ABA Issues New Formal Opinion to Protect Client Data

Client Data
Image: americanbar.org

A graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, Hugh M. Ray III is a Texas attorney who formerly served as a principal of McKool Smith, PC, in Houston. Today, Hugh Ray III is a partner in the Insolvency and Restructuring group of the firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. He maintains memberships with the Texas, New Mexico, and American Bar Associations.

Recently, the American Bar Association (ABA) issued a formal opinion through its Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility that establishes the need for attorneys to adhere to enhanced cybersecurity practices in the interest of protecting clients’ personal data in the digital age. This new mandate comes at a time in which more than half of Americans have been the victims of a data breach, and large swaths of this demographic feel mistrustful of institutions’ abilities to shield their personal information from exposure.

Since the ABA’s first formal opinion on cybersecurity protocol was established in 1999, attorneys have progressively relied more heavily on electronic means to communicate with clients. The new formal opinion states that attorneys must make the security risks of sharing sensitive information via electronic devices known to clients at the beginning of the professional relationship, and must make a reasonable effort to protect client data.

The ABA defines a reasonable effort to encompass seven best practices, including comprehension of the threat of cyberattacks and practical security measures, an understanding of how electronic data is transmitted and how it should be stored, and correct labeling of individual client information. Additionally, the new opinion dictates that attorneys should make sure all lawyers, non-lawyer professionals, and vendors associated with a firm understand cybersecurity and technology and are committed to reasonable cybersecurity practices.

Hiking Trails in the Mountains around Santa Fe

 

Santa Fe Mountains
Image: santafe.org

A well-established Houston attorney, Hugh M. Ray III has been involved in diverse cases centered on the Texas oil and gas bust. He has represented official committees of unsecured creditors as the bankruptcy process proceeds. Aside from work, Hugh Ray III is an avid traveler who maintains a property in the scenic mountains above Santa Fe.

The Santa Fe Mountains are part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which represent the southernmost stretch of the Rockies and straddle Colorado and northern New Mexico. Among the popular excursions in the area is the La Piedra Trail, which connects a pair of longer trails and traverses three miles of shaded creek side that features pine forests and expansive Tesuque Valley views.

Situated on the Pajarito Plateau, the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument Trail is known for its unique geologic features that include cone-shaped volcanic formations that were created by major eruptions some 6 million years ago. The area provides an important natural refuge and is particularly popular among birdwatchers.

Cordillera del Paine – Geologically Unique Patagonian Mountains

 

Cordillera del Paine
Image: intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com

Based in Houston, Hugh M. Ray III is a partner with the insolvency and restructuring practice at the global law practice Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP. Passionate about travel, Hugh Ray III has visited locales ranging from Europe to Patagonia, where he went skiing.

One of Patagonia’s most spectacular locales is the Torres del Paine National Park, which is on the Chilean side of a border with Argentina. Visible from far away across the steppes, the dramatic, windswept peaks of the Cordillera del Paine rise suddenly and vertically from rugged foothills.

The Cordillera del Paine occupy a unique spot at the transition point between the Patagonian steppes and the Andes, and they also sit at the head of the third-largest ice cap worldwide, the Southern Patagonian ice field.

The mountains feature a distinct white band that stretches a full kilometer wide in places and is a product of glacial erosion and tectonics. These forces have exposed a white magmatic intrusion into dark layered sandstones and turbidites. Initially formed at the bottom of the sea, the unique geologic feature is now, thanks to Andean uplift, at the top of high mountains.