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In Re Anonymous, No. 45S00-1301-DI-33 (IND, April 11, 2014) On April 11, 2014 the Indiana Supreme Court concluded that an Indiana attorney (whose name was not disclosed – “Anonymous”) should be privately reprimanded because of his affiliation with a referral website (“Law Tigers”) that posted testimonials and distributed promotional material that did not contain an […]

Hunter v. Virginia State Bar, 744 S.E.2d 611 (2013), deals with the question of whether blogs are subject to the rules of professional conduct. Attorney Hunter, a criminal defense lawyer, wrote a blog on his firm website discussing recent cases of interest in Virginia, most of which were cases Hunter successfully handled. The Virginia State […]

On June 21, 2017, the New Jersey Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, Committee on Attorney Advertising, and Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law opined that New Jersey lawyers may not participate in the Avvo legal service programs “because the programs improperly require the lawyer to share a legal fee with a nonlawyer”. The Committees […]

Topic: Attorney Advertising and LinkedIn   Digest: “An attorney’s individual LinkedIn profile or other content constitutes attorney advertising only if it meets all five of the following criteria: (a) it is a communication made by or on behalf of the lawyer; (b) the primary purpose of the LinkedIn content is to attract new clients to […]

On March 2, 2015, the Committee on Professional Ethics of the New York State Bar issued Opinion 1049 providing guidelines on how lawyers could respond to potential clients’ who has posted a question on a discussion-based website (such as Reddit and Twitter) asking to be contacted about a particular legal problem. Digest: “A. Where a […]

On March 10, 2015, the New York County Bar Association (NYCLA) issued opinion Formal Opinion 748 to offer guidance on whether a lawyer can ethically maintain a LinkedIn profile and when it constitutes advertisement. According to the opinion, attorneys may maintain profiles on LinkedIn but they must ensure that all information and endorsements in their […]

Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: The ethical implications of attorney profiles on LinkedIn From the digest: “Attorneys may maintain profiles on LinkedIn, containing information such as education, work history, areas of practice, skills, and recommendations written by other LinkedIn users. A LinkedIn profile that contains only one’s education and current and past employment does not […]

Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Solicitation Digest of the Committee: “Where a potential client posts a message on a website asking to be contacted by a lawyer about a particular legal problem, a New York lawyer may respond in the manner invited by the potential client.  A response invited by the potential client does not […]

On Tuesday, September 23, 2014 at 12:30PM in NYC, at LFS (11 Broadway, Conference Room A) Nathan M. Crystal will speak about ethical use of social media, discussing in particular the recent NYSBA’s recent guidelines on the ethical use of social media. Topics covered will include: Guidelines regarding social media and attorney advertising Restrictions on providing legal advice through […]

Hardly a day goes by without another bar opinion or court decision dealing with ethical issues in the use of technology, particularly social media.  Lawyers need help in assimilating and digesting this deluge of information.  Of course, that is why we created www.technethics.com, where we strive to post major pronouncements dealing with ethics and technology. […]