The California State Bar has published its newest ethics opinion, FEO 2010-179, related to the use of technology in law practice, specifically addressing the attorney’s duty of confidentiality to clients when using technology that may be accessed by a third-party.  Given the wording of the opinion, this could include everything from an attorney using wireless to connect [...]

I’m excited to announce the formation of the Legal Cloud Computing Association (LCCA).  See the formal press release below my comments.  About two years ago when I was owner of VLOTech, Larry Port of Rocket Matter reached out to me, Jack Newton (Clio) and Richard Granat (DirectLaw) about forming a group to address the concerns [...]

Alabama State Bar Ethics Opinion 2010-02, “Retention, Storage, Ownership, Production and Destruction of Client Files” This opinion addresses the following issues: 1) file retention policies; 2) how long a file should be retained; 3) what constitutes a client’s file; 4) what parts of the file can be destroyed; 5) the ethical considerations related to electronic [...]

Last week during a guest lecture on virtual law practice at the University of Dayton School of Law, the subject of protecting client property and confidentiality of client data in electronic communications came up again.   My prediction (perhaps overly optimistic) is that in the next few years the state bars will recognize that unencrypted email communication between attorney [...]

Entitled “Ethical Obligations on Maintaining a Virtual Office for the Practice of Law in Pennsylvania”, the PA Bar Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility published its FEO 2010-200 this month.  The opinion is in stark contrast to the out-dated thinking in the ethics opinion discussing virtual law offices published this past spring by its neighboring state of [...]

The ABA has published a short description of its efforts to examine the impact of technology, including cloud computing & SaaS, social media and websites, and has released a new ethics opinion related to attorney websites.   Last week I wrote a post about the Commission’s call for comments related to cloud computing and protecting client confidences.  On October 14th, [...]

This afternoon the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 sent an email through the listserv announcing a public hearing in mid-October in Chicago.  The Commission is looking for comments on two topics: 1) “Client Confidentiality and Lawyers’ Use of Technology” and 2)  “Lawyers’ Use of Internet Based Client Development Tools.”  I’ve uploaded the first of these [...]

The final guest post in my three-part series for the Massachusett’s Law Office Management Assistance Program (LOMAP) has posted on the blog.  This final post covers ethics considerations in virtual law practice including both the attorney’s responsibility to thoroughly research their software provider as well as best practices for the ethical management of a virtual [...]

Oh, yet another excuse to not take responsibility for individual action and blame it on the technology instead.  *sigh*  Seriously, this article just annoyed me to no end.  The National Law Journal published an article entitled “Lawyers’ Ethical Stumbles Increase Online” and then proceeded to give the most outrageous example of an incredibly irresponsible attorney using email to share [...]

UPDATE:  I received an email from the ethics committee with the following information: If you would like to submit a comment on the proposed opinion regarding cloud computing, the deadline is July 9, 2010 and the comment should be directed in writing to Alice Mine at the N.C. State Bar. Further information on the ethics opinions [...]