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 […]
Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Searching inadvertently sent metadata in opposing counsel’s electronic documents From the digest: “A lawyer who receives from an adversary electronic documents that appear to contain inadvertently produced metadata is ethically obligated to avoid searching the metadata in those documents. (…) Using the metadata is appropriate in circumstances where the adversary […]
Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Use of E-mail Service Provider that Scans E-mails for Advertising Purposes Digest of the Committee: A lawyer may use an e-mail service provider that conducts computer scans of e-mails to generate computer advertising, where the e-mails are not reviewed by or provided to human beings other than the sender and […]
Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Topic: Rights of Access, Possession and Copying, Along with Retention Considerations From the Opinion: “This Formal Opinion supersedes all prior inconsistent opinions of the Committee and should be reviewed for guidance by Pennsylvania lawyers when they are opening, closing or taking other action with respect to the contents of […]
Committee on Ethics, Ethics Docket No. 2007-09 Topics: metadata (set “in the context of litigation” but “general in nature”) From the Opinion: When transmitting a document with metadata, “absent an agreement with the other parties (such as is contemplated in proposed Federal [Rules] 16(b)(5) and (6)), the sending attorney has an ethical obligation to take […]
Arizona State Bar Association Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct Topic: Confidentiality; Electronic Communications; Inadvertent Disclosure Conclusion of the Committee: “Lawyers who send communications or other documents electronically must be aware that such activity has inherent risks. Therefore, the lawyer must take reasonable measures to prevent the inadvertent disclosure of confidential client information. At […]
Alabama State Bar Office of General Counsel, Disciplinary Commission Topic: Disclosure and mining of metadata Digest of the Commission: “Lawyers have a duty under Rule 1.6 to use reasonable care when transmitting electronic documents to prevent the disclosure of metadata containing client confidences or secrets. Absent express authorization from a court, it is ethically impermissible […]
Professional Ethics of the Florida Bar Topics: metadata; duties of a lawyer when sending an electronic document to another lawyer and when receiving an electronic document from another lawyer in the course of representing their clients. Summary: “A lawyer who is sending an electronic document should take care to ensure the confidentiality of all information […]
Topic: Electronic storage and access of client files From the Opinion: “We are reluctant to render an [sic] specific interpretation of RPC 1.6 or impose a requirement that is tied to a specific understanding of technology that may very well be obsolete tomorrow. Thus, for instance, we do not read RPC 1.6 or Opinion 515 as imposing a […]