Showing posts with label clients. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clients. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Florida’s New Advisory Ethics Opinion on Generative AI Hits the Mark; JDSupra, January 29, 2024

Ralph Artigliere , JDSupra; Florida’s New Advisory Ethics Opinion on Generative AI Hits the Mark

"As a former Florida trial lawyer and judge who appreciates emerging technology, I admit that I had more than a little concern when The Florida Bar announced it was working on a new ethics opinion on generative AI. Generative AI promises to provide monumental advantages to lawyers in their workflow, quality of work product, productivity, and time management and more. For clients, use of generative AI by their lawyers can mean better legal services delivered faster and with greater economy. In the area of eDiscovery, generative AI promises to surpass technology assisted review in helping manage the increasingly massive amounts of data.

Generative AI is new to the greater world, and certainly to busy lawyers who are not reading every blogpost on AI. The internet and journals are afire over concerns of hallucinations, confidentiality, bias, and the like. I felt a new ethics opinion might throw a wet blanket on generative AI and discourage Florida lawyers from investigating the new technology.

Thankfully, my concerns did not become reality. The Florida Bar took a thorough look at the technology and the existing ethical guidance and law and applied existing guidelines and rules in a thorough and balanced fashion. This article briefly summarizes Opinion 24-1 and highlights some of its important features.

The Opinion

On January 19, 2024, The Florida Bar released Ethics Opinion 24-1(“Opinion 24-1”)regarding the use of generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) in the practice of law. The Florida Bar and the State Bar of California are leaders in issuing ethical guidance on this issue. Opinion 24-1 draws from a solid background of ethics opinions and guidance in Florida and around the country and provides positive as well as cautionary statements regarding the emerging technologies. Overall, the guidance is well-placed and helpful for lawyers at a time when so many are weighing the use of generative AI technology in their law practices."

Friday, May 5, 2023

New ABA ethics opinion warns about handling retainer and other fees; ABA Journal, May 3, 2023

 DAVID L. HUDSON JR., ABA Journal; New ABA ethics opinion warns about handling retainer and other fees

"“When a client pays an advance to a lawyer, the lawyer takes possession—but not ownership—of the funds to secure payment for the services the lawyer will render to the client in the future,” according to Formal Opinion 505.

The opinion acknowledges that there is a type of fee called a general retainer, whereby a client pays the lawyer a fee to “reserve the lawyer’s availability.” However, the opinion notes that general retainers are quite rare and not consistent with the modern practice of law. The opinion also cautions that a general retainer “may be determined to be an unreasonable fee or even unearned if the lawyer does not make himself or herself available.”

Rather, the term “retainer” should normally be labeled as an advance."

Monday, January 24, 2022

How to avoid 10 common ethics pitfalls; ABA Journal, June 1, 2020

DAVID L. HUDSON JR., ABA Journal; How to avoid 10 common ethics pitfalls

"Lawyers are stewards of their clients’ most sensitive and personal information. They serve as officers of the court and are in positions of public trust. But these high standards can lead to steep falls, and a lawyer who doesn’t carefully mind ethics obligations can quickly run afoul of the rules of professional responsi-bility. 

Most states require ethics training as part of continuing legal education requirements. But a quick scan of disciplinary records reveals lawyers behaving badly on a spectrum of issues—from improper advertising to mishandling private information and everything in between.

Whether intentionally flouting ethics rules or unwittingly succumbing to the many pitfalls that can appear, lawyers regularly face discipline for crossing the line. Being hauled in front of a disciplinary board can cause professional embarrassment, suspension of a law license and even disbarment. 

We asked legal ethics experts for a primer on the most pressing and pernicious ethics traps out there for the modern lawyer, along with best practices to avoid problems on the front end.

The lesson is to not only beware, but be aware."

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Seven Bold Leaders Reveal How Ethical Leadership Is A Boon To Business; Forbes, October 14, 2019

Bruce Weinstein, Forbes; Seven Bold Leaders Reveal How Ethical Leadership Is A Boon To Business

"Ethical leadership in a business benefits the bottom line. It’s also a boon to the people who work for the organization and the people it serves.

The relationship between ethical conduct and benefits is one of the themes of this year’s Global Ethics Day. The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs created this event nine years ago to provide an “opportunity for organizations around the world to hold events on or around this day, exploring the meaning of ethics in international affairs.”

Last year, I observed Global Ethics Day in this column by asking 20 leaders what “ethics” meant to them. Each provided a one-sentence summary. This year we’re stretching out a bit. I asked seven leaders to provide a concrete example or two of how ethical leadership benefits businesses, employees, clients and communities.

Here’s what they said."

Friday, January 4, 2019

Ethics Webinar: When an Attorney or Expert Screws Up; American Bar Association (ABA), Thursday, January 24, 2019


 
American Bar Association.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Webinar-image
 
 
 
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Wednesday, March 7, 2018

ABA Webinar: Thursday, March 8, 2018


Webinar | March 8, 2018 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

American Bar Association.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Oscars Mistake Casts Unwanted Spotlight on PwC; New York Times, February 27, 2017

David Gelles and Sapna Maheshwari, New York Times; 

Oscars Mistake Casts Unwanted Spotlight on PwC


"One video posted there, introducing Mr. Cullinan and Ms. Ruiz, began with the line, “The reason we were even first asked to take on this role was because of the reputation PwC has in the marketplace for being a firm of integrity, of accuracy and confidentiality.” It went on to note that the relationship was “symbolic of how we’re thought of beyond this role and how our clients think of us.”

But how clients think of PwC may change.

Mr. Gilman, the crisis communications specialist, said he was curious to see if PwC kept the Oscars contract. “They have branded themselves around this event saying, ‘We’re trusted’ — that’s the implication. Now I think that will take a hit.”"