I’ve written quite a bit during the past year about cybersecurity, urging lawyers to take seriously their obligations to protect client confidential information and to be judicious when acquiring technology and services that will be used to store and transmit client data. I’m returning to the topic of cybersecurity again today, this time to note…

Whether it’s during a deposition or during trial, the job of preserving errors for judicial review is a vital part of the litigator’s professional obligation to his or her client. Many trial outcomes turn on evidentiary rulings, particularly on the exclusion of evidence that one party believes is absolutely essential to its case. When this…

As an attorney, paralegal, or legal assistant seeking the services of a court reporting professional, have you ever wondered what all those letters following a court reporter’s name mean? They’re professional certifications, the “alphabet soup of court reporting,” and they hold the key to finding the right court reporter for your next deposition, hearing, or…

Lawyers, ask yourselves:  Can I ethically connect my work laptop computer to an unsecured public Wi-Fi network? What data security measures are in place at the technology vendors that store and process my clients’ confidential information? Do the software applications that process my clients’ confidential information have the latest security updates? If you don’t know…

Courts are now reopening across the country and the social distancing requirements that upended traditional civil litigation practices for the past year are gradually being eliminated. The “old normal” appears to be just around the corner. No more need to polish those hard-earned virtual advocacy skills, right?  Yes and no. Although it’s true that in-person…

Legendary jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that “hard cases make bad law,” by which he meant that a legal rule fashioned for an extraordinary circumstance can be inappropriate for the resolution of everyday disputes.  Holmes’ century-old aphorism was recently invoked by several experienced litigators in a discussion about the merits of virtual justice and whether…

For litigators, representing clients during the COVID-19 pandemic has meant developing the skill to effectively conduct a remote deposition. With few courts willing to wait for the day when in-person depositions could safely return, remote depositions — a somewhat novel discovery device in pre-pandemic times— became, out of necessity, the norm. In a litigation environment…

The American Bar Association’s Litigation Section recently gathered two experienced virtual advocates and one judge to discuss their experiences handling remote depositions and virtual trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lessons they dispensed were the product of hard-earned experiences in early 2020 — the pioneering days of virtual proceedings. Some were earned through practice and…