May Vermont lawyers use cloud services for client files and communications?

Plain-English summary

The committee considered remote storage, backups, email, calendaring, and synchronization systems used with client information and property. It concluded that Vermont lawyers could use cloud services if they took reasonable precautions to protect confidentiality and ensure the security and accessibility of client materials. The opinion applied competence, confidentiality, safekeeping, and nonlawyer-supervision rules.

The committee declined to impose one mandatory technology checklist. It identified matters that might inform reasonable diligence, including vendor security, access and retrieval limits, user-agreement terms, the sensitivity of information, and notice if third parties seek or gain access. Server location alone did not bar cloud use, though it could affect access and legal terms.

The opinion also cautioned that a lawyer might not be able to rely solely on remote digital storage for original property such as wills or records subject to permanent-retention duties. It treated web-based email and calendars under the same security-and-access inquiry.

In practice

Under this opinion, use of a cloud service turns on precautions suited to the client material and service. The committee gave factors for that assessment while expressly declining to set a fixed list of conditions that every lawyer must satisfy.

Common questions

Q: Did the opinion permit cloud storage of client data?

A: Yes, if reasonable precautions kept the property secure and accessible and protected confidential information.

Q: Did a server outside Vermont make cloud use impermissible?

A: No. The committee said server location was not a categorical bar, although it could affect access, backup, or choice-of-law considerations.

Q: Could original wills be kept only as remote digital copies?

A: The opinion cautioned that sole reliance on remote digital storage might be inappropriate for original property such as wills or documents subject to permanent-retention duties.

Background and rules framework

The committee discussed Vermont Rules 1.6, 1.1, 1.15(a)(1), and 5.3. It surveyed state ethics opinions on remote storage before applying a reasonableness approach to Vermont lawyers' cloud use.

Citations and references

Rules of Professional Conduct:

• Vermont Rules of Professional Conduct 1.6, 1.1, 1.15(a)(1), 5.3

Other opinions cited:

• Iowa State Bar Association Ethics & Practice Committee Opinion 11-01, cloud due diligence
• Pennsylvania Bar Association Formal Opinion 2011-200, cloud safeguards
• State Bar of Arizona Ethics Opinion 09-04, remote storage precautions

See also

• Vermont Ethics Op. 09-01: Metadata in electronic documents
• Vermont Ethics Op. 11-01: Lawyer-owned online service

Source

• Landing page: Vermont Bar Association client-confidence opinions
• Original PDF: Opinion 10-06