Covers the benefits, drawbacks and ethical and security issues lawyers encounter when using cloud computing in their law practices.

1. Legal Technology: Cloud and Mobile
Computing for Lawyers
Presented by:
Nicole Black
Author | Cloud Computing for Lawyers
Co-author | Social Media for Lawyers--The Next Frontier
LegalTechnology Evangelist
MyCase.com | web-based law practice management

2. “The Internet? Bah!” by Clifford Stoll,1995

3. E-Commerce?
Bah!

4. E-books?
Bah!

5. E-readers?
Bah!

6. E-business?
Bah!

7. How did we get here?

8. June 2006--Google launches first non-email cloud product
July 2006--Twitter launched
August 2006--Amazon EC2 cloud product released in private beta
September 2006--Facebook opened to the public
April 2015 --Apple Watch released
April 2010--iPad released in US
July 2008--Apple launches the App Store
June 2007--iPhone released in US

9. Lawyers cannot afford to be left out of the loop

10. 3 major technology trends:
• Social Media
• Mobile Computing
• Cloud Computing

11. Why should you care about cloud
computing?

12. •Cloud computing
•Software as a service (SaaS)
What is cloud computing?

13. Do you use Lexis or Westlaw?

14. Do you or your clients use gmail?

15. Do you use Wikipedia?

16. Cloud
• Convenience
• Affordability
• Flexibility
• Mobility
• Back up
SaaS
• Bill on the go
• Instant access
• Client access
• Communicate securely
Benefits

17. • By the end of 2012, 20% of
businesses owned no IT assets
and conducted business solely
in the Cloud
• In 2013, mobile phones
overtook PCs as the most
common Web access device
worldwide
• By the end of 2014 over 3
billion of the world’s adult
population was able to transact
electronically via mobile or
Internet technology
Source: Gartner’s Top Predictions for IT
Organizations and Users, 2010 and
Beyond:A New Balance
Cloud and Mobile
Computing:
Not a Trend

18. Are lawyers
using cloud
computing?

19. •15% of firms with 500 or more
lawyers have used cloud
computing
• 31% of solo attorneys used
cloud computing
• 34% of law firms with 50 or
more lawyers use cloud computing
*ABA 2013 Tech Report,
2013 ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey,

20. •83% use the cloud for the simplified
support and maintenance
• 44% use the cloud because it
facilitates less hardware in-house
• 74% use the cloud for its convenience
• 63% use the cloud for 24/7 access
• 56% use the cloud because of its
affordability
*American Lawyer’s 2012 Tech Survey and 2013 ABA Legal Tech Survey

21. Why should you care about mobile
computing?

22. “Mobile devices are constrained by
their memory, processing power, and
battery life. But combined with
cloud computing, data processing
and storage can happen outside of
mobile devices.”
*IEEE Computer Society 2014
Tech Trends Report

23. There are
more mobile
phones on
the planet
than there
are TVs
The growth
of the iPhone
was 10 times
faster than the
growth of
America
Online
There are 6.8
billion people on
the planet. 5.1
billion of them own
a cell phone, but
only 4.2 billion own
a toothbrush
*Source: The Hub Spot Blog/Mobile
Marketing Association Surveys

24. But are
lawyers using
mobile
technology?

25. Lawyers’ smartphone use has increased from 89% in 2011 to
91% in 2014
58% of firms purchase tablets for their attorneys
89% of law firms report that their lawyers use tablets on a daily
basis
Sources: International Legal Technology Association and Inside Legal’s
2014 Annual Law Firm Technology Purchasing Survey and ABA’s 2011,
2014 Legal Technology Survey

26. The iPad is used by 84% of those lawyers who use a tablet
device for work-related tasks
48% of respondents used a tablet to conduct work while
outside of their primary workplace, up from 33% in 2012
In firms of more than 500 attorneys, lawyers using iPads
for work-related reasons outside of work
increased to 26%
Source: ABA’s 2012, 2014 Legal Technology Survey

27. Sometimes cloud computing ethics will fee like a maze

28. Sometimes, the journey
will be frustrating

29. A lot of people will tell
you what you can’t do

32. Take it step by step

33. Ethical issues to consider:
A. Attorney client confidentiality
B. Compare/contrast to traditional outsourcing relationships
C. Meeting obligations of “reasonable” security

34. QUESTION:
Whether an attorney can use an online system to store
confidential client data and, if so, what steps must be
taken to ensure the data are secure?
NewYork State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics, Opinion 842
(September 2010)

35. * Source: http://tinyurl.com/abaCloud

36. Security issues to
consider:
1. Encryption
2. Geo-redundancy
3. Data back ups
4. Extraction of data
5.Transborder data
flow
6. Financial security
For full list of questions see:
http://bit.ly/hyFBxo

37. Explore and learn

39. Don’t get left behind

41. Thanks for listening!
Nicole Black
Legal Technology Evangelist
MyCase.com | web-based law practice
management
www.nicoleblackesq.com
@nikiblack on Twitter
Author and co-author of: