What is the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 considering re law blogs?

As I shared yesterday, the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 has taken no action to date limiting a lawyer’s use of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other online client development tools. If the Commission does take any action, and it’s far from clear that it will, it’s going to be a few years before we’ll see any amendments to the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

The Commission outlined the matters it’s considering in its Paper of September 20 (pdf). What is the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 considering re law blogs? Not much.

From the Paper:

1. Under what circumstances should the Model Rules of Professional Conduct govern a lawyer’s participation in blogs, given that such activities often have both an advertising and non-advertising function?
2. Should the Commission draft a policy statement for the House of Delegates to consider or a white paper that sets out certain guidelines regarding lawyers’ use of blogging? Alternatively, or in addition, should the Commission propose amendments to Model Rules 1.18 (duties of confidentiality and conflict of interest re prospective clients) or 7.2 (advertising of legal services) or the Comments to those Model Rules in order to explain when these activities might trigger ethical obligations under the Model Rules? If so, what amendments should the Commission offer?
3. If lawyers leave comments on blogs, are those comments subject to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct? Should the Commission offer a policy statement or white paper that sets out certain guidelines regarding lawyers’ use of such activity? Alternatively, or in addition, should the Commission propose amendments to Model Rules 1.18 or 7.2 or the Comments to those Model Rules in order to explain when such activity might trigger ethical obligations under the Model Rules? If so, what amendments should the Commission offer?

That’s it. Not much, if anything, to be worried about.

• Should blogs be governed by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct? I am not aware of any lawyers on The LexBlog Network of over 3,500 lawyer authors who don’t already believe legal ethics rules apply to their blogs. The Commission’s telling lawyers that the Model Rules of Professional Conduct apply to blogs is telling us the obvious.
• The Commission may draft some guidelines or Comments to the Model Rules in order to explain when blogging might trigger ethical obligations under the Model Rules. Okay. I don’t know any lawyers who don’t already believe blogging triggers ethical obligations.
• The Commission may draft some guidelines or Comments to the Model Rules in order to explain when a lawyers leaving comments on a blog might trigger ethical obligations under the Model Rules. Okay. I don’t know any lawyers who don’t already believe leaving comments on blogs triggers ethical obligations.

There’s been a bit of hysteria on the blogosphere that the ABA may be outlawing blogs and other online client development tools. There’s nothing to it.

Law blogs are here to stay and the ABA and its Commission on Ethics 20/20 is not considering action to limit or curtail blogging by lawyers.