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3 21-12 ethical challenges for mobile practice
1. Ethical Challenges for Mobile
Practice
Jonathan I. Ezor
jezor@olshanlaw.com
Olshan
CLE Lunch Seminar
March 21, 2012
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2. Electronic Communications Crucial
for All Businesspeople
• Multiple channels of electronic business communication
– E-mail
– Text messages
– Web sites
– Videoconferencing
– Social media
– Others
• Can be one-way, two-way or multipoint
jezor@olshanlaw.com
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3. Common Challenges of Electronic Business
Communication
• Addressing and attachment errors
• Lack of nuance & tone
• Heightened expectations of responsiveness
• Informality
• Compliance
• Management
jezor@olshanlaw.com
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4. Attorneys’ Ethical Obligations
Add to Challenges
• Rules of Professional Conduct impact on attorney
communication
• Lawyers must ensure compliance with those as well as
with good business practices
• Substantial risks for failures
• Risks beyond formal ethics issues
jezor@olshanlaw.com
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7. Concluding Paragraph from ABA
Technology Proposal
• Technology can increase the quality of legal services, reduce the cost of legal
services to existing clients, and enable lawyers to represent clients who might
not otherwise have been able to afford those services. Lawyers, however, need
to understand that technology can pose certain risks to clients’ confidential
information and that reasonable safeguards are ethically required. The
Commission’s proposals are designed to help lawyers understand these risks
so that they can take appropriate and reasonable measures when taking
advantage of technology’s many benefits….
jezor@olshanlaw.com
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8. Attorneys: Confidentiality is Not a
Privilege
• Attorneys required to maintain confidentiality
• Encryption not (yet) required for e-mail, but must
take appropriate precautions
• Failure can lead not only to sanctions, but real-
world consequences for clients
• Problem can be compounded by lack of IT
resources
jezor@tourolaw.edu
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9. Cloud and Other Remote Storage
• Remote storage and applications newly
relevant
• Connect desktop and mobile devices to
enterprise-level resources
• Ethical concerns particularly over
confidentiality
jezor@olshanlaw.com
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12. Home Office Ethical Issues
• Wireless network security
• Physical security
• “Bona Fide Office” and residency
requirements
– NY Judiciary Law §470
– Schoenefeld v. New York
jezor@olshanlaw.com
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15. Mobile Devices & Telecommuting:
Additional Confidentiality Risks
• Attorneys carry entire client files, critical documents on
tablets, smartphones & laptops
– Easily lost or stolen
– Often not protected with passwords
• Many use unsecured public wireless networks
• Public computers (hotels, business centers) can store info.
in memory
jezor@tourolaw.edu
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22. Best Practices:
Know Technology & Encrypt Data
• Understanding and using security features critical
– VPN
– Passwords
– Remote wipe
– Screen privacy filters
• Encrypt whenever possible
– Truecrypt
– SSL connections
• Work closely with IT professionals
jezor@olshanlaw.com
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