Tag Archives: Client Confidentiality

Legal Ethics and Conflicts of Interest – What Is Your Professional Duty?

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Confidentiality, Confidentiality, Conflict of Interest, Ethics, Lawyer Supervision, Legal Ethics, Paralegals/Legal Assistants, Rules of Professional Responsibility, Supervising Support Staff

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Regardless of whether you are a lawyer, judge, or paralegal, have you kept a list of every case on which you have worked? Does it include all the parties or only your client?

Christine Simmons recently posted an interesting article in the New York Law Journal in which the Court disqualified a White Plains attorney’s representation of his client. The attorney’s paralegal had, in the past, been involved with the opposing party. For this reason, the Court ruled to vacate the settlement due to tainted negotiations.

So back to my original question – when you were hired, did anyone ask you to look at the firm’s active client list to determine whether you had a conflict of interest? Shouldn’t this especially be the case if your practice is limited to only one or two specific areas of law where you often get repeat business from your clients?

Often, when a firm signs on a new client, it will run a conflict check through its database. It likely also sends an email to all the attorneys asking whether any have a conflict with this particular client. Are support staff and/or the IT Department included in this inquiry? Shouldn’t they if they will have access to the file or any communication with the client, regardless of what role they play in the preparation of the case?

Although every legal professional, lawyer and paralegal, are aware of their ethical obligation to confidentiality and conflicts of interest, how many of us have a complete list of every client and/or parties in each case we have ever worked? Should we? -CCE

You Could Be Unintentionally Violating Client Confidentiality In Public.

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in Confidentiality, Legal Ethics, Legal Technology, Technology

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If You Are Reading This Over Public Wi-Fi, You Are Probably Putting Your Clients’ Information At Risk, Lawyerist Insider, Lawyerist.com©

http://tinyurl.com/ltl8fox

Most legal professionals know that conversations about a client’s case should never happen in a public place. Regardless, there are times when we seem to forget. If you have ever eaten in a popular restaurant close to the courthouse, then I will bet you’ve overheard trial and settlement strategy openly discussed within earshot during lunchtime. This post discusses what should be obvious – keep all confidential information about clients private, not public. -CCE

On several occasions, I have overheard lawyers talking very loudly on the phone to their clients. Coffee shops, of course, but courthouse bathroom stalls seem to be an especially popular place to hold attorney-client phone conversations at length and in great detail, quite loudly. While inadvertent disclosure does not void the privilege, talking loudly from a public bathroom stall is only ‘inadvertent disclosure’ in the sense that the lawyer is a dumbass.

Using public wi-fi without taking appropriate security precautions isn’t quite as bad as discussing settlement strategy in the bathroom at opposing counsel’s firm, but it’s not too far from it. A couple of weeks ago I was curious to see how easy it actually is to see what other people connected to a public wi-fi router are doing. I found out it is really easy. In a couple of minutes, I got explicit instructions that let me scan the network for other computers, pick one, and see the websites it was accessing. I didn’t even have to install anything on my MacBook.

It’s so easy that you could do it, too. It’s so easy that plenty of people are doing it, every day, probably on the public wi-fi networks you use.

Before you send or receive client information over a public wi-fi network (by email, for example, unless you know your email connection is secured), read Lisa’s post, ‘Beware Public Wi-Fi When Accessing Client Information.’ Don’t be the lawyer talking loudly in a public bathroom — er, wi-fi network.

What Is A “Zero Knowledge” Cloud And Why You Should Care.

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Clouds, Confidentiality, Document Retention, Law Office Management, Legal Ethics, Legal Technology, Malpractice, Technology, Technology

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‘Zero Knowledge’ Encrypted Cloud Service Sees Business Boom, by Steven Nelson, U.S. News & World Report

http://tinyurl.com/q9fj4l8

If you have been paying attention, you have heard about “zero knowledge” clouds — and you are thinking about changing from Drop Box or other clouds that can access the information you put in them. If you know nothing about zero knowledge clouds, don’t stop here. Read more about them, and decide whether it is time for your firm to change to a more secure cloud platform. -CCE

File-storing service SpiderOak says it’s experiencing a business boom – rapidly nearing one million users and doubling its site metrics in six months – amid a constant trickle of news reports revealing Internet surveillance by the government.

Files stored using SpiderOak are encrypted and their contents unknown – and unknowable – to the company. Sharing such files will soon be ‘zero knowledge,’ too, as the company prepares to roll out Crypton, its open source app-building framework, which will be publicly available within the next couple months.

‘Essentially what we did was we inverted the Internet,’ says CEO Ethan Oberman. ‘We created a world where the server is actually a big dumb machine. It only sees encrypted data blocks.’

A free version of the file-hosting service offers 2 GB of storage in exchange for a name, email address, username and password.

‘We don’t really fact check that information,’ Oberman says.

The company does know the IP address of users, he says, but IP-masking browsers – such as Tor – can conceal that information as well, making it possible to store files without disclosing any identifying information.

If the government were to come to the company with a valid legal demand for data, Oberman says, ‘We could turn over the data, but it is literally in encrypted data blocks and not decryptable by us. The only way it’s decryptable is if you have the key, which we do not maintain.’ . . .

Use Safe Smart Pro App to Secure Your Sensitive Data.

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Apple, Apps, Cell Phones, Confidentiality, iPad, iPhones, Legal Ethics, Legal Technology

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App of the Week: Smart Safe Pro – Secure Sensitive Data on Your iPhone, by Lisa Pansini, Legal Productivity Blog

http://tinyurl.com/lxzhvrw

Regardless of whether you use your iPhone for docketing or receive emails from clients, legal ethics require that information about your clients be treated as confidential. And guess what, there’s an app for that. -CCE

Smartphone data is sacred to many. The mere thought of another human being infiltrating the privacy of their devices is enough to bring them to their knees. Rejoice, over-protective iOS user, for there is Smart Safe Pro ($2.99).

Secured with a AES-256 encryption, Smart Safe Pro operates as your digital vault, allowing you to secure passwords, photos, credit cards, and other documents. All this can be done without having to put a password lock on your device (but you can still have one if you really want it!)

You can choose between a PIN code, dot lock, numeric or alphanumeric passcode. The app can also send break-in reports with photo and GPS data via email, just in case someone tries to worm their way into your private data (requires in-app purchase). As if that wasn’t enough, the app also comes with a decoy login mode to throw potential snoopers for a loop. . . .