The Ethics of ESI: Competence, Confidentiality, and Changing Technology

Originally held on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 | 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

• Description
• Faculty Bios
• Agenda
• CLE Credit
• Sponsors

• Electronically stored information, or ESI, is all-pervasive in our current legal landscape, and its use and misuse can pose serious ethical problems for attorneys. Attorneys use electronic information to communicate with the public and with clients, to advertise their services, and to prosecute and defend litigation. Electronic communications have now expanded to include social media, which creates even more opportunities and risks for attorneys.

  This program will benefit litigators who use and deal with electronic information to advertise, communicate or litigate, whether in solo practice, with a boutique or big law firm, or serving as in-house counsel to a corporation or government agency. The program will address the emerging ethical issues presented by ESI, including its inevitable use in the remote practice of law due to the impact of COVID-19. Specifically, the panelists will discuss attorneys’ ethical duties to competently handle ESI, including protecting client confidentiality, confidential communications, and avoiding inadvertent disclosures. The webinar will also highlight the emerging ethical implications presented by an increasingly virtual practice of law, sometimes with minimal or reduced supervision. Finally, the panel will share their perspectives the impact of remote litigation, virtual representation, and online media platforms on the creation of, or change to existing, ethics rules and requirements.

  Program Fee:
  $99 for Members | $199 for Nonmembers

  Members who are Recent Law Graduates, Newly Admitted Lawyers (admitted for the first time in any state or country 2019-2021), In-House/Corporate Counsel, Judges, and attorney members who practice within the Government, Academic or Not-for-Profit sectors attend this program for free.

• Nicole Lanciais an Attorney with the National Labor Relations Board. She graduated from Georgetown University in 2007, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, magna cum laude, with minors in Spanish and African-American Studies. She then attended Georgetown University Law Center and graduated in 2010. After law school, Nicole joined the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., where she wrote briefs and presented oral argument in several circuit courts seeking to obtain enforcement of Board orders. For the second half of 2013, served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Sex Offenses and Domestic Violence Unit, conducting misdemeanor bench trials, pre-trial detention hearings, and probation show cause hearings. In 2016, Nicole moved back to her native New York to work in the NLRB’s Manhattan office, where she investigated unfair-labor-practice charges under the NLRA, conducts administrative hearings, and negotiates settlement agreements. She now works in the NLRB’s Contempt, Compliance & Special Litigation Branch in Washington, D.C., handling U.S. district court litigation on agency rulemaking and circuit court contempt proceedings. Outside of work, Nicole serves as a co-chair on Phi Beta Kappa New York Chapter’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

  Ronald J. Hedges is a Senior Counsel with Dentons US LLP. He served as a United States Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey for over 20 years. Ron speaks and writes on a variety of topics, many of which are related to electronic information, including procedural and substantive criminal law, information governance, litigation management, and integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, block chain and telemedicine into existing information governance policies and procedures. Among other things, Ron is the co-chair of the Pretrial Practice and Discovery Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation. He is the lead author of a guide for federal judges on electronically stored information. Ron is also the co-senior editor of The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation, Resources for the Judiciary, Third Edition (June 2020). His full biography is available at https://www.dentons.com/en/ronald-hedges.

• 12:00 pm – 12:05 pm
  Introductions & Overview of Program

  12:05 pm – 12:10 pm
  Ethical Rules Involved

  12:10 pm – 12:20 pm
  Expanding Ethical Duties and Use of ESI  

  12:20 pm – 12:40 pm
  Duty of Competence in Handling and Understanding ESI 

  12:40 pm – 1:00 pm
  Duty of Confidentiality in Handling ESI and Client Representation in 2021 and Beyond

  1:00 pm – 1:10 pm
  Virtual Lawyering and Remote Practice: Supervision of Subordinates  

  1:10 pm – 1:20 pm
  Increased Reliance on and Use of ESI in Litigation and Practice Post-COVID — Impact on Ethical Duties of Competence and Maintaining Confidentiality?

  1:20 pm – 1:30 pm
  Q&A Session

• New York: 1.5 Ethics
  New Jersey: 1.8 Professional Responsibility
  California: 1.5 Professional Responsibility
  Pennsylvania: 1.5 Professional Responsibility
  Connecticut: Available to Licensed Attorneys

  Please Note: Newly admitted NY attorneys cannot fulfill ethics or skills credits through our on-demand programs under OCA rules. For more information on this, please see http://www.nycourts.gov/attorneys/cle/changes_for_2016.shtml.

• Sponsorship Opportunities are Available! Please Contact:
  Angie Avila, Manager, Membership Outreach and Sponsorships | (212) 382-6608 | aavila@nycbar.org