The telecommunications revolution has been a boon for lawyers in many respects, making research and communication exponentially faster and easier than it was a mere decade ago. But, as any practitioner knows, for every problem solved by our advancing technologies, new ones are created. The speed and ease with which lawyers and clients can communicate with each other and with third parties by email, instant message and text can lure us into thinking of these communication methods as analogous to in-person or phone conversations. But electronic communications are different in one crucial respect: they’re automatically recorded. This creates two problems. First, the occasional careless remark over email or instant message may constitute a waiver of attorney-client privilege. Second, the volume and scope of materials available in discovery becomes so vast that it’s easy to mistakenly violate the discovery rules, potentially scuttling your case.

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