Should lawyers use cloud computing software like Gmail in their law practices? Is Google calendar a good choice for law firms? Is it ethical for lawyers to use cloud-based Google Apps in their practices? In their recently published book, Google Gmail and Calendar in One Hour for Lawyers, veteran legal technology authors Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch tackle these questions and many more.*
At the outset, Levitt and Rosch rebut the suggestion that cloud-based Google Apps, which stores confidential client data on third-party servers, is not secure enough for lawyers to use, emphatically stating that “(w)e wouldn’t be writing this book if the answer were no.” They later return to address the ethical issues presented by cloud computing more fully at the end of the book, as I discuss below.
But before doing so, the authors provide a very useful analysis of the benefits offered by cloud-based software, including Google Apps Suite’s Calendar and Gmail, compared to traditional calendar and e-mail software. They explain that unlike conventional software, web-based software like Google Apps allows for far more flexibility and agility at a very affordable cost. Benefits discussed include:
- Ability to access e-mail and calendars from any web-enabled device, no matter the time or place
- Automatic syncing capabilities across all devices
- Can be easily integrated with most leading cloud-based law practice management systems
- Saves time and money compared to traditional software
- Unlimited storage as part of a low monthly fee
- Redundant back ups of data on secure servers that are monitored 24/7
Next, in the very useful interim chapters, they lay out in detail everything lawyers could ever want to know about Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Apps, including:
- How to set up, manage and use Gmail accounts
- How to use Google Chat/Google Talk, Google Hang Outs and how to make phone calls from within Gmail
- How to set up, use and customize Google Calendar
- The benefits of integrating Google Apps with law practice management software.
Many of these chapters provide lawyers with step-by-step instructions, including an abundance of screen shots, with the end goal being to make it easy for lawyers to jump right in and begin using the many features offered by Google Apps. Useful chapter highlights include easy-to-understand directions on how to: 1) set up offline access to both Gmail and Google Calendars, 2) migrate existing e-mail messages into Gmail, and 3) how to customize Google Calendar to meet your firm’s specific needs.
And, as promised, at the end of the book the authors discuss the security and ethical issues in more detail, noting that although cloud computing is commonplace and most businesses already use it in one form or another, lawyers are sometimes still hesitant to use web-based tools for perceived security reasons. But, they explain that in most cases, those reservations are unfounded since, “a growing number of state bar association ethics opinions approve of lawyers using…cloud services as long as lawyers use reasonable measures to ensure the security of these services.”
Next, they acknowledge that although many bar associations have given cloud computing use by lawyers the green light, “they have arrived at their conclusions using varied arguments.” The authors then review and analyze many of the opinions that have been handed down on this issue and then provide this useful summary:
While no file storage option is foolproof or hacker proof, cloud computing storage services like Google Apps can give law firms of all sizes the benefit of an engineering team (probably better-trained than the firm could afford to hire on its own) to manage the security and availability of their data.
My only criticism of the book is one that really can’t be helped: even though this book was published just 4 months ago, some of the information in the book is already outdated. That being said, when you’re writing about the web-based platforms, that’s simply the nature of the beast. Cloud-based products are improved and updated often, with minor tweaks to the interface being implemented on occasion, so some discrepancies are to be expected.
That one criticism aside (that is outside of the authors’ control), I definitely recommend this book. It’s very well-written and highly informative. The bottom line: it’s a book that lawyers of all technological skill sets who are thinking of using–or are already using–Google Apps should read.
* I was provided with a review copy of this book.
–Nicole Black
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The Pros and Cons of Ditching Law Firm Servers In Favor of the Cloud
ooblick
September 10, 2013 — 2:12 pm
I beg to disagree with the analysis regarding “the cloud” generally and Google specifically. We have all been put on notice that the NSA has forced Google and other Internet Service Providers to turn over information, without court order, have been forced to build back doors into their systems, and that almost any analyst with the right clearance can read the information stored on these third party based systems. As attorneys, each one of us should be screaming bloody murder about this potential breach of attorney/client privilege at its very core. It’s not that it is “possible” to get our privileged information, our work product through Google Apps, both the “metadata” and the content of our correspondence, etc., it has already happened, and continues to this day. We KNOW our communications have been compromised. The question now is what to do about it.
Technically, there are a few solutions that can be used to slow down snooping, but given the NSA’s deliberate “assistance” to cryptography standards creators which has served in all cases to make any cryptography available to us to be trivial for anyone, not just the NSA, to break into, it would take a brand new, very robust encryption algorithm with email encrypted point to point, from the sender through the pipeline, to the recipient. Of course, most attorneys and their current clients can’t wait long enough for that to be developed. Those services that DID provide this type of security, Lavabit and Silent Circle, have both shut down their email services in order to avoid re-engineering their products with built in real time back doors for NSA mass stalking. Thankfully, Silent Circle’s encrypted text messaging and encrypted cell calling service are still up and running.
Again the question is, what can we, as lawyers, do about this travesty, which has already caused many of our “allies” and multi-national businesses to scrap any plans for partaking in any US cloud system? We don’t have many options, I’m afraid. We can forego email altogether and sign up for an encryption service for texts and phone calls, but that would be inconvenient for clients and we would lack the built in “paper trail” that email provides. We can ask for a ruling regarding whether attorney/client privilege is compromised if a government agency grabs our correspondence. The problem with that is that it’s not only the government agencies that can use the back doors to “steam open” the letters. It’s pretty trivial to find a particular attorney’s email address, trace it to the ISP that provides it service, and perch a sniffer at the appropriate point. Given what’s at stake in some of the cases we deal with, that scenario would not be completely far fetched. Alternatively, would a criminal defense attorney want the government accessing her emails with her client? There have already been cases where NSA has turned information over to enforcement agencies.
That pretty much leaves us with one alternative. We have to make our voices heard for the sake of ourselves and of our clients. This is not like waiting for the “if” someone intercepts paper mail. This is a done deal that is continuing.
The time has come to speak up and speak out concerning the Fourth Amendment rights of our clients, as well as the privilege that makes it possible to even provide a fair playing field, or even a capital crime defense. I, for one, am all ears.
Cloud Computing
January 1, 2014 — 1:01 pm
Cloud and google apps can be very useful to every professionals, they just have to know and fully understand how the system works for their benefit.