Ethics Opinions

Topic: bligations Upon Receiving a Document Not Intended for the Recipient A lawyer who receives a misdirected communication must notify the sender but does not have to destroy or return it. The New York City Bar Committee on Professional Ethics issued Formal Opinion 2012-01 which contemplates the ethical obligations of a lawyer who receives a […]

Topic: Reviewing Employee’s Email Communications with Counsel Using Employer’s Business Email System From the opinion: “Opinion rules that a lawyer representing an employer must evaluate whether email messages an employee sent to and received from the employee’s lawyer using the employer’s business email system are protected by the attorney-client privilege and, if so, decline to […]

Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility   In Formal Opinion 11-459, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility draw from the Model Rules a new duty for lawyers: the duty to warn the client of potential confidentiality concerns, for example when the lawyer knows or should have known that the client is […]

American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility   The full text is available at: http://www.americanbar…

Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct   Topic: General use of technology by lawyers – reasonable precautions to avoid unauthorized access by third parties. Digest of the Committee: “Whether an attorney violates his or her duties of confidentiality and competence when using technology to transmit or store confidential client information will depend on the […]

Topic: Review and Use of Metadata Summary: “Opinion rules that a lawyer must use reasonable care to prevent the disclosure of confidential client information hidden in metadata when transmitting an electronic communication and a lawyer who receives an electronic communication from another party or another party’s lawyer must refrain from searching for and using confidential information […]

Lawyer Disciplinary Board – L.E.O. 2009-01 Approved/entered June 5 and 10, 2009 Topic: Metadada Conclusion of the Board: “The Board finds that there is a burden on an attorney to take reasonable steps to protect metadata in transmitted documents, and there is a burden on a lawyer receiving inadvertently provided metadata to consult with the […]

Professional Ethics Commission Topic: Transmission, retrieval and use of metadata embedded in documents Conclusion of the Commission: “1.     Without authorization from a court, it is ethically impermissible for an attorney to seek to uncover metadata, embedded in an electronic document received from counsel for another party, in an effort to detect confidential information that should be […]

Maine Professional Ethics Commission Topic: Clients Confidence: communications with clients by unencrypted e-mail Conclusion of the Commission: “The Commission concludes that, as a general matter and subject to appropriate safeguards, an attorney may utilize unencrypted e-mail without violating the attorney’s ethical obligation to maintain client confidentiality.” Rules: Code of Professional Responsibility of the Maine Bar […]

Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee Topic: Disclosure, Review, and Use of Metadata Digest of the Committee: “A Sending Lawyer who transmits electronic documents or files has a duty to use reasonable care to guard against the disclosure of metadata containing Confidential Information. What constitutes reasonable care will depend on the facts and circumstances. The duty to […]