Ethics of Client Communication with New Media in a Global Pracitce

The American Bar Association Section of International Law continues today in Miami. One of the CLE panels is on the ethics of client communications with new media in a global practice.

The panel moderator was Alexandra Darraby (The Art Law Firm, Los Angeles), co-chair of the ABA Section of International Law International Legal Ethics Committee and co-chair of the ABA Section of International Law New Media and Innovation Committee. The panelists were David M. Levine (Carey Rodriguez Milian Gonya LLP, Miami) and Ekaterina Schoenefeld (Schoenefeld Law Firm LLC, Princeton, New Jersey).

The panel discussed ethical issues and recent U.S. federal and state court decisions involving a large number of social media and electronic communication platforms, including:

• Facebook
• Google Plus
• Google Translate
• Instagram
• Kik
• LinkedIn
• MeetMe (a social networking service)
• MocoSpace (a mobile gaming community)
• MySpace
• Snapchat
• Tagged (a social networking service)
• Twitter
• WhatsApp
• Yik Yak (a social media smartphone application)

The panel raised a number of practical tips, such as a warning on using Google Translate with discovery documents (because the service is not confidential and searches done using Google Translate are discoverable).

The panel did not mention any active litigation matters involving the International Law Prof Blog.

One new resource for attorneys interested in these issues is the Handbook of Global Social Media Law for Business Lawyers, edited by John Isaza and Valerie Surgenor and published by the ABA Business Law Section. The book covers employees and social media, social media as evidence, cybersecurity, electronic defamation, and specific social media legislation for a number of countries including Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

(mew)