We’ve written before about the breadth of the duty of confidentiality we owe to our clients, and how it even extends to matters that you think are safe to discuss because they are of “public record.” (See here and here.) Now comes the ABA’s latest on the subject of lawyer “public commentary” — Formal
ABA proposes changes to lawyer ad rules; but referral-fee issue as to Avvo and others remains open
The ABA is proposing changes to the Model Rules on lawyer advertising, modestly streamlining them and trying to re-establish their relevance to the way lawyers and clients interact in the digital age. The proposed amendments and their supporting memo fail to make any express adjustment for the elephant in the room — on-line referral services
Top legal ethics trends 2018: cyber-safety, the “Uber effect,” and more
Greetings 2018! Time for some ethics trend predictions to kick off the Year of the Dog (according to the Chinese zodiac). Let it be a year in which you doggedly pursue ethical practice (ouch). No more bad puns — here’s what’s hot as we begin the year:
Law firm cyber-security
No surprise here that the
Let’s be friends? FL supreme court asked to decide whether lawyers and judges can be FB pals
The Third District Florida court of appeals got some press this summer when it affirmed an order refusing to disqualify a judge who was Facebook friends with one of the lawyers in a case before her. The court wrote that “a ‘friend’ on a social networking website is not necessarily a friend in the traditional
New Jersey says “no” to Avvo, other on-line legal service platforms
Just last month, we wrote about a North Carolina draft proposal that would ease the way via its ethics rules for Avvo and other on-line legal services to operate there. Now, after a joint opinion from three New Jersey Supreme Court committees, the Garden State has turned thumbs down on such law platforms, citing issues
LinkedIn profile helps draw bar discipline in two states for lawyer who wasn’t licensed
I love LinkedIn, but here’s a potential hazard — what you say there can and will be used against you if you’re engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.
A Colorado lawyer found that out the hard way: he was suspended in Pennsylvania for a year, and got the same discipline in Colorado,
Tech innovation must shape legal practice, ABA Futures Comm’n chair says
What is the future of legal services in the U.S.? How should the enormous unmet need for services — to the middle class and to the poor — be met? Judy Perry Martinez, the Chair of the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services, was in Cleveland last week, and discussed the
Former Uber program to “greyball” riders draws attention to ethics rules
This is a good one for the law school legal ethics class I’m teaching this semester: If a company’s lawyer approves a policy that may be legal in itself, but the lawyer knows that the company will use it to evade the law, has the lawyer violated ethics rules?
An analogous question arose last week
Data breach report says BigLaw is most likely to be hit, and cybersecurity complaint is unsealed
Law firm cybersecurity is in the news again with two developments. First, the latest ABA TechReport says that large law firms were more likely to be victims of a data security breach last year than mid-size or small firms, with one in seven respondents having been hit overall. That’s a big deal. Next, a federal class action complaint in what is thought to be the first suit attempting to base liability solely on a U.S. law firm’s allegedly inadequate cybersecurity was unsealed on December 9. But that suit possibly turns out not to be such a big deal.
Expressing your opinion via social media can create conflict, D.C. ethics opinion warns
If you “like” a political Facebook post, or tweet a comment on a controversial legal topic, are you potentially creating an ethical conflict of interest with your clients who may have contrary interests? The District of Columbia bar ethics committee thinks so, and warns about the risk in its Opinion 370, issued late last month.