Digital Commons Network^™

The Legal Ethics Of Metadata Mining, Andrew M. Perlman

Akron Law Review

Bar associations have produced a number of legal ethics opinions that address the practice of metadata mining. This essay explains the nature of the problem, reviews the ethics opinions that have addressed it, and contends that the issue is simply a variation of the oft-examined problem of inadvertently disclosed documents. The essay concludes that flat bans on metadata mining are misguided and that metadata mining should be treated in the same manner as inadvertent disclosures more generally. Under this approach, if a state permits lawyers to review inadvertently disclosed privileged documents, the jurisdiction should also permit lawyers to review the …

Becoming A Competent 21st Century Legal Ethics Professor: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Technology (But Were Afraid To Ask), Catherine Lanctot

Catherine J. Lanctot

This Article provides a roadmap for rebooting the legal ethics curriculum. It describes how to revise a traditional legal ethics class to respond to twenty-first century law practice, and provides a detailed overview of the landscape of technological issues currently affecting the practice of law, including many cautionary tales of lawyers who ignored their ethical responsibilities.

We have finally hit the tipping point with respect to the use of technology within the legal profession, as bar regulators have begun to warn attorneys that they may no longer plead ignorance of technological advances if such ignorance harms the interests of their …

Email, Metadata, And Clouds, Oh My! Recent Changes To The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Joyce Manna Janto

Law Faculty Publications

A discussion of how the 2012 revisions to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct affect the attorney's duties in handling email: encryption, storage, metadata, and confidentiality.