It was a lot easier keeping confidential material safe and secret when it only resided in your head and on paper. Now we have Internet connectivity, e-mail, databases, and electronic copies of at least every document that your office prepared. The privacy and security enemies list includes virus writers, hackers, phishers, adware and spyware. My Canadian friend, Dan Pinnington has prepared an extraordinary resource on how to keep your information and your client’s information safe, private and secure. Dan Pinnington is the Director of practicePRO®, which is the Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company’s innovative risk management initiative. He’s also on the ABA TECHSHOW Board, a prolific writer, a frequent CLE speaker and involved with the production of Law Practice Today.

His work is contained in an impressive 56 page booklet (in PDF format) is entitled Managing the Security and Privacy of Electronic Data in a Law Office and is available for free download. In it Dan outlines the “lucky thirteen” things you must do to protect yourself. This booklet is designed for lawyers to read, not just information technology professionals. But once you read it, you may want to call your IT pros in to discuss it. For solo lawyers and small firms without full-time IT staff, this is a very timely and valuable resource. If you would rather have the information in more bite-sized servings, you can read “Managing the Security and Privacy of Electronic Data in a Law Office – Part 1”, the first of a three part series of articles Dan has extracted from the booklet.