Legal technology succeeds or fails because of legal ethics. Legal ethics are the rules that all lawyers must follow or face penalties. Because of this, lawyers will hesitate to use technologies where there are doubts about how well those technologies comply with the relevant legal ethics. As many of the most successful legal technology products are marketed towards lawyers, legal ethics and technology have a very close relationship.
Where Do Legal Ethics Come From?
Legal ethics rules (or rules of professional responsibility) come from the state bar of each state, so vary from state to state (although the American Bar Association does produce the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which the states may use as a guide). The key takeaway being that the rules vary – while each state’s rules might cover the same topics, they might do so in a different way, adding exceptions, restrictions, caveats, etc.
This means that anyone developing technology for use by lawyers will need to be aware of how the ethics rules of each state govern the development of their product. Many states offer “Ethics Opinions” that help guide attorneys through various ethical issues – they are worth a look.
Why Should Legal Technology Developers Care About Legal Ethics?
Because lawyers won’t adopt the technology if using it puts them at risk of violating ethics rules. This might be part of the reason why lawyers may seem risk-averse when it comes to technology; lawyers are not willing to lose their license because a product that they chose happened to be insecure or caused them to unethically split fees with a non-lawyer.
So anyone who wants lawyers to use their products needs to pay attention to ethical rules and communicate to their lawyer customers that ethics have been taken into account.
What Are Some Ethical Rules That Legal Technology Developers Should Consider?
The short answer is that when it comes to legal ethics, technology should address all the rules. However, I list a few important rules below to give a flavor of the kinds of legal ethics rules that lawyers are bound to follow:
- Confidentiality of Client Information: Lawyers have to keep client information confidential, even to their own peril (I know, that sounds dramatic). That means using services that provide adequate levels of security and that do not disclose client information to third parties. One of the first things lawyers want to know when using a new technology product is whether or not that product is secure.
- Fee-Splitting With Non-Attorneys: Many states prohibit lawyers from splitting fees with someone who is not an attorney. What that means is that if a non-attorney sends an attorney a client and that client pays money, the attorney can’t split that money with the non-attorney. Typically, the rule is directed at percentage splits, and a non-attorney might be able to receive a flat fee payment for providing a service – however, it is best to check the exact wording of the rule in the state where the product will be offered.
- Conflicts of Interest: As you can probably imagine, in most cases lawyers can’t represent parties with conflicting interests. Accordingly, lawyers have to screen all potential clients to make sure that the new client doesn’t have interests adverse to current or former clients. As a practical matter, that means that if a technology is set up to connect lawyers to clients, that system will have to provide a way for lawyers to get the information necessary to do a conflict check.
There are a number of other rules that govern advertising, solicitation of clients, taking care of client property, communicating with clients, communicating with courts, and many other issues. Despite popular conception of lawyers as being unethical, the contrary is generally true: lawyers are very serious about ethics and will not adopt your product if you aren’t, too.
Have more questions about these issues? You are welcome to get in touch.
