in your Outlook. The IT Team can provide a little training on this on request.
Hint: Check with a colleague first before providing their details as an alternative point of contact.
The COLs can, by prior arrangement with agreed supervision, look after appropriate matters in your absence. Please bear in mind the provisions of the Legal Services Act 2007 and the Mazur v Charles Russell decision. Non solicitors can assist with aspects of litigation but cannot conduct litigation' even under supervision.