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Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 11 offices, was ranked number 1 in the category “Most innovative North American law firms: New working models” by The Financial Times and was 1 of 7 firms shortlisted for The American Lawyer’s inaugural Legal Services Innovation Award. The firm has been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Legal Technology Trailblazer and featured by Bloomberg for its innovative service delivery models, which drive accuracy and predictability. The firm’s commitment to innovation is embodied in Thompson Hine SmartPaTHTM – a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. For more information, please visit ThompsonHine.com and ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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<img style="max-width: 100%;height: auto;max-width: 100%;height: auto" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-full wp-image-3550" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2017/09/Trump-whitehouse-lawyers-2.jpg" alt="" width="370" height="415">You&rsquo;ve probably read about the New York Times reporter who says that he overheard&nbsp;lawyers for President Donald Trump discuss the ongoing Russia investigation at a Washington, D.C. restaurant, and then reported on the talk &mdash; which&nbsp;revealed details of&nbsp;a strategy&nbsp;debate, the alleged existence of documents &ldquo;locked in a safe,&rdquo; and other&nbsp;purported insight on the internal workings of the President&rsquo;s legal team.
(If you somehow missed&nbsp;the story &mdash; maybe you just stopped paying attention&nbsp;&mdash; check&nbsp;out the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/us/politics/trump-lawyers-white-house-russia-mcgahn-ty-cobb.html?smid=pl-share&amp;_r=0">Times reporting</a>, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/us/politics/isnt-that-the-trump-lawyer-a-reporters-accidental-scoop.html?_r=0">backstory</a> on how the reporter overheard the conversation, and the <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/journalist_overhears_ty_cobbs_lunchtime_conversation_about_lawyer_conflict">ABA Journal&rsquo;s report</a>.)
Every reporter&rsquo;s dream
The NYT reporter, Kenneth P. Vogel, wrote that he overheard the conversation when he happened to be seated at a steakhouse at the next table over from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Cobb_(attorney)">Ty Cobb</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-lawyer/trump-adds-washington-lawyer-john-dowd-to-his-legal-team-idUSKBN19800X">John Dowd</a>.&nbsp; Cobb&nbsp;was brought over from&nbsp;Hogan Lovells&nbsp;in July&nbsp;to run point on the Russia investigation; Dowd, another member of the White House legal team, retired from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer &amp; Feld in 2015.
Vogel later <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/us/politics/isnt-that-the-trump-lawyer-a-reporters-accidental-scoop.html?_r=0">wrote,</a> &ldquo;I have always thought of overhearing conversations as an underappreciated journalistic tool.&rdquo;&nbsp; The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/09/18/trump-lawyers-spill-beans-after-terrible-restaurant-choice-next-to-nyt/?utm_term=.e6821e6a9d26&amp;wpisrc=nl_mix&amp;wpmm=1">commented</a>, &ldquo;It is every Washington reporter&rsquo;s dream to sit down at a restaurant, overhear secret stuff, and get a scoop.&rdquo;
Don&rsquo;t let this happen to you!
Our take on this cautionary tale, of course, centers on <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_6_confidentiality_of_information.html">Model Rule 1.6</a> &mdash; client confidentiality.&nbsp;&nbsp;We often have occasion to warn you to consider&nbsp;particular&nbsp;wrinkles in the&nbsp;rules that affect your particular jurisdiction.&nbsp; But&nbsp;not this time.&nbsp;&nbsp;In every U.S. jurisdiction, lawyers have an obligation not to disclose confidential&nbsp;information relating to the representation of a client without the client&rsquo;s consent.
That duty covers a&nbsp;wide swath of information learned through the representation.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s much broader than information that is protected by the evidentiary attorney client privilege.
And so many ordinary things you might do without thinking twice can jeopardize your client&rsquo;s confidential information &mdash; as&nbsp;Cobb and&nbsp;Dowd have perhaps discovered.&nbsp; (Some have <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/18/16327078/ty-cobb-lawyer-restaurant">suggested </a>that the incident was so blatant that it must have been&nbsp;intentional.&nbsp; But intentional or not, disclosure still requires client consent.&nbsp; The Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/us/politics/trump-lawyers-white-house-russia-mcgahn-ty-cobb.html?smid=pl-share&amp;_r=0">reported</a> that, according to its sources, the disclosure prompted&nbsp;White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II to &ldquo;sharply reprimand[] Mr. Cobb for his indiscretion.&rdquo;)
The list could go on ad infinitum, but here are just a few&nbsp;examples of every-day&nbsp;things that can breach your duty of confidentiality:
<ul>
<li>schmoozing about work while standing in line at Starbucks;</li>
<li>doing client pitches;</li>
<li>sharing war stories with friends over cocktails;</li>
<li>talking on a cell phone in a public place;</li>
<li>reading client documents on a laptop while sitting next to someone on a train or plane;</li>
<li>forgetting documents on a restaurant table or in a cab;</li>
<li>forwarding client-related emails to people outside your firm;</li>
<li>sharing documents or forms created for a client with friends or other clients.</li>
</ul>
You must remember this...
Remember, confidential information also includes &ldquo;disclosures by a lawyer that do not in themselves reveal protected information but could reasonably lead to the discovery of such information by a third person.&rdquo;&nbsp; (<a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_6_confidentiality_of_information/comment_on_rule_1_6.html">Model Rule 1.6 cmt. 4</a>.)&nbsp; In other words, just leaving out names doesn&rsquo;t help, if someone can figure out who you are talking about.
And, as the President&rsquo;s lawyers perhaps learned, when your client realizes that you have disclosed confidential information,&nbsp;&ldquo;oops&rdquo; may not be&nbsp;a complete&nbsp;excuse.
Bottom line:&nbsp; You might never work&nbsp;at the White House, but make it your default mode not to discuss client business outside of your office, and you won&rsquo;t go wrong.

Loose lawyer lips give NYT reporter a scoop: confidentiality lessons

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