• videocam On-Demand Webinar
  • card_travel Ethics and Specialty Credits
  • schedule 90 minutes

Working Remotely and Safeguarding the Attorney-Client Privilege: Legal Ethics

Preventing Inadvertent Waiver, Maintaining Confidentiality and Privilege in a Work From Home Environment

$197.00

This course is $0 with these passes:

CLE
ALL
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About the Course

Introduction

This CLE course will prepare attorneys to comply with the fundamental rule that a lawyer must not reveal information relating to a client's representation unless the client has given informed consent when the attorney must work in unusual conditions, such as when forced to relocate on short notice to a non-office or home environment, to work remotely, and in an open-office configuration.

Description

All jurisdictions have some version of the ABA's Model Rule 1.6, which provides that a lawyer "shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client." The duty of confidentiality is much broader than the attorney-client privilege.

An attorney must not disclose any information communicated in confidence by the client nor any information related to the representation, regardless of the source. There is no exception in the rule for "publicly available" or "generally available" information. However, some states exclude from the definition of "confidential information" information that is known to a sizeable percentage of people in the local community, trade, or field.

Attorneys, therefore, have conformed their conduct and outfitted their regular workplaces to meet these obligations and make compliance second nature. From time to time, however, attorneys and their clients find themselves unexpectedly and by necessity working from a new location, using unfamiliar tools, in temporary workspaces not optimized for confidentiality and under acute personal and professional stress.

Listen as the panel discusses ways lawyers working remotely, at home, or in open-offices can inadvertently disclose confidential information and ways to mitigate those risks.

Presented By

A. Neil Hartzell
Partner
Freeman Mathis and Gary, LLP

Mr. Hartzell is a Partner in Freeman Mathis & Gary’s Boston and Providence offices. He serves as Chair of the firm's Intellectual Property practice team and as Vice-Chair of the firm's Media practice team. Mr. Hartzell is a trial and appellate lawyer and has extensive experience in a broad range of matters, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil litigation including commercial disputes, construction, Anti-trust, class actions, false claims act and state whistleblower, eminent domain litigation, real estate, securities litigation and investigations, FINRA proceedings, directors and officers, business torts, trade secrets, copyright, trademark, patent, civil RICO, insurance coverage, including environmental and bad faith claims, medical device litigation, contract actions, civil rights, aviation, workplace and employment related matters, including discrimination claims, ERISA, construction, and environmental including Chapter 21E and CERCLA claims, banking litigation, creditors and debtors in bankruptcy proceedings, claims involving accountants, attorneys, design professionals as well as governmental investigations. Mr. Hartzell has represented parties in zoning and permitting matters, and parties in loan workouts, including forbearance agreements, loan sales, related litigation and bankruptcy.

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David Lefkowitz
Attorney
The Lefkowitz Firm, LLC

Mr. Lefkowitz has been handling Atlanta legal malpractice claims for 25+ years. Several years ago, he was invited to be an Adjunct Professor at UGA School of Law, where he teaches legal malpractice law, ethics and risk management. Mr. Lefkowitz handles claims on behalf of multi-national, publicly traded companies, small businesses and individuals, all having been significantly damaged by the errors or omissions of their lawyers. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and his law degree from the Emory University School of Law. Mr. Lefkowitz carries the highest rating from Martindale-Hubbell (AV) which is given only to those attorneys with the highest legal ability and adherence to professional standards of conduct, ethics, reliability and diligence. 

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Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Tuesday, June 2, 2020

  • schedule

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  1. Duty of confidentiality
    1. Individual clients
    2. Organizational clients
    3. Over-inclusion on email and conferencing
    4. Prospective clients
    5. Continuation of the duty after the attorney-client relationship ends
  2. Confidentiality vs. attorney-client privilege vs. work product
    1. Authority
    2. Coverage
    3. Operation
    4. Responsibility
    5. Duration
    6. Improper release/breach
  3. What constitutes a breach of confidentiality
    1. Are all breaches of confidentiality equal?
    2. Protecting the attorney-client privilege in emails, videoconferencing, texting

The panel will review these and other essential matters:

  • Model Rule 1.6, ABA Formal Opinions 479 and 480, and state law comparisons
  • Reasonable precautions to prevent information from getting into the hands of unintended recipients
  • What level of competency in cybersecurity is required by Model Rule 1.6
  • The duty to protect information that could lead to the discovery of confidential information
  • How the concepts of confidentiality, attorney-client privilege, and work product are related but different