COURSE DESCRIPTION
Text messaging has become a mainstream form of communication. Clients now routinely text their lawyers about pending matters. They may ask about the status of a case, provide facts about a case, communicate decisions to a lawyer, or message other sensitive information. These messages are often to a lawyer’s mobile phone that is used extensively for personal purposes, unsecured in their transmissions, and easily accessible by third parties. This new wave of lawyer-client communication raises many difficult ethical questions, including preservation of the attorney-client privilege. This program will provide you with a guide to the major ethics issues when lawyers and their clients text message about pending matters.
- Confidentiality issues involving unsecured transmission of texts involving sensitive case issues
- How to handle mobile phones used for both personal purposes and law practice
- Potential loss of the attorney-client privilege when text messages are accessible by third parties
- Tension among the duties of competence, prudence and to communicate with clients
- Understanding the ethical risks and counseling clients about the risks to their case when texting
Speakers:
Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation. Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Brian S. Faughnan is special counsel in the Memphis office of Lewis Thomason, PC, where he represents clients in a wide variety of matters at the trial level and on appeal. He counsels lawyers and law firms on a wide variety of issues surrounding legal ethics and professional responsibility. He is the chair of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, a reporter for the committee’s rules revision project, a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and a member of the Media Law Resource Center’s Ethics Committee. Mr. Faughnan received his B.A. from Rhodes College and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Memphis School of Law.