Cybersecurity and Ethics for Civil Legal Services and Public Interest Attorneys 2026

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 duty 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, and handling remote work given attorneys’ ethical obligations. Faculty will also discuss ways in which attorneys should counsel clients to safeguard their own information. Faculty will also discuss best practices for handling technology-facilitated abuse in intimate partner violence contexts as identifying these types of scenarios can illustrate some of the newest technology used for cyber and privacy invasion. 

Faculty will not recommend specific products or tools but rather will provide the framework for practitioners to assess whether the tools they adopt meet their ethical standards in an ever-evolving environment of risk and technological advancement.

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