Pennsylvania Opinion Establishes Guidelines For Use of ‘Cloud’ to Store Client Information

Pennsylvania lawyers may use “cloud computing” to warehouse confidential client information off-site, and may use e-mail to transmit sensitive data, so long as they take reasonable precautions to ensure that the security of the information won’t be compromised, the Pennsylvania bar’s ethics committee has advised in a formal opinion (Pennsylvania Bar Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Formal Op. 2011-200).

The opinion offers detailed guidelines describing what safeguards lawyers should consider when storing, transmitting, and accessing client information on computer equipment owned and maintained by others.

‘Reasonable Safeguards.’

Revisiting an issue that it addressed in a ...