The material in this LibGuide was developed in conjunction with a special unit of Special Topics in Entrepreneurial Lawyering: Solo & Small Firm Workshops, a couse at UMKC School of Law. The unit is entitled, "Finding, Saving and Protecting Information that is crucial to your practice."
Answer any two of following questions (1/2 to full page):
1. You establish your own firm. Will you elect to have a "paperless" office? Why or why not? To what extent is this goal attainable? What policies and practices might you have to put into place?
2. If it were up to you, would you store your firms documents and use applications (SaaS) in the "cloud"? What are the arguments for and against?
3. Imagine you are starting your firm with one other attorney and a paralegal. Can you get by with a peer-to-peer network? What policies and procedures do you need to put into place? What concerns should you have?
4. What security precautions will you take to protect your firm and your clients?
Answer the following:
5. You are opening a new firm in Missouri, practicing both general Missouri law and one area of your choosing . You have $10,000 to spend on information resources. What would you purchase to address both Missouri law and your chosen area of law? For your answer, include the title, price of purchase or license (this is part of your $10,000), and an explanation on why you picked each item. For this assignment, include both print and electronic resources. Use Svengalis, Legal Information Buyer's Guide (on reserve, KF1.L43), Lawbook Exchange (http://www.lawbookexchange.com), online library catalogs, and publisher websites.
As you think about resources, you may want to classify them into types. See Small Firm Library: Mapping Your Library.
Source: The Sharon D. Nelson, John W., Simek & Michael C. Maschke, The 2019 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide (LTG), 129-130 (ABA Law Practice Division) (citing ABA Legal Technology Research Center's 2019 survey of ABA Lawyers).
"On March 17, 2016, the Legal Cloud Computing association released the first set of cloud security standards crafted specifically for the legal industry at ABA TECHSHOW...." See http://tinyurl.com/cloud-standards, LTG, p. 163
Thirty-one states, including Missouri and Kansas, have adopted rule of technology competence
In 2012 the ABA’s House of Delegates voted to amend Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1, which pertains to competence, to read as follows:
Maintaining Competence
To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject. (Emphasis added.)
ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 482 ond Duties of Lawyers Following a Disaster. See p. 176 of LTG.
ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 484 on Duties of Lawyers Following a Data Breach of Cyber Attack. See p. 178 of LTG.
Ethical issues on Attorney web sites and social media. See link.
An attorney may destroy most, but not necessarily all, of the paper file, if the file is stored electronically. Items of intrinsic value may not be destroyed. Originals that may have legal significance, as originals, during the representation may not be destroyed. We encourage firms to offer the paper file to the client prior to destruction.
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