A while ago I was working on a matter with a slightly more senior colleague. We did not work well together, and ultimately he removed from the matter. Since then, I have not been involved, I do not monitor the matter emails, and I have been focusing on the matters I am actually staffed on.
The person who replaced me is away this week. No cover was arranged. Yesterday, a query came in on the matter and the more senior colleague forwarded it to me saying I needed to deal with it. Today he chased again. I had not seen the email because I am no longer on the matter and I receive a very high volume of emails, including on active matters I actually am responsible for.
What concerns me is that this is now being framed as though I failed to respond or refused to help, when from my perspective I was not on the matter, had not been asked in advance to cover, and had no reason to be monitoring the emails.
I am happy to help if priorities are agreed properly, but I do not think it is reasonable to remove someone from a matter and then later assume they are responsible for urgent cover when no proper arrangements were made.
Am I wrong to push back on that?