ABA Formal Opinion 483. Lawyers’ Obligations After an Electronic Data Breach or Cyberattack

On October 17, 2018, the American Bar Association issued Formal Opinion 483, Lawyers’ Obligations After an Electronic Data Breach or Cyberattack, which addresses the duties and obligations to inform clients when a data breach or cyberattack occurs.

Under the Duty of Competence the lawyer has an obligation to monitor for a data breach, stop the breach and restore systems, and determine what occurred.

There are five factors guiding the lawyer in the duty of confidentiality: the sensitivity of the information, the likelihood of disclosure if additional safeguards are not employed, the cost of employing additional safeguards, the difficulty of implementing the safeguards, and the extent to which the safeguards adversely affect the lawyers' ability to represent clients.

The lawyers' obligations to provide notice of data breach are spelled out for current and former clients.

Breach notification requirements address the type of breach, the sufficiency of disclosure to allow the client to make an informed decision, and as a best practice the lawyer should inform the client of the plan to respond to the data breach.

Should PII, or personally identifiable information be compromised, the lawyer should evaluate the obligations under state and federal law.

Formal Opinion 483 relies upon Model Rules 1.1, 1.4, 1.6, 5.1 and 5.3 and Formal Opinion 477R (Securing Communication of Protected Client Information).

A copy of Formal Opinion 483 may be accessed from the ABA.
https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/aba_formal_op_483.pdf

A listing of state security breach notification laws may be accessed from the National Conference of State Legislatures. http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/security-breach-notification-laws.aspx

The Texas state laws affecting data breach may be accessed in the Texas Business & Commerce Code at §§ 521.002, 521.053

How to Conduct FREE Legal Research Online: A FREE CLE Program in Dallas

Please join the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress at the Renaissance Dallas for a FREE CLE program on how to conduct legal research online. Librarians, lawyers, students, and researchers are encouraged to attend.

How to Conduct FREE Legal Research Online

Friday, February 8, 2013 ▪ 9:00am to 11:00am

Renaissance Dallas ▪ Lone Star 3, 4th Floor

This free program will focus on the legal research services and resources available from the Law Library of Congress, as well as several other free online collections. Following a general overview of the Law Library and its services available to lawyers, librarians, and researchers around the world, there will be an explanation of the organization and content of Congress.gov and THOMAS, the Library of Congress's federal legislative information sites, which together contain the full texts of House and Senate bills and resolutions, the Congressional Record, and much more, starting with the 101st Congress (1989‐90). Special emphasis will be given to Congress.gov, which was launched by the Library of Congress in September 2012, and is in an initial beta phase, with plans to transform the Library of Congress's existing congressional information system into a modern, durable, and user‐friendly resource. Eventually, it will incorporate all of the information available on THOMAS.

Learn about the Law Library's global research services, its vast collections in 195 languages from over 220 jurisdictions worldwide, and its expert staff equipped to answer your legal research questions.

The program will also highlight other free, yet trustworthy, online legal collections and search engines, such as the U.S. Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System (FDsys), Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute, the University of California, Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project, HG.org, FindLaw, Justia, LexisWeb, Google Scholar, and a number of others products.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Familiarity with the specialized services, websites, collections and expert legal research staff available from the Law Library of Congress free to all including solos, practicing lawyers, librarians, researchers and those new to the profession;

2. Understanding of the organization, structure, content, and search strategies to perform time‐saving legal research in Congress.gov and THOMAS and other free legal databases from your own computer wherever you are in the world; and

3. Interactive research demonstrations and explanations of websites and other research products produced and maintained
by the Law Library of Congress as well as other authoritative Web‐based collections and useful search engines.

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to your colleagues, students, etc.

For more information and to RSVP, please contact Jinny Choi at 202-662-1694 or jinny.choi@americanbar.org 

Freel Online Research Tools for Lawyers

National Law Day: ABA's President Bill Robinson delivers a Law Day Message

The Rise (and Fall?) of Big Law Firms

60 Apps in 60 Minutes 2012

iPhone JD has presented a list of 60 apps at the ABATech Show in Chicago, IL.

ABA Free Legal Research Training Session in New Orleans, LA

ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress Offers Free Training Session on How to Conduct Free Legal Research Online in NOLA Next Month

Hat tip to Amy E. Horton-Newell, Director, ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress for calling this interesting education and professional development opportunity to my attention.

The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress will host a free training program on how to conduct free legal research online at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans on Friday, February 3, 2012. Librarians, lawyers, law students and researchers are encouraged to attend.

Program Details

How to Conduct FREE Legal Research Online
Friday, February 3, 2012
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Royal Sonesta Hotel, Fleur de Lis A, Lobby Level

This program will focus on the legal research services and resources available from the Law Library of Congress and other free online collections. Following a general overview of the Law Library and its services, there will be an explanation of the organization, structure and content of the two leading websites maintained by the Law Library—THOMAS, covering federal legislative information beginning with the 104th Congress (1995) with full texts of bills, resolutions, the Congressional Record, legislative calendars, committee information, treaties plus much more! Learn about the Law Library's global research services, vast collections in 195 languages from over 220 jurisdictions worldwide, and expert legal staff from Matthew Braun, Legal Reference Specialist at the Law Library of Congress. Expert legal researchers will also highlight other free online collections and search engines to equip participants with reliable sources for legal research.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Familiarity with the specialized services, websites, collections and expert legal research staff available from the Law Library of Congress free to all including solos, practicing lawyers, librarians, researchers and those new to the profession;
2. Understanding of the organization, structure, content, and search strategies to perform time‐saving legal research in THOMAS and other free legal databases from your own computer wherever you are in the world; and
3. Interactive research demonstrations and explanations of websites and other research products produced and maintained by the Law Library of Congress as well as other authoritative Web‐based collections and useful search engines.

Speaker: Matthew Braun, Legal Reference Specialist, Law Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Download the Program Announcement.

ABA Technology Survey Results

Post from iPhone J.D. - how many attorneys use iPhones and iPads.

iPhone J.D.

July 11, 2011

2011 ABA Technology Survey suggests around 300,000 U.S. lawyers use an iPhone, around 130,000 use an iPad

Every year, the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center conducts a survey to gauge attorney use of legal technology. Continuing the trend that the ABA saw in last year's report (which I discussed here), this year's survey reveals that the number of lawyers using smartphones continues to increase. And for the first time, the survey tells us something about the number of lawyers using iPhones. (cont)

New look for the American Bar Association web site

The ABA has overhauled their web site, as explained in this press release from ABA President Stephen N. Zack. The new URL for the ABA site is now http://www.americanbar.org/.

ABA Report on US News and World Report Rankings

The ABA commissioned a report on the issue of the U.S. News and World Report Rankings. Below is a snippet from the first page of the 65 page report and bibliography.

July 15, 2010

Report of the Special Committee on the U.S. News and World Report Rankings

Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar

Hon. Martha Daughtrey (United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit); Tracy Giles (Giles & Lambert); Dean Phoebe Haddon (University of Maryland School of Law); Pauline A. Schneider (Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe); Dean Kent Syverud (Washington University School of Law)(chair).

On February 17, 2010, ABA President Carolyn Lamm asked the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to examine rankings of law schools. She did so to follow through on a Resolution of the ABA House of Delegates that the ABA “examine any efforts to publish national, state, territorial, and local rankings of law firms and law schools.” American law schools have many years of experience with rankings, and the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, under chair Jerome C. Hafter, has endeavored to help the ABA leadership and the House of Delegates to benefit from that experience – particularly as that experience may predict how new rankings might affect law firms and the legal profession. To that end, Mr. Hafter appointed this special committee of members of the Council of the Section to report on the history and impact of rankings of American law schools.

(cont)

Related article from law.com :

New 'U.S. News' Law Firm Rankings: News You Can't Use?

Steven Harper
The American Lawyer
August 10, 2010

ABA Journal online

The ABA Journal is now available at http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/ back to 2004. No membership required.

Vote for Your Favorite Blawg

It's that time again to vote for your favorite Blawg!

From the ABA Journal

Choose from 100 different law blogs.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/aba_journal_blawg_100

Here's the voting link:
http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/blawg100

I see some of my favs are on here: Ernie the Attorney, Above the Law, etc.
Voting ends Jan. 2.

Wow, ABA, where's the law librarian blogs?