Jamie Giani notes: “UK Judge Rules on Smart Glasses in Court Proceedings” —

• “A judge in the UK issued an opinion finding that a witness had been fed answers via smart glasses while on cross-examination. And this is almost certainly not the first time smart glasses have affected a court proceeding. Smart glasses and other smart devices are coming to a courtroom near you – it’s not a matter of IF but when.”
• “Jurors could wear smart devices recording court proceedings to view later OR be looking up external information on witnesses or the facts of the case.”
• “Reporters or interested observers could record and post about hearings or trials. Attorneys could receive real-time coaching and information from associates not present in the courtroom.”
• “How will courts protect the integrity (and confidentiality in some cases) of the judicial process given how seamlessly these devices blend into everyday life? Judges and court staff need training on this, and a plan of action for how to address issues when they arise.”
• “Link to UK opinion (relevant portion starts at paragraph 110)”

“Seven Essential Security Strategies For Law Firms And Legal Departments” —

• “With cyberattacks and data breaches dominating the headlines, legal professionals, whether in law firms or corporate legal departments, now serve as protectors of trust, privacy, and some of the world’s most sensitive information. Today, security is no longer a background IT task; it is a leadership imperative in legal service delivery, risk mitigation, and brand management. Legal work is digital and distributed, and expectations extend far beyond merely checking off compliance boxes. “
• “Clients, corporate leadership, and regulators are watching. They demand transparency and assurance that your law firm or legal department is proactive about securing all privileged data, monitoring the vendor ecosystem, and adapting to an evolving threat landscape. This article outlines the seven most critical security strategies to safeguard information and proactively build client and stakeholder confidence. “
• “Turn Compliance into a Competitive Advantage. Regulations, including HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and more, dictate how legal organizations handle information. But the best law firms and legal departments go beyond the minimum, positioning compliance as a value proposition and a reason for clients or the C-suite to trust them. “
• “Law Firms: Highlight a culture of compliance in RFPs, outside counsel guidelines, and pitches. Clients increasingly differentiate between firms based on their ability to manage risk and share audit documentation. “
• “Treat All Client, Company, and Case Data as Highly Sensitive. Legal risk does not respect any boundaries between official records and working documents. IP filings, deal memos, video depositions, transcripts, background emails, and anything else associated with legal matters may contain highly confidential or regulated material. “
• “Law Firms:”The days of treating only internal firm files, such as retainer agreements or billing records, as the most important or confidential are over. Anything related to a client must be considered mission-critical security data. “
• “Proactively Vet and Monitor Every Third-Party Vendor.“Breaches rarely start at home. More than half originate in the extensive web of litigation support providers, software vendors, contract staffing agencies, and, sometimes, expert witnesses. Both in-house and law firm legal teams must scrutinize every vendor as a source of risk. “
• “Action Steps: Adopt a standardized risk-vetting tool (such as Shared Assessments’ SIG questionnaire) to screen all vendors. Require multitiered evidence: Ask for independent audits (SOC 2, ISO 27001), vendor supply chain risk questionnaires, and regular IT/infosec reviews.”Insist on regulatory attestation: Obtain written, renewed sign-offs from both vendors and their critical subcontractors confirming compliance with every relevant statute (HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, etc.).  Consider legal industry specialists: Firms like Prevalent focus on legal technology supply chains and can streamline complex vendor reviews.”

“California lawyers must soon take a yearly civility oath, prompting free speech concerns” —

• “Starting next month, each of California’s 286,000 attorneys will have to swear each year to ‘strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy and integrity’ or risk losing their license to practice law. Unless, that is, the oath is found to unduly restrict freedom of speech, an argument that may find some support in the state Supreme Court, which would have the last word.”
• “Several other states require newly licensed attorneys to swear that they will act with civility, but California is apparently the first to require an annual civility oath for all of its lawyers. Last year, the state also added civility instruction to the educational and ethics courses that practicing lawyers are required to take every three years.”
• “The state Supreme Court said in September that it would allow the State Bar, whose actions the court supervises, to add a civility pledge to the oath taken by all licensed attorneys each year. But the court refused to add civility requirements to the bar’s Rules of Professional Conduct, violations of which can be punished by fines, suspension and even disbarment.”
• “The justices said the bar’s governing board had not provided a clear and specific definition of ‘incivility,’ an indication that attempts to discipline lawyers for violating their pledge might interfere with their freedom of speech in communicating with clients or judges. Instead, the justices suggested that the board should propose a state law that could impose penalties, such as reductions in attorneys’ fees, for lawyers who act abusively.”
• “State courts have already ordered such penalties on their own. In a 2023 ruling, for example, the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles upheld a judge’s decision to reduce attorneys’ fees for the winning side in a lawsuit from $1.14 million to $686,000 because of what the court described as the winning lawyer’s ‘belittling and antagonistic’ attitude — at one point, he said the other side’s attorney had made ‘a total fool’ of the trial judge — and found that the penalty was justified ‘to demonstrate the importance of civility in litigation.'”
• “Kelly, the former State Bar president, said when he announced his proposal in 2013 that lawyers in California, more often in the past, were shouting and swearing at one another, making personal attacks in court filings, rejecting the other side’s routine requests to extend deadlines, and even trying to intimidate judges.”
• “Once a lawyer takes a civility pledge, Kelly said, actions that are found to violate that pledge shouldn’t be grounds for punishment — unlike lying or stealing, which can get a lawyer disbarred — but the oath should serve as a reminder that there’s more to practicing law than winning cases and billing clients.”
• “But some specialists in legal ethics expressed doubts at the time that the additional pledge would affect courtroom behavior — the late Stanford Law professor Deborah Rhode said some lawyers simply conclude that a take-no-prisoners attitude would help their client.”
• “Long Beach attorney Louis Anthes also said he took the new oath despite what he saw as a conflict with the First Amendment. ‘Attorneys have the right to speech, and ‘civility’ is a vague term that does not clarify professional standards,’ Anthes told the State Bar board.”