Ethics, Technology and the Solo
I have a guest post over at Ben Cowgill’s Legal Ethics Blog on A Solo’s View on Ethics and Technology. Clearly, as a solo, I owe much of my effectiveness today to improved and less costly technology, much of which was not around (or at least was not as affordable) back in November 1993, when my firm opened its doors. At the same time, I think too frequently, we equate technology with access to law and assume that the former will automatically lead to the latter. But that’s not so. As I discuss in my post, when we integrate technology into the practice of law, we need to make sure that we don’t deter solo and small firm lawyers from taking advantage of it: either by imposing onerous ethics rules on those who try to use technology to serve clients or failing to come up with mechanisms, such as leveraging the bar’s purchasing power, to price technology more affordably.