NLJ.com reported that news of impending layoffs at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman broke due to corporate and securities head Robert Robbins having an indiscreet cell phone conversation that was overheard on a train. My question is why wasn't he using his Cone of Silence? I mean if Secret Agent Maxwell Smart can afford one
Confidentiality
New York Approves Lawyers Using Gmail
By Jim Calloway on
Well, they didn't actually use the word GMail. But in NYSBA Ethics Opinion 820 the committee said: "A lawyer may use an e-mail service provider that conducts computer scans of e-mails to generate computer advertising, where the e-mails are not reviewed by or provided to other individuals." I cannot believe I missed this one when…
Site of the Week: Electronic Information Privacy Center
By Jim Calloway on
After hearing Marc Rotenberg, the Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, speak on the amount of our information that is available online and trends that impact our privacy even more, it is a pretty easy choice to name the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s website, EPIC.org, as my Website of the Week…
Lock up your computer when you leave
By Jim Calloway on
Most of you know I am a believer in using keyboard shortcuts. It is a lot quicker to hit a pair of keys as opposed to navigating with the mouse. I’ve blogged about this before and provided a downloadable keyboard shortcut "cheat sheet." But today I want to talk about one particular keyboard shortcut that…
The Laptop Hall Of Shame
By Jim Calloway on
Forbes.com has some commentary from Robert Ellis Smith entitled Laptop Hall Of Shame.
The article begins "When the history of personal privacy is written–and there are persons who monitor this sort of thing–they will call this "The Year of the Stolen Laptop."
Read the article and ask yourself "Have we taken reasonable steps to…
The Mysteries (and Magic) of Metadata
By Jim Calloway on
I am still surprised at how many lawyers seem to be unaware of the existence of metadata.
Metadata is, simply put, data about data. To look at some of the metadata in one of your documents, simple click File, then Properties. So when you look at the revision history of a document or check the…
Teaching Staff about Confidentiality
By Jim Calloway on
Preserving client confidences is an important part of a lawyer’s professional life. Hopefully we all instruct our staff frequently about the importance of maintaining confidentiality. Documenting instructions about confidentiality can have at least two benefits: 1) More formality serves to impress staff even more with the significance of the discussion and 2) Documentation can aid …