A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.

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NC Bar Council issues final opinion on the cloud

The use of cloud computing products by lawyers in their law practices is an emerging trend — and one that presents unique ethical issues for lawyers who intend to store confidential client data on servers owned and operated by third parties.

A number of ethics committees across the country have offered their take on the issues presented, but none have wrestled with this issue for quite as long as the North Carolina State Bar Council. The council has been drafting (and re-drafting) its opinion addressing this issue for nearly 1 1/2 years now, having released a number of proposed drafts for public comment.

Finally, at long last, the council issued its final opinion, 2011 Formal Ethics Opinion 6 (online: http://tinyurl.com/ncsaas), on Jan. 27. The opinion answered 2 questions: 1) May a law firm use SaaS (Software as a Service — a form of cloud computing)? and 2) Are there measures that a lawyer or law firm should consider when assessing a SaaS vendor or seeking to minimize the security risks of SaaS?

Long story short, the council gave the use of law practice management platforms based in the cloud its stamp of approval.

Specifically, the council concluded that reasonable care must be taken to protect confidential client information: “(A) law firm may use SaaS if reasonable care is taken to minimize the risks of inadvertent disclosure of confidential information and to protect the security of client information and client files. A lawyer must fulfill the duties to protect confidential client information and to safeguard client files by applying the same diligence and competency to manage the risks of SaaS that the lawyer is required to apply when representing clients.”

The council emphasized the lawyers who take advantage of utilizing emerging technologies such as cloud computing law practice management systems in their practices have an obligation to stay abreast of changes in technology. In other words, adopting new technologies into your law practice is not a one-time endeavor, but rather, is a continuous learning process — and an important one at that.

As for the second issue — what steps lawyers must take when utilizing cloud computing services — the council declined to establish specific standards since “mandatory security measures would create a false sense of security in an environment where the risks are continually changing. Instead, due diligence and frequent and regular education are required.”

Although the council did not require that lawyers comply with specific requirements, the opinion set forth a number of suggested security measures, including: 1) that, in the event of a cessation of service, the contracts with the provider include information regarding how the cloud computing vendor will handle confidential client data; 2) that the contracts provide for a method of retrieval of data from the cloud computing provider in a readable, non-proprietary format; 3) that the lawyer carefully review the contracts with the provider and understand the security issues presented; 4) that the lawyer carefully evaluate the security measures used by any company involved in the hosting of the lawyer’s confidential client data, including “firewalls, encryption techniques, socket security features, and intrusion-detection systems;” and 5) that the lawyer thoroughly evaluate the provider’s data back up procedures.

Finally, of particular import was that the council recognized that absolute security is an impossibility and thus is simply not required. Oftentimes, the battle cry of lawyers opposed to using cloud computing platforms to store confidential client data is that such platforms are not, by their very nature, secure since third parties have access to the data.

However, as acknowledged by the council: (W)hile the duty of confidentiality applies to lawyers who choose to use technology to communicate, ‘this obligation does not require that a lawyer use only infallibly secure methods of communication.’ Rather, the lawyer must use reasonable care to select a mode of communication that, in light of the circumstances, will best protect confidential client information.”

Although it took the North Carolina State Bar Council almost two years to reach this decision, the good news is that the end result is a fair and thoughtful opinion that allows North Carolina lawyers to take advantage of emerging technologies like cloud computing in their law practices.

This opinion is an improvement over prior drafts and it is evident that the council listened to and incorporated recommendations from commenters. So, kudos to North Carolina for its hard work and its balanced take on this issue.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and GigaOM Pro Analyst. She is the author of the ABA book Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors the ABA book Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York, a West-Thomson treatise. She is the founder of lawtechTalk.com and speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology. She publishes four legal blogs and can be reached at nblack@nicoleblackesq.com.

A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.

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iPad Apps for the Traveling Lawyer

If you’re a lawyer with an iPad or an iPhone and you travel frequently, this article was written just for you. In it you’ll learn about the latest travel apps and how you can use them to make your travels more organized, pleasurable and relaxing. 

First, use your mobile device (many of these apps are available for Android devices as well) to plan your trip. Download Kayak and Trip Advisor, both of which are free and available for either the iPhone or iPad. Use the Trip Advisor app to read your fellow travelers’ reviews of hotels, restaurants, and attractions at your chosen destination. You can then use that app to book a flight or hotel reservation. Or, if you want to compare prices offered by hundreds of different travel sites, use Kayak to book your flight, hotel and car reservations. 

Then, download the TripIt app, a free app for both the iPhone and iPad. Forward all of your itinerary confirmation emails to TripIt, so that you’ll have all of your itineraries for your trip in one place, easily accessible via your mobile device.

Next, prepare for your trip. Get ready for the airport security checkpoint by downloading the free My TSA app. This app is issued by the Transportation Security Administration and provides quick access to everything you need to know about the airport security process, including wait times at various airports and other useful information such as TSA procedures and which items you can take through checkpoints.

If you are traveling internationally, there are three useful apps that you should consider. First, there’s the SmartTraveler app issued by the U.S. Department of State. This free app offers “updated official country information, travel alerts, travel warnings, maps, U.S. embassy locations, and more.” 

Two other free apps useful for international travel are iTranslate, which provides translation for over 50 different languages via voice recognition and speech output, and the Currency app, which provides up-to-date currency exchange information. 

Once you arrive at the airport, take advantage of the GateGuru, a free iPhone app. This app  provides maps of major airport terminals, including restaurants and stores, along with citizen reviews of various businesses located in the terminal.

While waiting for your flight, catch up on the latest legal news using any number of free apps, including the LexisNexis Legal News app, the ABA Journal’s app or Findlaw’s legal news app.

Once you arrive at your destination, find a place to eat based on reviews from other diners using the Yelp or Urbanspoon free apps. Then, make reservations using the OpenTable app and hail a taxi using the Taxi Magic app.

For free information about other businesses, including stores, gas stations, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. near your hotel, try the Around Me app. And if you’re interested in learning about local events or excursions, the Goby app is just what you need.

Finally, make sure to have the free Fastcase app available in case you need to conduct last minute legal research and be sure to download one of the many free scanner apps as well. That way, if necessary, you can scan documents using your iPhone’s camera and then email PDFs of the documents to your office.

These days, air travel isn’t always the most pleasant experience, especially in this post-9/11 era. But at least there are mobile apps available to help streamline the process by putting all the information you need right at your fingertips. While air travel will never be perfect, these apps should help to make the process less stressful and more enjoyable.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and GigaOM Pro Analyst. She is the author of the ABA book Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors the ABA book Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York, a West-Thomson treatise. She is the founder of lawtechTalk.com and speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology. She publishes four legal blogs and can be reached at nblack@nicoleblackesq.com.

A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.

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Law practice management in the cloud

Now that my latest book, “Cloud Computing for Lawyers,” has been published, I’ve got cloud computing on my mind. Cloud computing, where your data and software are stored on servers owned and maintained by a third party, offers solo and small firm practitioners many benefits, including affordability, flexibility and agility.

Of course, there are also many ethical and security issues presented when lawyers allow third parties access to confidential client data, and for that reason, some lawyers are hesitant to use cloud computing platforms in their law practice.

However, the tide is beginning to turn, as evidenced by last year’s release by LexisNexis of Firm Manager, a cloud-based legal practice management platform. When a company as familiar and well-established as LexisNexis sets its sights on cloud computing, it’s a strong evidence that the use of cloud computing products by lawyers is a concept that has staying power.

Another sign that legal cloud computing is coming of age — just last month, Clio, another company that provides cloud-based law practice management software, announced that it raised $6 million in its Series B round of financing. That’s no small chunk of change and offers further proof that the future of legal cloud computing services is sunny, indeed.

There’s a reason that law practice management software is leading the way toward a future where cloud-based legal software is commonplace. This is because cloud-based law practice management suites are very appealing to law offices, since, in theory, these products allow lawyers to run every aspect of their practice — from billing to calendaring and internal communications — using just one program from any computer with Internet access. The problem is that these products are relatively new to the market and do not yet interface seamlessly with other software products and systems frequently used by lawyers, so the transition to using a cloud-based law practice management suite can sometimes be a bumpy one.

However, one of the benefits of cloud computing is that it allows software developers the much-needed flexibility to make improvements to their interface quickly and efficiently. Instead of releasing annual software updates based on last year’s customer input, cloud developers can respond to feedback within weeks of receiving it and implement changes to the platform that are then instantaneously available to customers.

Legal cloud computing vendors do this all the time and are constantly improving their products based on customer feedback. For example, last month, Rocket Matter, another cloud-based law practice management platform, announced the release of a major update that makes it easy for users to create new legal documents by merging their client and matter data already stored in Rocket Matter with template legal forms.

Similarly, MyCase, one of the newest cloud-based law practice management platforms, issued an update in November that allows for batch uploading of documents and earlier this year, released a new feature allowing each user to upload an avatar, so that the already very user-friendly interface looks and feels more like social networks such as Facebook, with which we’re all so familiar.

In fact, as I learned during a demo of MyCase last week, the collaborative nature of the interface is what makes this platform so unique. MyCase provides law firm clients with a secure portal through which they can access case files and communicate with their attorneys. MyCase also allows attorneys and support staff within the firm to communicate with one another about cases and clients on this intuitive and easy to use platform.

In other words, in addition to offering billing, time tracking, calendaring and document management functions, MyCase provides a secure and user-friendly environment for all law firm and client communications, thus obviating the need for lawyers to use email, which is inherently unsecure. As I’ve discussed in the past, although email has received the blessings of ethical committees across the U.S., it is the security equivalent of sending your confidential client data through the U.S. Postal Service via a postcard. MyCase solves this problem by including a seamless communications feature right in its platform.

As you can see, legal cloud computing products are constantly improving. In due time, I’m quite confident that the ethical and security issues will be ironed out and ethics committees will continue to give the green light for the use of these platforms by law firms. As this shift toward the acceptance of cloud computing occurs, it will become obvious to lawyers that the benefits of using cloud computing platforms in their law practice will far outweigh the drawbacks.

Of course, I could be wrong. Only time will tell, so tune in tomorrow and see.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and GigaOM Pro Analyst. She is the author of the ABA book Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors the ABA book Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York, a West-Thomson treatise. She is the founder of lawtechTalk.com and speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology. She publishes four legal blogs and can be reached at nblack@nicoleblackesq.com.