Some Musings at a Recent Technology Ethics Seminar
(You Really Should Be Listening)

The Bencher—November/December 2019

By Richard K. Herrmann, Esquire

Ethics plays an important role,
In the way we practice law.
But if you don’t remember this,
Your career can take a fall.

And that’s the story of my life,
Because I did not see,
The importance of technology
They taught in CLE.

They said it touched on many rules
As the seminar begun.
And the first Rule that they taught us,
Was numbered 1.1.

A lawyer must be competent
To practice what he preaches.
But competence may mean many things,
And that’s what’s this Rule teaches.

It means there’s more to substance
Than the law as you may state it.
It means you must be also good
At the way you communicate it.

If you do not write in pen and ink,
As you did before,
It’s up to you to take the time
To know things are secure.

The tech world’s full of acronyms,
And so it’s up to you
To learn if any one of them
Is something you should do.

Do you use a VPN
When you are keying in Wi-Fi?
Is your data all encrypted
When you store it in the sky?

Do you know what spoliation means?
Or do you feel that you are lost,
When they’re moving for your ESI
Or shifting all the cost?

Encryption’s not a mummy’s tomb.
A bit is not a byte.
The Right to be Forgotten 
Doesn’t mean you’re out of sight.

While mega still means really BIG,
These words seem all outrageous.
A tech bug has no legs at all, but
A virus is still contagious.

I know I’m getting off the track.
I’ve lost where I’ve begun.
I think I was at competence 
Rule numbered 1.1.

I best focus on this seminar 
Or I’ll be in a fix.
Cause they just said they are moving on
To discuss Rule 1.6.

My last draft of this was better.
I could tell you that I tossed it.
But I simply failed to back it up,
And that is when I lost it.


© 2019 Richard K. Herrmann, Esquire. This article was originally published in the November/October 2019 issue of The Bencher, a bi-monthly publication of the American Inns of Court. This article, in full or in part, may not be copied, reprinted, distributed, or stored electronically in any form without the written consent of the American Inns of Court.