Lawyers' Use of Technology and Ethical Obligations

Excerpted from Volumes 1 (Baseline and Budgets) and Volume 2 (Law Office Technology) of the 2008 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report

Edited By the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center

Metadata removal software is available at nearly half of respondents' firms (48%). Large firms have the highest availability (88%), with solo firms (28%) and firms of 2-9 attorneys (26%) on the lower end of the availability spectrum.

Respondents are asked which of several types of policies governing technology use by employees their firms have. The most commonly reported type of technology policy at firms is e-mail use policies (52%, up from 45% in the 2007 survey), followed by internet use policies (49%, up from 42% in the 2007 survey). Forty-five percent of respondents’ firms have computer acceptable use policies (40% in the 2007 survey), 45% have document management/records management policies (38% in the 2007 survey), 34% have e-mail retention policies (29% in the 2007 survey), and 28% have employee privacy policies (23% in the 2007 survey).

Respondents are asked if their firms have a backup strategy. Overall, more than four-fifths of respondents (82%) report that their firms have a backup strategy. Responses of “yes” do not vary widely based on firm size, ranging from 79% of large firm respondents to 86% of respondents from firms of 2-9 attorneys.

In this year’s survey, respondents were asked whether their firms have a variety of security tools. The most common types of security tools reported at firms are spam filters (87%), pop-up blockers (74%), anti-spyware (72%), and firewall (software) (68%). Security tools for encryption (e-mail) and encryption (files) are available only at approximately one-fifth of respondents’ firms (19% and 21% respectively). Employee monitoring software and intrusion prevention software are the least available types of security tools at respondents’ firms (15% and 17% respectively).

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ABA Legal Technology Resource Center