Security in Online Communication
The Law Firm of John Lumpkins adheres to all applicable rules of professional conduct and makes every effort to safeguard confidential information. In order to expedite work on your behalf and reduce costs, we use electronic mail (e-mail) and cellular telephones (including SMS/text messaging). It is conceivable, particularly with email, that those and similar means of communication could be misrouted or intercepted, resulting in a disclosure of confidential information.
We use Microsoft’s hosted Exchange service. We implemented selective encrypted email via Microsoft’s Office 365 Enterprise 3 service. Outgoing emails are scanned and if any sensitive information is detected, the email is encrypted. More information about data and email encryption is in this video.
Your consent to such email communications, open or unencrypted, is assumed unless you expressly inform the law firm otherwise in writing.
In addition to Microsoft’s Office 365 Enterprise 3 service (which includes cloud-based email hosting), the law firm uses other third-parties vendors to support the services provided to our clients. The law firm uses two cloud-based systems in providing legal services.
- Clio (a practice management system) is used for time and expense tracking (billing), conflicts checking, and task management. We began using Clio in 2011. Clio, which is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, is an established and growing company that provides a robust practice management system to lawyers. Clio highlights its data security practices here.
- NetDocuments (a cloud-based document management system) is used by our law firm for all document storage and management. NetDocuments, based in Salt Lake City, Utah (but with data storage systems around the world) has been around since 1999. Small firms like ours, plus large, international law firms use NetDocuments. Details on NetDocuments security practices are in this video.
Both Clio and NetDocuments provide tools to securely share messages and/or documents. You may receive secure hyperlinks to documents from the law firm via either of these services.
In mid 2019 NetDocuments made available a feature they call Collaboration Spaces. The law firm has started using this tool to more smoothly share files and versioning capability with clients and co-counsel.
When you engage the services of the law firm, you consent to the law firm’s reasonable and appropriate use of the foregoing, cloud-based, law practice support services.