eDiscovery Daily Blog

• November 6, 2015

If you work in the legal industry, you’ve probably heard this joke.  What do you call 5,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?  A good start.  Get it?  It’s easy to joke about hating lawyers and some of us may not be joking.  But, even lawyers need love sometimes.  Believe it or not, today is National Love Your Lawyer Day.

As noted in this press release, National Love Your Lawyer Day was established in 2001 by the American Lawyers Public Image Association (ALPIA).  It’s a day in which lawyers and judges are celebrated for all the good they do, often thanklessly. On this day, the public is asked to let their favorite legal eagles know how much they love and appreciate them. “Call your attorney and say Happy Lawyer’s Day! or thanks for a doing a great job, or even send a gift, flowers or a card,” says Nader Anise, Executive Director of ALPIA. “Lawyers are always painted as the bad guy, even if they pull off some crazy Houdini-esque maneuvers to help their clients. We’re hoping this day will spark public interest in commending lawyers rather than condemning them.”  She didn’t say write a blog post about them, but that’s how I show my love.  :o)

And don’t even think about bad-mouthing lawyers on Love Your Lawyer Day – that is, unless you’re holding a wad of cash. Not only is lawyer bashing a big no-no and considered in poor taste, but anyone unable to bridle his tongue from verbally jabbing lawyers (late-night talk show hosts take note) is being asked to donate a $20 “fine” per joke to the charity of his choice.  Hope that joke in the intro of this post doesn’t count, I’m tapped out.  :o(

Anyway, those of us in the eDiscovery industry have been known to grumble from time to time about how the expertise of lawyers in eDiscovery continues to be lacking, despite ethics guidance from sources such as American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rule 1.1, which discusses competent representation to a client and includes a comment (Comment 8) which states that “a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology”.  And, states are beginning to provide opinions regarding an attorney’s ethical duties in the handling of discovery of electronically stored information, as California did recently (Proposed Formal Opinion Interim No. 11-0004 has now become Formal Opinion No. 2015-193).

At CloudNine, we love lawyers every day, not just today.  To do our part in helping lawyers get up to speed on eDiscovery, we have, of course, provided this blog each day for over five years now to help educate lawyers (as well as others in our profession).  We have also begun offering a one-hour session (CLE approved in Texas) titled What Every Attorney Should Know about eDiscovery in 2015 (pretty soon, we’ll have to update the title).  We cover key terms to know, the EDRM model, Federal and State rules and resources, ethics considerations (the course includes a .25 ethics credit) and we cover key cases important to the evolution of electronic discovery.

We have conducted this CLE session for a few firms in the past few months and it has been very well received.  If your firm might be interested in this presentation (especially if you’re in the Houston area or somewhere in Texas), drop me a line at daustin@cloudnincloudnine.comm.  We’ll be happy to show you our love!

So, what do you think?  Are you looking for some CLE credit opportunities?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.