The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Prof. Responsibility has published a new ethics opinion, Formal Opinion 11-459 “Duty to Protect the Confidentiality  of E-mail Communications with One’s Client”. I didn’t see this one coming, but I think it’s a move in the right direction. The situation described in the opinion relates to when an attorney has [...]

If you will happen to be in or near Columbia, South Carolina on September 23rd, please consider joining me for the SC Bar’s 2011 Solo & Small Firm CLE and Annual Meeting entitled “Exploring the Business Side of Law Firms.” There will simultaneous tracks on law office technology and practice management, with sessions ranging from cloud [...]

After co-presenting a cloud computing session at ABA TECHSHOW with Tom Mighell, author of iPad for Lawyers, I was finally convinced to integrate a tablet into my virtual law practice. Most of my hardware is mobile except for a larger monitor in my home office which I hook up to my laptop when I work [...]

Last week The Law Society of British Columbia’s Cloud Computing Working Group published online a report with recommendations regarding the use of cloud computing by legal professionals. Recommendations included in the report include: 1)      Guidelines to help lawyers conduct due diligence in researching a technology providers and cloud-based solution.  (The report refers to “third party [...]

The Ethics Committee at the North Carolina State Bar voted to send the proposed formal ethics opinion 6 (FEO 6), entitled ”Subscribing to Software as a Service While Fulfilling the Duties of Confidentiality and Preservation of Client Property” back to the subcommittee to reconsider responses they received to inquiries #1 and #2. Both of these inquiries contained worrisome [...]

I love SaaS.  I depend on SaaS to operate my virtual law office.  I support an attorney’s right to choose their own practice management tools and make their own business decisions whether it’s in the cloud or in a filing cabinet.  But there are responsibilities that come along with choosing any practice management system and [...]

Below is the text from my letter to the NC Bar Ethics Committee regarding their proposed ethics opinion on the use of Software as a Service (SaaS) in law practice management.  The Committee has received only two comments so far.  This is an important issue that will have a big impact on attorneys in NC and potentially elsewhere [...]

Below is a short and to-the-point article that I drafted for the NC Bar Association’s Technical Advisory Committee after our last meeting discussing the proposed NC Ethics Opinion on SaaS.  I wasn’t critical of the opinion at first, until I spoke with a few SaaS vendors and others who explained their positions in greater detail [...]

UPDATE: CHECK OUT THIS POST by Erik Mazzone, Director of the Center of Practice Management at the NC Bar Association, on his Law Practice Matters blog.  Erik is concerned that the proposed opinion will limit the cloud-based vendors that attorneys in NC can use based on the location of their servers.  While most legal SaaS [...]

The New York State Bar Association published its Report on the Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession on April 2, 2011. Written for the practitioner rather than the IT consultant, the report provides suggested guidelines for the adoption of technology solutions as well as a discussion of current trends. The report devotes [...]