Electronic Era Ethics

This interactive program uses hypotheticals to highlight the dramatic effect email, texts and other electronic communications have had on lawyers’ ethics duties. The program generally follows the lifespan of an attorney-client relationship, including: creation of the relationship (such as the effect of an unsolicited email from a would-be client); the ethical propriety of electronic communications with clients (especially lawyers who practice “virtually”); communications with adversaries (including “reply all” emails, lawyers’ response to inadvertently transmitted communications, and metadata); dealing with third parties (such as service providers and outsourced colleagues); discovery (such as accessing adverse witnesses’ social media); jurors’ research and communications; judges’ research and “friending” of lawyers; attorney-client relationships’ termination. Attorney Spahn presented a well attended and much enjoyed ethics seminar to the PPA in November 2024 with his seminar titled "Ethics - Basic Guide for Paralegals". Attorney Spahn hails from McLean, Virginia and speaks regularly on legal ethics and a myriad of other topics.