Article

Competence in E-Discovery

March 8, 2016

Excerpt: In the world of legal ethics, 2015 was a big year, with 20 states adopting the ABA’s revised rules (Model Rule 1.1 and 1.6) regarding the need to be familiar with the risks and benefits of technology, including how to use technology to secure confidential data. CLEs about competence and technology began to multiply faster than rabbits as lawyers scrambled to see what their new ethical duties were.

Lost in that shuffle, for the most part, were discussions of an ethical requirement to be competent in e-discovery. News channels flared briefly when the California Bar released an ethics opinion (Formal Opinion 2015 – 193, published on June 30, 2015) which detailed the skills that attorneys must have when dealing with electronically stored information (ESI) and e-discovery. But the publicity died down and we saw only a handful of CLEs which touched on this issue even slightly, so the topic seemed ripe for an article.

Read the entire article here.