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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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<a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2016/07/Microsoft-products.jpg"><img style="max-width: 100%;height: auto;max-width: 100%;height: auto" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2673" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2016/07/Microsoft-products-250x300.jpg" alt="Microsoft apps on Apple iPhone 6S Plus Screen" width="250" height="300"></a>Microsoft&rsquo;s plans to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion was the talk of the tech world late last month.&nbsp; The combination of&nbsp;these behemoths&nbsp;is going to give&nbsp;Microsoft access to all LinkedIn&rsquo;s data.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-gains-link-to-a-network-1465922927">Microsoft&rsquo;s CEO has given some examples </a>of the potential synergies that will result, like &ldquo;getting a feed of potential experts from LinkedIn whenever Office notices you&rsquo;re working on a relevant task.&rdquo;&nbsp; But legal ethics issues loom, involving our&nbsp;duty of confidentiality under <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_6_confidentiality_of_information.html">Rule 1.6</a>.
Aim:&nbsp; monetizing your links
With its <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/grantfeller/2016/06/14/this-is-the-real-reason-microsoft-bought-linkedin/#25789ddd4acd">433 million members</a>, LinkedIn is the #1 professional networking site for lawyers:&nbsp;&nbsp;93-99 percent of lawyers across firm-size categories have profiles, according to statistics from the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.americanbar.org/groups/departments_offices/legal_technology_resources/publications.html">ABA</a> and <a href="http://www.mycase.com/blog/2015/02/lawyers-social-media-2015-infographic/">others</a>.
The main thing that Microsoft gets out of the LinkedIn deal is data about you.&nbsp; As a writer for Forbes <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/grantfeller/2016/06/14/this-is-the-real-reason-microsoft-bought-linkedin/#7febf27e4acd">noted</a>,&nbsp;LinkedIn &ldquo;knows where people work, their skills, ambitions, who they went to school with and what interest groups people share. LinkedIn knows about people better than Microsoft does. Or did.&rdquo;&nbsp; Now, Microsoft&nbsp;will be able to&nbsp;combine that data with all the many products you use, from your Outlook calendar to Skype to Word.
What&rsquo;s the money angle?&nbsp; LinkedIn&rsquo;s CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-microsoft-changing-way-world-works-jeff-weiner">described </a>how the combination could give &ldquo;sponsored content customers the ability to reach Microsoft users anywhere across the Microsoft ecosystem.&rdquo;&nbsp; In other words, to advertise to you in a totally targeted way as you work with any Microsoft product in its &ldquo;ecosystem.&rdquo;&nbsp; Pop-up ads for a treatise when we&rsquo;re working on a brief in Word?&nbsp; That <a href="http://abovethelaw.com/2016/06/this-week-in-legal-tech-what-microsofts-purchase-of-linkedin-means-for-lawyers/">would be a stupid move</a>, notes legal tech guru Bob Ambrogi, and hopefully Microsoft won&rsquo;t go there.
What are the ethics issues?
But this combination does&nbsp;raise some possible&nbsp;ethics issues, centering on your duty of confidentiality.
The confidentiality rule says that you &ldquo;shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client,&rdquo; with very limited exceptions.&nbsp; The duty includes not disclosing the identity of your client, which in many instances can be extremely sensitive.
In&nbsp;a <a href="http://www.stuartteicher.com/Trends/?p=649">good analysis </a>&nbsp;of the issue, ethics educator Stuart Teicher&nbsp;points out that&nbsp;leveraging data in our Outlook calendar can cross that exact line by revealing our client relationships.&nbsp; Teicher posits that on Outlook, Microsoft &ldquo;might see a potential client introduction (which lists Pete Smith as present), a court appearance (which lists Pete Smith as present), and a meeting for settlement purposes (which lists Pete Smith as present).&nbsp; It&rsquo;s not going to be too tough for the Microsoft bots to figure out that Pete Smith is your client.&rdquo;
Or, says Teicher,&nbsp;looking at Outlook might show that you are heading to Chicago.&nbsp; Microsoft might &ldquo;then cross reference our LinkedIn connections and send a message to one of them that says something like &lsquo;Your connection Bruce Kramer is going to Chicago next week.&nbsp; Why don&rsquo;t you look him up?&#8217;&rdquo;&nbsp; If the purpose of your trip is to confidentially scout out a potential acquisition on behalf of your client, your client doesn&rsquo;t want data out there from which the seller or its agents can figure out what your interest might be.
Keep your eyes open
Nothing like this has happened yet &mdash; the mega-combo has just been announced, after all &mdash;&nbsp;and the ethics issues are only potential ones.&nbsp; But this development bears watching.&nbsp; As Teicher correctly points out, that&rsquo;s the way to fulfill your <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_1_competence.html">duty of competence</a>, which includes staying up to date on changes in the law, &ldquo;including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.&rdquo;

core/freeform

Ethics

Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Business of Law

Microsoft acquisition of LinkedIn could spell ethics issues for lawyers