Lawyers sometimes forget that, as the American Bar Association has noted, we cannot “take off the lawyer hat” to circumvent ethics rules. Likewise, lawyers are not any less susceptible to discipline for ethics violations just because their conduct takes place on social media instead of the courtroom. These are important rules to keep in
Like it or not, artificial intelligence is not going away and it’s evolving—quickly. While AI talk has been brewing for quite some time, many of us assumed AI’s direct effect on our business was still years off. But over the last year the pace of development and use has accelerated exponentially and it is
Joint representations can present a host of ethical issues for lawyers to navigate including what to do with the clients’ file upon termination of the representation. The NYSBA’s Committee on Professional Ethics recently issued Opinion 1249 which explains that in a joint representation, the presumption is that the lawyer will share confidential information received from
Here’s a newsflash: you can’t defend yourself against a client’s bad online review by revealing client confidential information, as the ABA Ethics Committee reminded us in an opinion last week.
We’ve recently reported on the Oklahoma lawyer who was disciplined for his rogue consultant’s conduct in connection with an online review; a New Jersey lawyer
We’ve noted before that just because information relating to your representation of a client might be publicly available, your duty of confidentiality means that you can’t disclose it if it is not “generally known.” The two concepts — public availability and being “generally known” — are not the same, as a New Jersey lawyer learned
As 2020 kicks off, let’s take a look back at situations that got lawyers into ethical hot water last year. They each point to some ways you can stay out of trouble this year.
1. Talk nicely
As widely reported, calling your opposing counsel a “bowl of d- – ks,” among other epithets is
Disclosing client information on Facebook has gotten yet another lawyer in trouble. A Massachusetts attorney was publicly reprimanded earlier this month for posting details of a guardianship case on the social media site, in violation of the Bay State’s version of Model Rule 1.6 (“Confidentiality of Information”). The Board imposed a public reprimand, rejecting an
As we’ve noted before (here and here), the ethical duty of confidentiality is broad, and can even cover publicly available information. Now comes a reminder that based on the confidentiality rule you should obtain consent before using your client’s name in marketing materials — and that some jurisdictions go even farther. For instance,
We’ve written before about “web bugs” — tracking devices consisting of an object embedded in a web page or e-mail, that unobtrusively (usually invisibly) reveal whether and how a user has accessed the content. Three jurisdictions (Alaska, New York and, most recently, Illinois) have issued opinions pointing to the ethics
Everyone knows that we have an ethical duty of competence, and in most jurisdictions this includes a duty to be aware of the “benefits and risks” of relevant technology. Examples of possible technology issues affecting our practices: encryption (and cyber-security in general), cloud storage, e-mail handling, the internet of things — there