How and When Attorneys May Use Unencrypted Email and When They Must Take Special Security Precautions
Data security is your responsibility even if you don’t understand how it works.
Ever since law firms began using computers, there have been concerns about whether attorneys must or should use special security measures, like encryption, to protect confidential and sensitive information. Changes in ethical and procedural rules, including the requirements that lawyers must (1) be technologically competent, and (2) redact court filings, highlight the need for lawyers to be proactive when handling everything from email to smart phones to their office technology.
This one hour ethics CLE program will explore and provide practical tips about attorneys’ duties to safeguard electronic communications, including:
- Competence and confidentiality in the use of technology
- Ethical and legal duties for handling electronic data
- What is encryption, and how and when to use it
- When, and by what methods, attorneys may attachments containing “information relating to representation of a client”
- Threats to the security of electronic data and communications
- An easy to understand explanation of encryption
- Options for securing electronic data and communications
- How and when attorneys may use unencrypted email and when they must take special security precautions when required by a client, by rule, by law, or when the nature of the information requires a higher degree of security
- Practical tips to safeguard confidential and sensitive data
Hosted By: Daniel J. Siegel
On: April 20, 2023
Time: 1 p.m.
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Ethical Issues Relating to Smartphone Use
Smartphones are in reality powerful computers that store massive amounts of data, potentially including information that lawyers are required to keep confidential under the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct.
This one hour ethics CLE program will discuss the data stored by smartphones, and the dangers created by apps that can access information that is supposed to remain confidential, including names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and more.
The program will focus on how lawyers can protect confidential information and information about clients under Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 1.4 and 1.6. In addition, attendees will learn how with a few easy steps they can secure their devices and deny access to apps that could improperly access and use the information stored on the phones.
Hosted By: Daniel J. Siegel
On: April 26, 2023
Time: 1 p.m.
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Ethical Issues for Lawyers & Firms When Lawyers Depart
This seminar will deal with the ethical, legal, and fiduciary dilemmas that lawyers (and firms) face when a lawyer has decided to leave the firm, including:
- Can lawyers take clients with them?
- If so, what are the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct that apply?
- What can and should law firms do to protect their business interests?
Key topics to be discussed in this one-hour ethics CLE:
- When lawyers want to take clients to the new firm
- Conflicts of interest
- Fiduciary concerns
- Business concerns
- Technological concerns
- Duties the departing lawyer owes to the firm
- Duties a departing lawyer owes to a client
Hosted By: Daniel J. Siegel
On: May 11, 2023
Time: 1 p.m.
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Cybersecurity 101
Cybersecurity issues are scary, and for many people, the language itself seems foreign. If that is you, then this is the class to take. Taught by ethics attorney Daniel J. Siegel, this is a basic how-to class that will explain the basics of cybersecurity that lawyers need to know, and provide practical tips that you can implement immediately. No cyberspeak or computer jargon. This webinar program is approved for one ethics CLE credit in Pennsylvania.
Hosted By: Daniel J. Siegel
On: May 25, 2023
Time: 1 p.m.
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Why You Should Attend
Life can throw curveballs at us quickly and unexpectedly. A serious illness or injury – to ourselves or an immediate family member – can mean having to suddenly walk away from a law practice, whether long term or even permanently. If that happened to you, do you have a plan in place? Will your client matters be transitioned and handled properly? Will those working for you get paid? Will you (or your family) get your share of any unpaid or residual fees that come due?
Lawyers have an ethical obligation to diligently handle client matters, and to assure the efficient transition of those matters should they become disabled or die. Despite this obligation, many attorneys do not have succession plans in place, and many states do not specifically require attorneys to have such a plan or to designate a successor attorney. For solo and small firm practitioners in particular, an unanticipated closing of a practice can result in adverse, unethical, and even dire financial consequences to the attorney, their family, colleagues, and their clients. Don’t let that happen to you!
What You Will Learn
In this one-hour ethics CLE, Attorney Daniel J. Siegel, Chair of the Pennsylvania Bay Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, whose practice focuses on professional responsibility and law firm technology will discuss the applicable Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct implicated by the duty to have a succession plan, including Rule 1.3 (Diligence), Rule 1.15 (Safekeeping of Property), and Rule 1.17 (Sale of a Law Practice). He will also outline the basics of lawyer succession planning, including:
- transition of active matters, including documenting what events can trigger a transition and the scope of work
- transition of closed files and firm data
- compensation for successor counsel, including fee division agreements
- best practices, such as creating office manuals with key information and maintaining an up-to-date calendar of deadlines
This webcast on law firm succession planning will benefit all lawyers in the private sector, regardless of firm size or practice area.
Hosted By: Law Firm Succession Planning (Ethical Issues)
On: June 15, 2023
Time: 1 p.m.
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Adobe Acrobat – Tips & Tricks to Improve Your Workflow
PDFs have become the standard for creating, analyzing, storing, and exchanging digital documents, for filing documents in courts with electronic filing systems, and for many other uses. Join Pamela A. Myers and Daniel J. Siegel, authors of The Ultimate Guide to Adobe Acrobat DC, Second Edition, for this educational and informative program.
The authors and speakers will discuss tips to use Adobe Acrobat more efficiently and offer some “tricks” for getting more out of the software. This one-hour CLE program offers lots of information to make lawyers, paralegals and everyone else who uses Adobe Acrobat more efficient.
Hosted By: Daniel J. Siegel & Pamela A. Myers
On: June 22, 2023
Time: 1 p.m.
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