Friday was a train day and as I waited in the station a group of people came over to wait for the same train. Given the close quarters it was impossible not to overhear their conversation. They had all been working on a legal case and some of the details they provided made it sound a lot like a case I have been reading about in the papers. The conversation also strayed into previous cases and one person made a statement to the effect that he had done something illegal in the previous case. Within the context of the conversation it was clear he was being sarcastic and referring to accusations made against him. One of those "oh, yeah, I did that..." comments made to say just the exact opposite. Nonetheless, it probably wasn't a smart thing to do. Nor is discussing the details of an ongoing case in a public setting.
Local law firms may want to provide continuing education on privacy and confidentiality concerns.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
A Note for Lawyers (and Other Legal Professionals)
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2 comments:
Wow -- no legal professional should need any kind of continuing education or reinforcement on this issue.
The first law-specific class I ever took covered this subject -- heavily. They are, in law and in fact, responsible for what other people overhear in public. They're even held responsible for things they say (or documents they leave) in the office where non-relevant persons are present (be they other clients or the cleaning crew).
I wish we knew what firm they worked for, so at the least unsuspecting potential clients would know to never hire them.
Jane,
I teach a course called "Protecting Your Real Estate Clents' Privacy" at Temple University. Man professionals are careless about protecting the privacy of their clients' personally identifiable information. Here's a link to a catalog describing my course.
http://www.temple.edu/tucc/noncredit/rei/documents/REI2006CEFLYER_000.pdf
John Featherman
Republican Candidate, US Senate-PA
www.featherman.com
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