MCLE CREDIT
Total General: .50 Total Professional Responsibility: .50
In accordance with Illinois Rule of
Professional Conduct 1.1 and Comment [8], a
lawyer must provide a client with competent representation, which requires a
lawyer to keep abreast of changes in the law and its practices, including the
benefits and risks associated with relevant technology. Moreover, Illinois Rule
of Professional Conduct 1.6 and Comment [18] prohibits, generally, lawyers from revealing information relating to the
representation of a client, and requires lawyers to make reasonable efforts to
prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of, or unauthorized access
to, such information. This is why it is incumbent on lawyers to
ensure their documents are secure from alteration and the information contained within documents is not inadvertently disclosed. This module will teach you some simple practices to help you and your firm comply with these ethical obligations when using some of the most common software - Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word.
In this module, you will learn:
- the ethics rules that require you to be aware of relevant technology that relates to the security of electronic documents;
- how you can better protect electronic documents from alteration; and
- how you can lessen the likelihood that client information contained within electronic documents is disclosed inadvertently.
RESOURCES:
Video Demonstrations
Available at https://www.isba.org/ethics. ISBA Advisory Opinions on Professional Conduct express the ISBA interpretation of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in response to a specific hypothesized fact situation and do not have the weight of law and do not constitute legal advice.
Obligations when using cloud-based services (ISBA Op. 16-06, Oct. 2016)
ABA Formal Opinions
The opinions issued by the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility are based on the ABA Model Rules. The laws, court rules, regulations, rules of professional conduct, and opinions promulgated in individual jurisdictions are controlling. See ABA Jurisdictional Rules Comparison Charts, which shows how the rules of each jurisdiction compares with the ABA Model Rules.
Securing Communication of Protected Client Information (ABA Op. 477R, May 2017)
Video Demonstrations
- PDF - Watermark
- MS Word - Watermark
- MS Word - Restrict Editing
- Remove Metadata
- Document Redaction
- PDF - Password Protect
- PDF - Document Inspection
- PDF - Digital Signature
- MS Word - Compare Documents
- Esign on the Dotted Line (Catherine Sanders Reach, N.C. Bar Ass’n, Jan. 18, 2022)
- Exposed! What Lawyers Need to Know About Metadata (Catherine Sanders Reach, N.C. Bar Ass’n, Jan. 4, 2022)
- The Cost of Not Upgrading Technology (Catherine Sanders Reach, N.C. Bar Ass’n, Oct. 12, 2021)
- Staying Up to Speed on Security (Catherine Sanders Reach, N.C. Bar Ass’n, Sept. 14, 2021)
- Three Ways to Securely Share Documents Electronically (Catherine Sanders Reach, N.C. Bar Ass’n, Dec. 1, 2020)
- (More) MS Word Tips for Lawyers (Catherine Sanders Reach, N.C. Bar Ass’n, Oct. 6, 2020)
- Control (Microsoft) Word (Catherine Sanders Reach, N.C. Bar Ass’n, Nov. 19, 2019)
- Seven Things Every Litigator Must Know About Metadata (Christian E. Dodd, Legal Fuel, Dec. 27, 2019)
- Improve Your Microsoft Word Skills (Legal Fuel, July 10, 2018)
- Dropbox for Lawyers and Law Firms: The User Guide (Legal Fuel, May 27, 2016)
- Using The Cloud Securely (Legal Fuel, Nov. 13, 2018)
- Document Redaction Using Adobe Acrobat (Dario Diaz, Legal Fuel, Mar. 13, 2017)
- Enabling Two-Factor Authentication Can Help You Keep Client Data Safe (Legal Fuel, Sept. 18, 2017)
Available at https://www.isba.org/ethics. ISBA Advisory Opinions on Professional Conduct express the ISBA interpretation of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in response to a specific hypothesized fact situation and do not have the weight of law and do not constitute legal advice.
Obligations when using cloud-based services (ISBA Op. 16-06, Oct. 2016)
ABA Formal Opinions
The opinions issued by the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility are based on the ABA Model Rules. The laws, court rules, regulations, rules of professional conduct, and opinions promulgated in individual jurisdictions are controlling. See ABA Jurisdictional Rules Comparison Charts, which shows how the rules of each jurisdiction compares with the ABA Model Rules.
Securing Communication of Protected Client Information (ABA Op. 477R, May 2017)
Credits:
Content Contributors: Catherine Sanders Reach, Director for the Center for Practice Management, North Carolina Bar Association and Britney M. Bowater, Sr. Counsel, Ethics Education, ARDC
Important MCLE Notice: This Program was originally released as a PMBR (2022-2023) module. If you have previously viewed this Program as a PMBR (2022-2023) module and received a Certificate of Completion, you may only claim MCLE credit once for this Program within a 12-month period. The ARDC reports individual attorney attendance to the MCLE Board by the 5th of the month subsequent to the date of completion of the MCLE program (for example, September events will be reported by October 5).
Content Contributors: Catherine Sanders Reach, Director for the Center for Practice Management, North Carolina Bar Association and Britney M. Bowater, Sr. Counsel, Ethics Education, ARDC
Important MCLE Notice: This Program was originally released as a PMBR (2022-2023) module. If you have previously viewed this Program as a PMBR (2022-2023) module and received a Certificate of Completion, you may only claim MCLE credit once for this Program within a 12-month period. The ARDC reports individual attorney attendance to the MCLE Board by the 5th of the month subsequent to the date of completion of the MCLE program (for example, September events will be reported by October 5).
