On the 4th December 2019, the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued guidance on the ethical responsibilities of lawyers who are changing firm. Formal Opinion 489 recognises a lawyer’s right to move firms, noting that the ethics rules do not allow non-competition clauses in partnership, member, shareholder or employment…
ABA’s Center for Innovation calls for innovation in lawyer regulation
A report released by the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center for Innovation has called for U.S. jurisdictions to consider new approaches to regulation to increase access to justice. The recommendations are under review by the ABA House of delegates, where if approved they will be passed as a resolution, supporting the revision of existing structures….
ABA releases report on why women are leaving big law
A new survey released by the American Bar Association and ALM Intelligence is addressing why women are leaving big law. The Walking Out The Door: The Facts, Figures, and Future of Experienced Women Lawyers in Private Practice study is part of an ABA initiative launched by former-President Hilarie Bass. Over the past decades, women have made up roughly 45-50%…
ABA techreport shows how lawyers fail to secure client data in the cloud
The annual ABA techreport reports that whilst almost 60% of law firms use cloud computing applications to store client data, only 35% take standard precautionary measures to secure these data. The report identified severe deficiencies in firms’ approach to cybersecurity, particularly when using software as a service. Read the full report on the ABA site.
Lawyer regulation reforms in the US
We recently reported on the work of the California State Bar and their proposals for regulatory reform put forward by the Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services as well as the work being done by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) Testing Task Force. In her article, ‘Re-regulating Lawyers for the 21st…
NCBE’s Testing Task Force and the Bar Exam of the Future
In the United States, the authority to regulate the legal profession belongs to individual jurisdictions; each U.S. state or territory sets its own rules and makes its own decisions about legal licensure. For licensure examinations, most jurisdictions use one or more of the bar exam components produced by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE),…
ICLR 2019: Regulating in Uncomfortable Spaces
The following content has been provided by the panel presenting on this topic during the afternoon on Day 1 of ICLR 2019. Synopsis As recent events have shown, regulating the conduct of lawyers who serve as elected politicians or in public office, as well as those who provide legal services to others in public office,…
California Bar exploring opportunities to deploy AI
The agency is examining how artificial intelligence could help it review misconduct complaints and administer the bar exam. The State Bar of California has started wading into the artificial intelligence waters. The agency is exploring ways AI could help bolster the efficiency of its attorney discipline system and assist with administering the bar exam. The…
Colorado Lawyer Self-Assessment Program yields analytical insights
Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel started developing its lawyer self-assessment program more than two years ago, immediately after a seminal workshop on proactive, risk-based regulation at the 41st ABA National Conference of Professional Responsibility in May 2015. The new resource is a leading facet of a larger shift toward proactive management-based regulation, which aims to…
Sending the Message: Using Technology to Support Judicial Reporting of Lawyer Misconduct to State Disciplinary Agencies
Despite the strong public interest in effectively regulating lawyers, neither state nor federal courts have developed adequate policies and practices to ensure that lawyers’ misconduct during litigation proceedings is consistently reported to state disciplinary agencies. The reasons for this inconsistency—and the extent to which it should be considered an actual inadequacy and a problem calling for a…