ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Lawyers have been using cloud computing for nearly a decade now.
Nearly 30 different jurisdictions have issued ethics opinions permitting lawyers to store confidential client data in the cloud as long as reasonable steps are taken to ensure that the data is secure.
But what steps must be taken to ensure that the data is securely stored? And if the data is not adequately protected, then how might that affect a pending case?
Some of these questions were answered in Harleysville Insurance Company v. Holding Funeral Home Inc., a decision handed down by the U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia, last month.
Issues considered in the case were whether the attorney-client and work product privilege were waived when defense counsel accessed data (via a link found in discovery documents) stored by the plaintiffs online in an unprotected Box.net account.