So, it’s been a minute or so since my last content. You’ve probably moved on and found a new favorite ethics blog. It’s probably Michael Kennedy’s actually, he’s been relentless with content in March 2021.
You might be wondering what has happened to keep me from writing over these last 20 or so days. First, it’s definitely not workload or client issues. Second, it’s definitely not a lack of things out there worth commenting on these last three weeks. Third, it’s definitely not the guy who’s been attacking my site trying to hack it. That just results in mildly annoying little emails telling me the person is hopelessly trying. (I know with about 99% certainty exactly who it is, but he’ll have to keep trying a bit more so that I can have exactly what I need to help his friendly local law enforcement officers confirm it’s him.)
No, it’s because of the cicadas. You might have read something about how, over the next few weeks, billions of Brood X cicadas will emerge after 17 years of hiding away. It’s always weird to see yourself talked about in the media – that’s been going on over the last few weeks as well in some other settings – but it’s really weird when an article refuses to acknowledge you by name. The Vox article linked above, and a few others, speak in terms of these billions of cicadas hearing “the call of Spring” and deciding to wake up.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever been called “the call of Spring.” If you think that billions of cicadas just all decide to wake up at roughly the same time on their own, you are pretty gullible. Somebody has to travel around and wake them up. And, let me tell you, it’s exhausting.
But anyway… it’s done now. So, for the sounds you are about to experience and cherish, you are welcome. Along the way, I’ve also managed to get two doses of Pfizer vaccine in me, so we should be well on our way to resuming normal, intermittent posting.
For today, let’s ease our way into it and offer some content about a topic that (of course) that Kennedy fellow has already managed to write about. A new proposed ethics opinion in Florida (a place I fortunately did not have to go to for any Brood X cicada wake-up calls) addressing the ethics of accepting client payments through various popular digital platforms like Venmo and others.
The proposed opinion issued by the Florida State Bar’s Professional Ethics Committee appears to be a largely commonsense approach to an inevitable development as such apps have arisen and that focuses, for the most part, on the same kinds of ethical issues that were looked at and resolved in the days when lawyers were “struggling” to figure out whether they could ethically accept payment of fees using credit cards — confidentiality issues and Rule 1.15 safeguarding of funds/trust accounting/commingling issues.
The confidentiality issues are certainly more complex than was true about credit cards because of some of the more social media style angles of certain payment apps, which is another point that Kennedy makes well in his post today that focused on the confidentiality issues in the opinion.
The opinion also addresses in detail what lawyers will have to do to ensure that payments received through such an app that are earned when received go to one type of account and payments to be held in trust go to another kind of account. Likewise, the opinion addresses the need to make sure that any “costs” of using the service – like transaction fees – do not get paid out of any trust funds being held by the lawyer.
You can get the full Proposed Advisory Opinion 21-2 here. Among the most valuable pieces of advice offered in the opinion though comes at the end in the form of something of a disclaimer:
Note: The discussion about specific applications in this opinion is based on the technology as it exists when this opinion is authored and does not purport to address all such available technology. Web-based applications and technology are constantly changing and evolving. A lawyer must make reasonable efforts to become familiar with and stay abreast of the characteristics unique to any application or service that the lawyer is using.
Truer words and all of that, right? For example, the UI I had to deal with on the Cicada app? Don’t get me started.
More seriously, the forthcoming nature of this opinion was already on my radar screen, and the radar screen of all who attended the APRL mid-year meeting because we were fortunate enough to hear a “Fred” talk” from the Chair of the Florida Bar Professional Ethics Committee, Culver “Skip” Smith.
Interspersing our meeting with these “focused, rapid, ethics discussions” was something new APRL is trying. Skip’s “Fred” talk has been eclipsed by the release of the actual proposed opinion but let me end my return from a long slumber by offering you a link to another “Fred” talk that was given at our APRL mid-year meeting that I thought was excellent and that demonstrated some of the possible cool approaches these kinds of short talks can offer.
Give yourself 10 minutes or so this weekend and watch Joanna Storey of Hinshaw talk to you about whether miscommunication is inevitable.