Still catching up on my summer reading . . . so I was pleased to recently read, but not surprised, about the findings of a panel at the 39th ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility about lawyer advertising on the Internet. It seems that outside of one or two high profile matters, this is just not a big disciplinary issue.
The results highlight one of my pet peeves where legal ethics and technology intersect: Some thought-leaders use fearful predictions that intimidate lawyers rather than inform them about new tools to help their firms. Good lawyers freeze at the thought they might violate their ethics rules. That inaction causes lawyers to fail to adopt the new technology tools that can help their practices--in this instance to use new methods to communicate with potential clients in a world that is changing. Lawyers should be taking action, confident in their professionalism, and not succumb to inaction because someone scared the ethical daylights out of them.
Thanks to Bloomberg BNA for pointing this out.
