Posts by Esquire Deposition Solutions
California Ethics Panel Turns Up the Heat on Artificial Intelligence
California bar regulators are escalating efforts to address the worst ethical side-effects of artificial intelligence tools in legal services delivery. Under proposed changes to that state’s code of professional conduct, broad ethical demands that lawyers demonstrate competence, candor, and confidentiality will be joined by seven explicit admonitions regarding one particular technology: artificial intelligence. The State…
Read MoreWhat It Means to Be Technology Competent in 2026
When the ethical duty of technology competence officially arrived in 2012, courtesy of new Comment 8 to Rule 1.1 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the expectations were relatively modest. Much has changed since then. Technology is now deeply embedded in the legal profession, bringing both new risks and new opportunities that demand…
Read MoreWhat Role Will AI Play in Settlement Rates?
Last week’s blog examined whether pretrial discovery methods — and depositions in particular — have been responsible for the dramatic decline in civil trials. While the available evidence suggests that liberal discovery rules clearly contribute to pretrial resolutions, nobody has measured exactly how much. Meanwhile, two powerful forces are quietly reshaping how civil claims are…
Read MorePretrial Discovery and the Vanishing Trial
It’s not exactly news that civil trials in America are disappearing. The numbers are dramatic: When the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect in 1938, roughly 20% of federal civil cases reached trial. By 1962, the trial rate had dropped to about 12%. In 2016, according to the article “Going, Going, But Not Quite…
Read MoreConfidentiality Comes First When Clients Give False Deposition Testimony
Clients dissembling in depositions place their lawyers in a difficult position, a situation we’ve noted in a prior article. Does the lawyer’s obligation to preserve client confidences protect the client’s false statement from immediate exposure? Or does the lawyer’s duty of candor to the tribunal override any ethical obligations to the client? D.C. Bar Ethics…
Read MoreClient Use of AI Creates Possibly Discoverable Information
Judge Jed Rakoff’s recent opinion in United States v. Heppner has generated quite a bit of discussion among litigators for its conclusion, apparently a first, that divulging information to a consumer-grade generative artificial intelligence tool prevented assertion of attorney-client privilege over both the inputs to, and outputs of, the tool. The ruling may not come…
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