Why You Should Attend
This program will explore cybersecurity and ethical issues that can arise for legal services and public interest attorneys. Faculty will review key ethical duties including the duties of supervision, competence, and client confidentiality and how those obligations impact the attorney’s responsibility to safeguard against both external and internal cybersecurity threats. Faculty will also provide tips in navigating common issues in technology as a lawyer, including email, communications, the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and handling remote work given attorneys’ ethical obligations. Faculty will also discuss ways in which attorneys should counsel clients to safeguard their own information. Finally, faculty will also discuss best practices for handling technology-facilitated abuse, investigative techniques, and presenting technology abuse evidence.

What You Will Learn
After completing this program, participants will be able to:

• Identify key ethical obligations for attorneys including competence, supervision, and client confidentiality
• Strategize to safeguard against external and internal threats given attorneys’ ethical obligations
• Understand best practices for counseling clients to secure their own data

Who Should Attend
This program is designed for attorneys and allied professionals who work for public interest and legal services organizations and also private sector attorneys who work with pro bono clients. The program will benefit both new and experienced practitioners and will enhance their ability to understand the attorney’s role and ethical obligations in protecting against cybersecurity threats.

The speakers, experienced advocates for survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, stalking, and related crimes, will discuss the novel cybersecurity threats their clients face and ethical best practices for preparing for, recognizing, and handling modern threats, and the speakers’ insights and recommendations will be valuable to legal services and public interest advocates in all practice areas.

PLI offers full scholarships, registration fee waivers, and discounts to attend PLI programs for attorneys, paralegals, law librarians, and staff working for nonprofit/legal services organizations; pro bono attorneys/volunteers (providing no-fee legal assistance to clients individually or through a nonprofit organization); government attorneys; judges and judicial law clerks; law professors and law students; retired attorneys; independent/freelance paralegals; unemployed attorneys; and others with financial hardships. Learn more here.