Ethics and Email CLE

Ethics and Email

February 2013

Ethics and Email

Convenient, timely, reliable, and affordable...

Teleseminars are midday continuing legal education conferences broadcast over the telephone. From the convenience of your office or home, you are able to dial into an 800 number, and hear nationally recognized practice leaders speak on important issues in the law. You are also able to ask them your questions. Teleseminars marry the best of technology and education to bring the world of CLE to your office or home.

How to Register

There are 2 easy ways to register:

1. CALL us! (303) 860-0608, or toll free (888) 860-2531

2. Or REGISTER ONLINE NOW by using the corresponding course links above.

Program Description:

Every time an attorney uses email to communicate with clients or adversaries or the courts, there are potentially significant ethical issues to be considered. Email has become so commonplace that it is easy to overlook the fact that the receipt of unsolicited email might give rise to an attorney/client relationship or substantial conflicts of interest. Because of its ubiquity, email is easily misused, as when an attorney accidentally sends an email to the wrong person or inadvertently replies to everyone on an email chain instead of just the intended person. In these instances, there are ethical considerations for both the send and the recipient(s). This program will provide you with a real-world guide to ethical issues when using email to communication with current, former and prospective clients and adversaries.

- Attorney ethics in using email to communicate with current, former and prospective clients

- Beginning and ending an attorney/client relationship via email, including through the receipt of unsolicited email

- Ethical issues in sending email updates of legal developments to clients

- Email that is accidentally sent to the wrong recipient - issues for the sender and the recipient(s)

- Metadata issues in email communications

- Email with client confidences sent via computers on public networks or controlled by an opposing party

Faculty:

Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. For more than 20 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 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..