On October 17, 20180 the American Bar Association issued ABA formal opinion 483 addressing attorneys’ ethical obligations after a data breach that involves information relating to the representation of a client. According to the Opinion, compliance with the obligations imposed by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct depends on the nature of the […]
Topic: Lawyers’ Obligations After an Electronic Data Breach or Cyberattack “Model Rule 1.4 requires lawyers to keep clients “reasonably informed” about the status of a matter and to explain matters “to the extent reasonably necessary to permit a client to make an informed decision regarding the representation.” Model Rules 1.1, 1.6, 5.1 and 5.3, […]
In Formal Opinion 2015-193 the State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (“California Ethics Committee” or “Committee”) discussed three of the duties applicable to attorneys involved in e-discovery: the duty of competency, the duty to supervise, and the duty of confidentiality. The Committee advised that the duty of competency required attorneys […]
Author discusses why “Rule 4.4(b) provides no immediate protection to confidential information in the inadvertently disclosed document”. Mentioned Rule: 4.4(b) New York Code of Professional Responsibility The full text of the document is available at http://www.bryancave…
We think of electronic discovery as mainly used in big cases, but discovery of electronically stored information (ESI) can be extremely important regardless of the size of the case. However, how can lawyers accommodate the need for discovery of ESI with the practical and financial restraints that apply to small cases? A useful volume that […]
From the Article: “The increasing number of data theft and espionage incidents in cyberspace has been widely reported, and law firms have become particularly attractive targets. One data security company reports that 10% of the advanced cyberattacks it investigated in the past 18 months were targeted at law firms.” The full text is available […]
52 Hofstra Law Review 175 (2013) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2378492##; Chapman University Law Research Paper No. 13-17. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2378492 From the author’s abstract “When lawyers receive a document — whether hard copy or an electronic document — that they know the adversary sent them inadvertently (for example, a fax or email mistakenly sent to an adversary […]
The court held that a lawyer who received inadvertently produced documents is ethically permitted to submit them to the trial court under seal. From the Opinion: “Unlike the court of appeals, we do not find that a receiving party who presents the information under seal to the court thereby violates Rule 26.1(f)(2) by using the information […]
Metadata refers to information embedded in electronic documents, such as date of creation, author of the document, changes made to the document, author and date of changes, when the document was last saved, and comments to the document. In ABA Formal Opinion #06-422, the ABA Committee advised that a lawyer who received a document from […]
Inadvertent Production of Privileged Information in Discovery in Federal Court: The Need for Well-Drafted Clawback Agreements, 64 S.C. L. REV. 581 (2013), http://www.nathancrystal.com/pdf/ClawbackAgreements.pdf