At its October 14 meeting, the ISBA Board of Governors adopted an ethics opinion that expressly authorizes storage of confidential client information in the cloud and approved the recommendations of the ISBA Task Force on the Future of Legal Services. Futures report, recommendations. The Board approved the report and recommendations of the legal services task force. They now go to the ISBA Assembly, which will take them up at its December meeting. Recommendations include creating a consumer-oriented lawyer directory, providing technology and practice-management education and resources to members, and establishing a standing committee on the future of legal services. Ethics opinions on the cloud, conflicts, of-counsel fee division. The Board approved three ethics advisory opinions, including one that specifically allows online “cloud” storage of client data. Opinion 16-06 says lawyers may use a cloud-based service to store confidential client information as long as they take reasonable care to assure its security. Opinion 16-05 says it’s not a conflict for a law firm to represent a city while a paralegal from the firm serves on the city council. Opinion 16-04 concludes that the fee-division restrictions imposed by Illinois ethics rule 1.5(e) on lawyers from different firms do not apply to “of counsel” relationships. In other action, the Board

How many times have you heard “this is a standard settlement term”? Don’t miss this online seminar on November 3, 2016 that helps you determine which non-monetary provisions you need in settlement and severance agreements … and which you can accept from opposing counsel without much fear. Practitioners with intermediate to advanced practice skills working in the litigation environment – whether as an attorney or in-house counsel – who attend this seminar will better understand: what most attorneys define as the “standard” settlement term; which provisions are a necessary component in settlement agreements; how to ensure that you’ve included all of the provisions you need; and how to avoid missing something in the settlement agreement.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Our firm is a fourteen attorney firm in Orlando, Florida. We have Two equity members, five non-equity members, and seven associates. We are currently managed by the managing member. In order to be more inclusive we are thinking about eliminating the managing member position and moving to a three member executive committee with one of the three members being a non-equity member. I would appreciate your thoughts?

The ISBA Springfield office is closed Monday, October 17, while workers repair water damage from a weekend storm.  Website, phone and email services were interrupted Monday morning but should now be back to normal. However, Springfield staff members are away from the office today to make way for repair crews. The Chicago office remains open.