Social Media and Internet

2021 was a whirlwind! Lawyers have had to be more flexible and resourceful than ever. It is the year that the ups and downs of the pandemic made it abundantly clear that this is more of a marathon than a sprint. While resilience can be invigorating, the challenges are ongoing. The stress of keeping up

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

An Oklahoma lawyer was suspended last month for two years based on misconduct involving an unlawful response to a bad on-line review of the lawyer’s services.  The disciplinary case is a lesson in being careful about who you’re dealing with when you hire a consultant, and also about not doubling down when confronted with a

The blogosphere lit up last week with news that a Florida state court bail hearing for an accused Twitter hacker had been disrupted by a pornographic Zoom-bomb that highjacked the proceedings and beamed sexual images onto viewers screens. (Some coverage here and here, but don’t worry, no pictures.) The seventeen-year-old defendant is accused of

Blogs are a great way to market your legal practice and the more visually compelling the better.  Careless use of social media and its visual impact can spell real trouble, though.  We’ve posted about things to watch out for in responding to on-line reviews, using Facebook and sharing on-line opinions.  Now comes another

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

A prominent Chinese dissident may proceed with his malpractice case against a law firm based on allegations that the firm failed adequately to protect his personal data from hackers, a Washington, D.C. district court said in an opinion on February 20.  In his $50 million suit, the plaintiff, Guo Wengui, alleges that after he retained

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

Can we be Facebook friends?  That’s one question left open by the ABA earlier this month in Formal Opinion 488, on the subject of judges’ personal relationships with lawyers as grounds for disqualification.  While spotlighting judicial ethics duties in maintaining impartiality, the opinion fails to provide some needed guidance on social media relationships.

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