Disaster Preparedness for the Law Practitioner

Every lawyer needs a disaster plan for their practice. Not only to save their livelihood but also to continue to meet their ethical obligations to the clients. Winter Storm Uri taught that no area in Texas is truly safe from the danger posed by disasters. It’s not a matter of if your office is affected it’s when your office is affected.  Listen to our very own hosts from LANWT, LSLA, and TRLA to learn everything you need to know to be prepared.
Visit our website at https://texasdisasterlegalhelp.org/


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Transcript

Disaster Preparedness for the Law Practitioner

Recorded June 3rd, 2021

Speakers:  Stuart Campbell - LANWT     Belinda Martinez - LSLA    Pablo Almaguer - TRLA

Transcript

hello folks uh this is Pablo

00:41

Almaguer from Texas RioGrande Legal Aid

00:43

welcoming you to

00:44

another episode of our podcast here for

00:46

texas disaster legal help

00:48

uh this is an interesting one. We’re

00:49

going to do it's actually going to be

00:51

the

00:51

moderators or the hosts here that are

00:53

going to be giving the presentation

00:54

it'll be an interesting one

00:55

uh that'll be described to you soon

00:56

enough here by belinda, but first of all

00:58

let me tell you what we do who we are

01:00

and why we're here

01:01

we are a coordinated project between

01:03

legal aid of northwest texas lone star

01:04

legal aid and texas riogrande legal aid

01:07

aimed at improving access to justice for

01:08

those affected by disasters

01:10

our project allows both disaster

01:12

survivors and pro bono attorneys to

01:13

access critical resources in one place

01:15

while at the same time

01:16

making it easier to connect disaster

01:18

survivors needing help

01:20

legal help with the volunteer attorneys

01:22

willing to provide it

01:24

in this way the project team hopes to

01:25

increase the number of disaster survivor

01:27

clients who receive high quality legal

01:29

assistance

01:30

as they continue to navigate the

01:31

recovery process after a disaster

01:33

and provide the support mentorship pro

01:35

bono attorneys need to achieve

01:36

success with that introduction let me go

01:39

ahead and go over to belinda to tell us

01:40

what we're going to be doing today

01:43

all right thank you as always Pablo

01:46

this episode is going to be about

01:48

preparing your law office for disaster

01:50

every lawyer needs a disaster plan for

01:52

their practice

01:54

not only to save your livelihood but

01:56

also to continue to meet

01:57

the ethical obligations to your clients

02:00

winter storm uri taught

02:01

everyone that no area in texas is truly

02:03

safe from the dangers posed by various

02:05

disasters

02:07

it's not a matter of if your office is

02:09

affected here's what you do

02:11

it's when it's affected this is what

02:13

you're going to do

02:15

lawyers need to think not just about

02:16

saving their building but how are they

02:18

going to rebuild how will they handle

02:19

communications document handing

02:22

how to operate if your staff doesn't

02:23

have access to the equipment

02:26

this podcast is going to cover a lot of

02:27

that how to create an emergency plan

02:30

Plan  for disaster minimize the damage

02:32

how to make sure you have proper

02:34

coverage to rebuild and attorney's

02:36

ethical obligations to their clients

02:38

during these periods

02:40

to start us off here's our own stuart

02:42

campbell

02:43

with a little bit more on emergency

02:44

planning stuart

02:46

hi everybody i'm stuart campbell and i'm

02:50

a housing attorney i am by no means a uh

02:53

disaster recovery expert um nor have i

02:56

ever owned my own law firm so

02:58

uh take that the way you will but um

03:01

i'm gonna be relying heavily on the

03:03

disaster resource guide from the aba the

03:05

american bar association

03:06

and the most recent texas bar journal

03:08

that just got published on june 1st

03:11

we are recording on june 2nd 2021

03:14

there's a great piece called are you

03:16

prepared by john browning in the most

03:18

recent version of the journal

03:20

and we're going to link to both of those

03:21

resources in our notes but also on our

03:24

website

03:24

just so if there's something that i miss

03:27

which i undoubtedly will

03:28

you can refer back to the source

03:30

material

03:32

for what we are talking about but

03:35

i want to talk to you about knowing your

03:37

risks and that kind of falls down into

03:39

two different categories

03:41

one of them is emergency planning and

03:43

the other one is how to minimize damage

03:45

and restart your normal business

03:47

operation so let's start

03:48

let's start talking about emergency

03:50

planning

03:52

this might come as a surprise but

03:54

everyone should have a

03:56

I almost said discovery control plan

03:58

disaster recovery plan

04:01

for their office, you should absolutely

04:03

have that ready

04:04

and if you don't have it now you need it

04:07

because you never know when the next

04:08

thing is going to happen

04:09

we just experienced three months ago

04:13

a once in a century ice storm that

04:15

knocked down communications and like

04:16

electricity for over a week and some

04:18

and there's actually some of my clients

04:20

still not having water

04:21

because of this and so and here we are

04:24

in june

04:24

and so it's really important to know uh

04:27

what to do in

04:28

the in the case there is a crazy

04:30

disaster or not so crazy disaster

04:33

um uh and I’m going to try to set out

04:35

some key priorities that you need to

04:38

establish and have ready to go for your

04:40

own disaster recovery plan

04:43

it is really important that you have one

04:45

but if you have one it's really

04:47

important that all employees

04:48

know that you have one know what their

04:50

roles are it's also really important

04:52

that you know

04:53

you know what your partner's roles are

04:54

every employee should know what

04:56

the other group of employees roles are

04:58

that way if someone can't do their job

05:00

because they've been affected by the

05:01

natural disaster which hopefully they

05:03

haven't but it happens

05:05

you can know what needs to be you can

05:07

assess what needs to happen

05:08

and know what your roles may be so how

05:11

do you create a recovery plan

05:13

a disaster plan again setting priorities

05:16

the main priorities are going to be one

05:18

protecting human life

05:20

or in employment terms your personnel

05:23

two communication both with your

05:25

employees and your clients

05:27

three your work your workspace and

05:29

equipment and then four

05:31

those hard copy documents for human life

05:34

you want to establish

05:35

for your personnel you want to establish

05:37

the core group of folks to keep normal

05:40

operations running

05:41

at legal aid that's our IT team and

05:44

key members of our support staff with we

05:47

have five people on staff at legal aid

05:49

that are full-time IT

05:50

that's all they do and without them we

05:52

wouldn't have made it through covid we

05:53

wouldn't even made it to the first month

05:55

of covid

05:56

without them we wouldn't have made it

05:57

through this ice storm and so

05:59

identify the core group of folks that

06:02

you need to

06:04

keep your normal business operations

06:05

running um

06:07

and uh and for a lowly staff attorney

06:10

like me i was not on that core group of

06:11

people which is probably good

06:13

um i'm curious i'm gonna call some

06:15

people out Belinda

06:18

Pablo did you guys have and were you guys

06:20

a part of the disaster recovery plan for

06:22

your team itself during the ice storm or

06:24

did you have folks already ready to do

06:25

that

06:28

I know at lone star we also have a

06:30

dedicated tech team

06:31

that was already had a plan in place

06:34

because here in Houston

06:36

we'd already gone through Harvey when

06:39

the pandemic hit

06:40

we were a little bit more prepared the

06:41

The only thing that we had to kind of

06:43

scrabble on was the remote access

06:46

we had something in place it wasn't the

06:48

best so we ended up

06:50

you know playing with zoom Microsoft

06:51

teams etc to kind of bring us up

06:54

which means when the winter storm uri

06:56

hit

06:57

it almost didn't affect us as long as

06:59

you had electricity you had access

07:01

so that's awesome Pablo yeah our

07:04

disaster recovery team

07:06

actually kind of throughout the year

07:07

reminds us for example to update our

07:09

disaster uh

07:10

you know recovery plan so we know where

07:12

we're going to be what's going to happen

07:13

and also reminds it for that so

07:16

we come into action and do whatever they

07:18

you know they might tell us you know to

07:19

do and and

07:20

it's sort of like all hands on deck when

07:21

it does happen so they might

07:23

set up a clinic or go to a DRC center or

07:26

need access info or help with

07:28

intake and we kind of take our lead from

07:30

the disaster recovery team

07:32

uh but you know what you just mentioned

07:34

is really important I mean what does

07:35

happen sometimes is that

07:36

and they'd say a disaster does hit close

07:38

to the office, we have to find our

07:40

employees first make sure that

07:41

everybody's safe and if you don't have

07:42

it

07:43

you know a place to locate the contact

07:45

information

07:46

uh you might not be able to do that so

07:48

that's always important to plan ahead of

07:49

that

07:50

once we're safe within the office and

07:51

the program then we move forward and

07:52

help the clients

07:53

you see that's what makes you a good

07:55

co-host because you perfectly segue into

07:56

my next

07:57

my next point uh yeah I knew what's

07:59

going to come out

08:00

it's almost as if there's it's almost as

08:02

if we're sharing a google document right

08:04

now I don't know

08:05

maybe yeah but uh

08:08

yeah so make sure your employees are

08:09

safe that's the next thing right and and

08:11

the best way you can do that is to make

08:13

sure the office itself

08:14

can be is prepared in a case like Pablo

08:17

said a natural disaster

08:19

occurs while you're at the office um

08:21

there's a few things I want to point out

08:22

here there's a great

08:23

checklist that CNN published and we're

08:26

going to link to that as well

08:28

uh that addresses some things that

08:30

you're going to want

08:31

in your office, this list is more geared

08:33

towards the residential protection but

08:35

there's things that you're going to want

08:36

also in your office first and foremost

08:38

i'm going to point out four things

08:39

you're going to want a first aid kit and

08:41

you're going to want fire extinguishers

08:43

and those need to be clearly

08:44

labeled and marked out to where if you

08:46

need to find them with a flashlight you

08:47

can in our office we've got

08:49

big yellow labels on cabinets

08:52

next to our mail room that says first

08:54

aid

08:54

fire and so you can't miss it if you if

08:57

the lights are on it's reflected

08:59

it's blinding so uh those are huge

09:02

extra batteries are huge I’m also going

09:04

to talk about batteries

09:05

when we talk more about tech in a couple

09:07

minutes but having extra batteries both

09:09

for flashlights but also for

09:11

uh different electronics are very very

09:14

very important

09:15

all right so let's move to the next step

09:18

which is communications

09:20

two just short things here you're going

09:22

to want to be able to establish

09:23

communications with your employees

09:26

what we have at legal aid is we have

09:29

these uh

09:30

these lists that they publish with the

09:32

with the employee’s consent

09:34

every employee gets this hard copy list

09:37

of everyone's

09:38

uh at least either cell phone or home

09:42

phone

09:43

and a personal email account it doesn't

09:46

have to be the one you use but it can be

09:47

one that you

09:48

use for everything but one that you can

09:49

at least have access to that way

09:52

if everything at work goes down you at

09:55

least can contact somebody

09:57

using their personal information if that

09:59

needs to happen

10:00

and you should also establish who is

10:02

reporting to who in the event of a

10:04

natural disaster

10:05

right are you going to be reporting

10:06

directly to your supervisor who is

10:08

keeping tab on

10:09

tabs on who and have a backup just in

10:11

case that happens in my case

10:14

i directly report to my supervisor if

10:16

everything shuts down

10:17

i'm calling brent who's my boss and i

10:19

say hey brent everything shuts down

10:21

if i can't get a hold of him it goes to

10:23

the admin secretary

10:24

so have a clear path make sure your

10:26

employees know who they need to keep

10:27

tabs on in the event of a disaster

10:30

and then with your clients and Pablo is

10:32

going to talk about this at length

10:34

there are certain things you need to

10:35

know certain things you need to

10:37

establish early on

10:39

in the in the wake of a disaster one you

10:41

need to let them know if your firm was

10:42

affected and how it was affected

10:44

two you know let them know the best way

10:47

to communicate with you and then three

10:49

when they should expect things to return

10:51

to normalcy

10:53

but again Pablo is going to talk more

10:55

about the ethical considerations of

10:56

communication with your clients in the

10:57

wake of a natural disaster in just a

10:58

moment

11:00

um another key element for your

11:02

discovery

11:03

again discovery for your recovery uh

11:05

plan

11:06

is the workspace and equipment we're

11:09

going to talk about that a little

11:11

at length in about two minutes but uh

11:14

main takeaway there talk to an IT

11:16

specialist to figure out what you need

11:17

again we're very blessed at lone star at

11:19

TRLA

11:20

and at legal aid to have

11:23

good It  teams, and so we have those IT

11:26

specialists in-house, but you're probably

11:27

if you're a smaller firm or if you're a

11:29

solo practitioner

11:30

you might want to talk to an IT person

11:32

to figure out what the best plan is for

11:33

your firm

11:35

but for the documents again, the last

11:37

element of your consideration

11:38

on your plan have a

11:42

develop a plan if you cannot access your

11:44

documents

11:45

if you already possess documents during

11:47

a natural disaster or if your documents

11:49

are destroyed by a disaster

11:51

right for us at legal aid, here's an

11:53

example that we use

11:55

and our work from home policy in order

11:57

for us to maintain our work from home

11:58

during covid

11:59

we had to show our admin that we had

12:02

the ability to lock and store

12:04

documents safely they wouldn't let us

12:07

take documents home

12:08

they would let us work from home but

12:09

they wouldn't let us take physical

12:10

documents home

12:11

unless I literally took a picture of my

12:13

safe or a drawer that would lock

12:16

and said this is what we're doing um so

12:18

Personally, I have two fireproof document

12:20

safes

12:21

and so whenever I take a document home

12:23

if I’m not currently using it goes into

12:25

safe

12:26

um so yeah, make sure you have a plan and

12:29

to

12:29

to control your documents if a natural

12:31

disaster strikes

12:32

all right, so minimizing damages

12:36

damages of course legal brain again

12:38

minimizing damage

12:39

and restarting your business after a

12:43

natural disaster

12:44

this is all about technology, right tech

12:46

tech tech um again

12:48

consult with a tech guy tech girl tech

12:50

person to figure out the best

12:52

way to

12:55

that your firm needs to address these

12:58

certain issues, but I’m going to hit four

13:00

real quick one is backups

13:03

there's a whole bunch of different type

13:05

of data and email backup systems

13:07

there's both on-site and cloud-based

13:10

there's these

13:11

There are certain types of backups called

13:12

network-attached storage

13:14

and storage area networks that can be

13:16

extremely helpful

13:17

if physical computers are corrupted or

13:20

data is

13:21

uh is somehow compromised

13:24

uh during a natural disaster, these are

13:26

local

13:28

locally held physical backups with like

13:31

terabytes

13:32

on terabytes of information

13:35

those can help a lot if

13:38

they're not compromised themselves that

13:40

they can

13:42

they can get your operation up and

13:44

running a lot faster

13:46

we have those at legal aid, I’m assuming

13:48

you all do, too every big firm has them

13:51

um if something goes down, you can

13:54

very quickly, go back on the backup and

13:56

pull that document or pull that that

13:58

case file

13:59

that said, maybe, for example,, you

14:02

uh work at TRLA old Fannin

14:05

street office, and it goes up in flames

14:06

oh, sorry, not TRLA lone star

14:09

yeah, um, when those are completely gone

14:12

Belinda you want to speak to that real

14:13

quick oh yeah for those in the audience

14:15

that don't know

14:16

uh lone star's main office here in

14:18

houston during harvey flooded

14:20

and then somehow caught fire and burned

14:22

down all right

14:23

so thank god for our backups right

14:26

and here's what again perfect because

14:30

uh those physical backups that are on

14:32

site

14:33

are vulnerable to just like to anything

14:36

physically that can be

14:37

that can corrupt physically just like

14:38

any other computer right if the building

14:40

burns down

14:41

like lone star's location in Houston uh

14:44

well those are gone too so it's really

14:46

important to have online cloud-based

14:47

backups

14:49

um these come with a price right but

14:52

different services

14:53

uh like carbonite iCloud google drives

14:56

we use the ones that are offered through

14:58

Microsoft uh

15:00

and so pretty crucial too, it might take

15:03

longer

15:03

right but it's really important to have

15:05

it just in case

15:07

something really crazy does happen like

15:08

a building getting burnt down

15:10

the next really important thing about

15:12

tech that you that you're going to want

15:13

to

15:13

have in the event of a natural disaster

15:16

is to make sure you have an email server

15:18

that does

15:18

these next four things you're going to

15:21

want to make sure your email can both

15:24

send and receive email while the power

15:26

is out

15:27

now if you're a tech person and you

15:28

heard me say that you're probably like

15:29

yeah duh

15:30

but uh a lot of emails don't have that

15:33

um

15:33

and so if you're operating on an older

15:35

email system

15:37

that only is functional whenever you're

15:38

connected to the internet well be

15:40

careful

15:40

you're gonna wanna you're gonna wanna

15:42

have one that has a cloud-based

15:44

recovery system okay I know ours has it i

15:48

know

15:49

i assume i think we're all on office

15:51

365's right so

15:53

yeah we all use one that has that you

15:55

want to make sure your that that

15:56

backup also can synchronize with your

15:58

mailbox in your calendar once power is

15:59

restored

16:01

and here's a really really important

16:02

thing and I’m going to talk about this

16:03

one just for just a couple of seconds

16:06

you want to have an email systems that

16:08

email system that provides an alternate

16:09

web-based email transport system if your

16:12

normal email server is corrupted now

16:15

this made me uh very angry

16:19

recently because uh it also saved a

16:21

whole bunch of us

16:23

um from probably doing some bad stuff

16:25

but

16:27

we lost our email server whenever the

16:28

ice storm happened completely gone

16:31

um and so for about four days we had no

16:34

email

16:36

until they clicked in our IT guys

16:38

over the weekend clicked in our

16:40

web-based email transport system

16:41

so instead of having typical outlook or

16:43

office 365 we

16:45

we went back to a web-based email

16:47

transport system

16:48

and saved our firm basically and we had

16:50

to use that for a few

16:51

or for a little bit until our normal

16:53

email was restored that's why it's super

16:55

important it's actually happened to us

16:56

it's happened to me

16:57

and so um not being able to communicate

17:00

with clients in court

17:01

uh is uh pretty scary and as Pablo

17:03

will say can probably get you in trouble

17:05

and so uh super important to have that

17:07

backup system to have that

17:10

um backup email web-based transport

17:12

system

17:13

in the event that your normal email is

17:14

compromised or corrupted

17:16

or hacked in some way all right

17:19

internet access pretty crucial

17:21

everything we just talked about involves

17:22

internet access

17:24

and there's a couple of things I want to

17:26

talk about here we operate under a

17:28

vpn 

17:29

is a virtual private network that

17:32

provides

17:33

uh kind of end-to-end encryption

17:36

on communications um through your

17:39

computer

17:39

through uh your email and stuff like

17:41

that so I had a tech guy explain to me

17:44

like if you're on a public wi-fi say for

17:46

your example you're in a natural

17:48

disaster and uh

17:50

your office internet's down well you're

17:51

going to go to what your public library

17:53

sure that's a public

17:55

wi-fi system very vulnerable to hackers

17:58

very vulnerable to people who are going

17:59

to try to steal your data

18:00

if you're on that you better be using

18:03

some type of encryption service

18:04

or a VPN because what a VPN does is

18:08

if you're on one of these public servers

18:09

he explained it like it's one of these

18:11

big

18:11

mixer highway systems so we have all these

18:13

on-ramps and offerings

18:15

well if you're on your own vpn you're in

18:17

the subway by yourself underneath all

18:18

that

18:19

and that's how I described it and so

18:22

it's the best way to protect yourself

18:24

whenever using a public internet service

18:27

um

18:28

and uh another really important thing

18:30

and i know we have these here at legal

18:32

aid for

18:32

internet access and this is not a

18:34

forever fix but it is a temporary fix

18:36

during a power outage

18:38

is what's called an ups right it's an

18:40

uninterruptible power supply these

18:42

are backup batteries for modems routers

18:44

servers and wi-fi extenders

18:46

and so again for the servers they're

18:48

pretty short these

18:49

power these backup power supplies if the

18:51

lights go off they can they only last

18:53

about an hour

18:55

but the batteries for these modems and

18:56

routers can last a lot longer

18:58

and so um you can have

19:01

internet even if there's no power if you

19:04

have these uninterruptable power

19:05

supplies backup batteries

19:07

super important a lot of big firms have

19:09

them a lot of big companies have them

19:11

and so that's pretty crucial to

19:13

maintaining internet access even if the

19:14

power is out

19:16

and then lastly damage control

19:20

and then I’m going to toss it over to

19:21

belinda but damage control this is some

19:24

common sense stuff I think surge

19:25

protectors I don't want to talk too much

19:27

about it I have a few notes here but

19:29

um basically really quick if it if it's

19:32

old

19:32

replace it those things can die if it

19:35

has a flashing light on it it's probably

19:37

dead

19:37

replace it and you can tell by

19:40

if you're in the market for buying one

19:42

they have different joules,  joules of the

19:44

whatever the metric for electricity i

19:46

don't know

19:47

i'm not a science guy but they have

19:48

different joule ratings

19:50

uh-oh getting a call ignore

19:54

different joule ratings on these things

19:56

and so the higher the rating the more

19:57

protection you're going to get

19:59

but make sure you're doing that at least

20:01

the minimum and making sure that

20:02

if there's a power flash you're not

20:04

getting your computer and all your

20:05

backup

20:06

stuff right um that's pretty common

20:08

sense i think

20:10

one thing that we implement at legal aid

20:11

is an inventory

20:13

there is a barcode on every mouse there

20:16

is a serial number on every keyboard

20:18

and monitor and computer that we use

20:22

and so in the event, things are destroyed

20:24

we can quickly identify what we don't

20:26

have and what we do have

20:29

and that way IT knows okay i need to

20:30

order this or

20:32

this data might be compromised or

20:33

someone might have xyz

20:36

once you realize what you do and don't

20:38

have you can then determine what needs

20:39

to happen next

20:40

like I just said either wiping it doing

20:42

a remote wipe which we're going to talk

20:43

about just

20:44

next or purchasing it purchasing a new

20:48

replacement thing so like I just said

20:51

remote wipe

20:52

uh this is a software or a piece of it's

20:55

a

20:55

basically an app you can download on

20:57

your computer um

20:58

your IT folks will probably more know

21:01

more about this but if your

21:03

phone laptop tablet are stolen there is

21:06

an access there is a

21:07

a way to where once it's turned on again

21:10

it can be wiped completely

21:12

so everything in there is gone super

21:14

important because now we're in this age

21:16

where

21:17

especially if you're volunteering as a

21:18

pro bono attorney you're going to be

21:20

helping us

21:20

on either your personal or your other

21:21

work computer and

21:23

um we're in this age where everyone is

21:25

bringing their own devices to work right

21:27

everyone is working

21:29

on their own cell phones or on their own

21:31

laptops and so

21:32

if your client's information is on your

21:34

personal laptop and that thing gets

21:35

stolen during a natural disaster where

21:36

you're going to want to make sure

21:37

they're protected you're going to want

21:38

to make sure you can

21:40

wipe it remotely and then lastly another

21:42

common sense thing

21:44

portable phone chargers I know that

21:45

sounds again like common sense

21:47

that is a lesson I learned hard in

21:49

February whenever we went without power

21:51

for a little bit

21:52

because our phones died and everyone

21:53

freaked out because we couldn't call

21:54

anybody

21:56

and so make sure you have a portable phone

21:58

chargers uh

21:59

ways to prolong your battery life turn

22:01

off Bluetooth turn off location services

22:03

um but uh make sure you have portable

22:05

phone chargers

22:07

and that way you can call your grandma

22:09

or your boss depends on what your

22:10

priorities are

22:11

are and say, hey look, we're good we're

22:13

fine

22:14

um but so those are some damage control

22:17

things again we're going to link to

22:21

these different guides, the aba guide and

22:23

the state bar journal guide

22:25

and also the CNN checklist to make sure

22:27

you everyone listening has access to the

22:29

information that I just gave

22:31

a more detailed access to it

22:34

but for now, I’m going to pass it over to

22:36

belinda to talk more about FEMA

22:38

and insurance thanks, Stuart

22:42

okay so Stuart’s part was basically

22:45

what to do to minimize your damage

22:47

before the disaster hits, okay

22:49

disaster's hit hopefully, everyone is

22:51

safe but

22:53

now it's time to start rebuilding and

22:55

get your business back up and running

22:58

everyone's familiar with insurance if

23:00

you have any type of mortgage on your

23:01

property you

23:02

generally have to have a policy or if

23:04

you rent, you should have renters

23:05

insurance

23:06

and commercial insurance will cover fire

23:08

hail storms

23:09

burglary um some policies will even

23:12

cover the cost of reproducing

23:14

Important  documents

23:15

or moving records or files or equipment

23:18

to

23:19

avoid further loss and sometimes pay for

23:21

temporary storage

23:22

depending on your policy, however these

23:26

policies do not cover any flood damage

23:29

and as some of you out there learned and

23:31

some of our own clients learned

23:33

with uri may not cover damage from

23:36

burst pipes either

23:37

so let's get into it basically if you're

23:41

in the market

23:42

for any type of flood insurance, and i'm

23:44

going to talk mostly about flood

23:46

because my agency is in the southeast

23:49

area

23:50

that's usually the disasters we see so

23:55

and once again, um, most people understand

23:57

that

23:58

fire hail storms that's covered on a

23:59

normal policy so

24:03

in the market for flood insurance, two

24:04

major types um

24:06

there's the national flood insurance

24:07

program and private insurance

24:10

uh national flood insurance program or

24:12

nfip

24:13

managed by the federal emergency

24:14

management agency FEMA

24:17

and generally, it's a good

24:20

basic policy very affordable

24:23

and private you can get private flood

24:25

insurance

24:27

it can be more expensive but generally

24:30

you have more damage coverage and

24:32

sometimes better payouts

24:36

nfip's general property form maxes out

24:39

for buildings at 500 000

24:41

and also maxes out on personal property

24:43

at 500 000.

24:45

if you need any additional funds you're

24:48

gonna have to apply for an sba loan

24:50

uh that maxes out at two million but

24:52

that is a loan

24:53

you're going to have to pay that back

24:57

also a big difference is coverage

25:01

and if an nfip policy single-payer policy

25:05

only pays for direct physical loss from

25:08

the flood damage

25:09

you know as defined by the policy and

25:10

basically most of the policies are the

25:12

same

25:13

being the government it covers overflow

25:16

from sea tidal waters that sort of thing

25:19

runoff from any surface water which

25:21

means the lake the river

25:22

the bayou overflows uh

25:25

mudflow like lands collapse

25:29

mud has come into the house or

25:32

really any direct damage from the

25:34

flooding for example

25:35

no flood waters got into your house but

25:38

the flood

25:39

caused the sewer in your area to back up

25:41

and that's what got into your

25:42

office that would be covered as a direct

25:44

result

25:47

however under the FEMA policy

25:51

you can only insure one building just

25:54

like their

25:55

homeowners policy you could only insure

25:58

your home

25:59

no garages no nothing like that same

26:01

thing only the office if you have

26:03

any uh storage buildings on your

26:05

property or any sheds that you keep

26:07

extra office equipment in

26:09

no not covered

26:13

and generally also with that policy

26:16

personal property coverage has to be

26:18

bought

26:18

separate which can be a good

26:21

a bad thing for example if you are

26:24

renting the building and you are

26:25

you just need that coverage you can just

26:28

buy that coverage

26:29

so good and bads on that

26:34

what it doesn't do and private generally

26:36

doesn't do this either

26:37

but it can it will not cover any losses

26:39

from

26:40

business interruptions such as loss of

26:42

income

26:43

if you're a very large firm you can

26:45

probably take the hit for being down for

26:47

a week

26:48

solo practitioner mid-size that could

26:51

kill you

26:52

i mean you still have to pay your bills

26:58

and i know myself i am still working at

27:01

home i have a home office

27:03

uh lone star legal aid still office is

27:06

still not opened up due to the pandemic

27:07

which

27:08

thank you lone star

27:12

so you need to think about possibly

27:13

covering a home office

27:16

if you have one

27:19

even if your home doesn't have any flood

27:22

insurance

27:22

and you're just kind of going to rely on

27:24

fema it will cover

27:26

your office equipment it does cover work

27:29

tools or trade tools

27:31

thing to remember though is that fema

27:33

payout

27:34

for everything maxes out at 33 000.

27:38

that may not be enough money to cover

27:40

office

27:41

and still get beds new couches

27:44

drywall etc um

27:48

so you're really going to want to look

27:49

to possibly getting your home

27:52

flood insurance coverage for that

27:57

so you have insurance how much am i

28:00

getting

28:00

that's usually the first thing i know

28:02

our clients come in

28:03

how much am i getting okay for an nfip

28:07

policy

28:08

it's basically just actual cash value

28:11

which if you think back to law school

28:13

that's basically just replacement costs

28:15

minus depreciation or if you

28:18

had to sell it tomorrow how much would

28:20

you get for it off of ebay

28:23

that being said i know a lot of offices

28:26

out there working on 10 year old

28:28

desktops and you know eight-year-old

28:30

printers so

28:34

what you get from your policy may not be

28:36

enough to actually purchase

28:38

new items and really get you up and

28:40

running again so it's something to think

28:42

about when you're thinking about

28:44

policy limits

28:48

and that's kind of where the real

28:52

difference between nfip and private

28:55

you're really just going to have to take

28:56

a good look at your office

28:58

good look at your equipment what are you

29:00

going to need

29:01

is that 500 000 going to be enough to

29:04

get you up and running again or do you

29:05

need more

29:06

um and also look for the actual cash

29:10

value

29:10

how much would you get would that be

29:12

enough to get you back in business

29:15

now that being said i said generally

29:18

private and nfip doesn't cover business

29:21

interruption

29:22

there is a separate type of policy

29:24

called business interruption insurance

29:27

insurance agents can cover it all

29:32

it can cover the lost income due to

29:35

being closed

29:38

it can allow you to

29:42

get what you would normally get your net

29:44

profit for your time close continue

29:46

your normal operating expenses including

29:48

payroll

29:49

and it kind of just bases off what you

29:54

normally make so it'll be an average but

29:57

it could be a lifesaver if you're a solo

29:58

practitioner or mid-size

30:00

another thing business interruption

30:02

coverage can also sometimes cover

30:04

is something called extra expense

30:06

coverage

30:08

and i think back to when i said

30:11

you only get actual cash value this can

30:14

help

30:15

cover that gap between what you're

30:17

getting and what it's going to cost to

30:19

get

30:19

new equipment so once again it's

30:23

something to think of um highly

30:26

recommend getting with your insurance

30:27

agent

30:28

even if you don't live in a flood zone

30:31

get with your insurance agent

30:32

take a look at those policies that you

30:34

have see if you need this

30:36

um because and remember also whenever

30:40

you buy policy takes 30 days to kick in

30:43

hurricane season's already here so

30:45

sooner rather than later

30:47

would be probably wise

30:51

all right and enough about the thrilling

30:53

world of insurance policies

30:55

we're going to move on to the ever

30:57

exciting ethical considerations

31:00

of a disaster so pablo if you'll take us

31:02

away

31:04

i don't know if i can definitely say

31:06

it's more exciting but i mean it's going

31:07

to be a lot more interesting if you end

31:09

up

31:09

so you know bumping into an issue

31:11

ethical watch during the disaster but

31:13

but thank you they mentioned a couple of

31:15

things it's going to segue over to the

31:16

discussion

31:18

uh something i'm going to talk about

31:19

later on here and uh it's very

31:22

sort of been mentioned here earlier

31:23

cyber security

31:25

one of the biggest things that come up

31:26

recently and it's in the news is the

31:28

ransomware happening to several

31:30

different companies even the office of

31:31

court administration

31:32

uh insurance purposes you might want to

31:34

be looking into these issues that

31:36

belinda mentioned there's also

31:37

apparently ransomware insurance to cover

31:39

you whenever there is a ransomware

31:41

attack

31:41

in case you want to pay that off just

31:43

something small but minor you might want

31:44

to look into it if your size is a

31:46

your firm is a large mid-sized one that

31:48

might need something like that

31:49

another other minor point for the solo

31:52

small firm practitioners and local bar

31:54

associations out there

31:56

the texas bar foundation and during

31:58

hurricane harvey after hurricane harvey

32:00

actually provided some grants and monies

32:01

to the local bar association i think it

32:03

was jefferson

32:04

i'm not sure which one it was to help

32:07

some of the with you know a low

32:09

amount or some amount of money for like

32:11

four members to recover from

32:14

from a disaster maybe something just

32:16

getting back on their feet whether it be

32:17

a small amount of equipment or

32:18

you know something to help them recover

32:21

a small little option to a

32:23

gap filler if you will the texas bar

32:24

foundation provides that to you

32:27

so before i get into the i mean the

32:29

first thing you're going to talk about i

32:30

guess when you do ethical considerations

32:32

is about the client safe or the client's

32:33

property or safe keeping right because

32:35

there's your property

32:36

concerned about things we talked about

32:37

here that are going to matter for you

32:38

and your office and your employees

32:40

but there's also of course the property

32:42

of the client um before i get into that

32:44

because there's a discussion about

32:45

money i want to give you a few tips

32:47

about this because you don't think about

32:48

it until

32:49

it happens just so we talked about right

32:50

now that um you know when

32:52

a disaster hits we have to kind of be

32:54

scrambling looking for each other at the

32:55

office making sure everyone's safe

32:57

if you have a plan accordingly ahead of

32:58

time you know how to get a hold of each

33:00

other and you can get one

33:01

less thing out of the way not to worry

33:03

about and what i want to recommend to

33:05

you all is considering your business

33:06

operation

33:07

the basics of it you want to have cash

33:09

money in hand

33:10

you want to have travelers checks

33:11

prepaid phones maybe prepaid charge

33:14

cards because

33:15

um when the power goes down banks close

33:17

you can't get

33:18

you know access to one or the other

33:21

atms are unusable or atms run out of  bills

33:24

for money and you know it's hard to

33:25

restock them

33:26

so you have to pay some bills you have

33:28

to pay employees you have to do some

33:30

of these uh overhead costs and having

33:32

some money around

33:33

or some cashiers and travelers checks

33:35

would be good to prepare ahead of time

33:36

if you know there's a hurricane coming

33:38

for example

33:38

some of the things you want to consider

33:40

are those or

33:42

a giant ice storm apparently and i've

33:43

got a warn about that i forgot

33:45

we've got ice storms to worry about too

33:48

um on savings it's usually recommended

33:51

about three or six three to six months

33:52

of money to cover overhead and bills if

33:54

you do that that'll give you

33:56

a good cushion there to recover from

33:58

whatever kind of disaster might hit

33:59

and that's exactly what was discovered

34:01

during this past pandemic

34:03

when the quarantine started it took

34:06

people about maybe you know

34:07

two to three months to just kind of get

34:08

their you know affairs in order and

34:11

be able to shift into the more virtual

34:13

um

34:14

a remote uh advocacy and working from

34:17

you know the

34:18

out of the office and if you have that

34:20

cushion of money set aside yes one again

34:22

one listing to worry about and

34:23

it also lets you focus on your clients

34:26

and your clients um

34:27

files one thing you want to keep also is

34:30

a list of payment obligations you'd be

34:32

surprised just how many you know

34:34

different kind of folks you have to pay

34:37

on a monthly basis from book

34:38

subscriptions to you know utilities and

34:40

other matters if you have that available

34:41

somewhere your assistant does that

34:43

good for you then you know who is going

34:45

to get paid and when

34:47

so the the money when it comes to

34:50

clients we know it now as we go into the

34:52

ethical aspects of it

34:53

uh texas disciplinary rules of professional

34:55

conduct 1.14

34:57

is the safe keeping of client property

35:00

that's the title of it and if you look

35:01

at it carefully that is a trust account

35:03

 rule

35:04

that's the one that requires you and

35:06

labels the clients

35:08

money as their property and you have to

35:09

save you know keep it safe of course and

35:12

separate and apart from your operating

35:13

costs

35:14

so you want to make sure that that trust

35:16

account um

35:17

is accessible if for any reason during

35:19

this you know remote uh

35:21

work from you know home or other places

35:23

or um you can't get to your office you

35:25

still can get access

35:26

at least to the records that we trust

35:27

accounts for your clients purposes

35:30

and for their money all together and

35:32

make sure that it is safe

35:33

and that you can be used for litigation

35:36

when you

35:36

get up and running again

35:39

we mentioned also cyber security issues

35:41

you want to consider to get carefully

35:43

what you have out there and a stuart

35:44

gave you a good listing of some of the

35:46

things you want to

35:47

you know consider for your office

35:49

whether it be small

35:50

or a solo small firm and uh he mentioned

35:54

also it just so happened we're recording

35:56

this like early june

35:57

and the june um edition of the texas bar

36:02

journal is actually

36:03

Has three or four articles about

36:05

preparing your law office for disaster

36:07

preparedness it includes cyber security

36:10

issues it includes

36:11

local bar associations how they can help

36:13

and then also how to you know have your

36:14

law office ready

36:15

you want to look at those articles it's

36:16

the june one it's got

36:18

the cover on it about disaster

36:21

preparedness

36:22

and some of the things that stuart

36:24

mentioned are in there you know the

36:25

cyber security

36:26

issues what you really want to know is

36:29

is your office ready for that disruption

36:30

right

36:31

and one of the things you want to know

36:32

about or have readily  available as

36:34

mentioned earlier is a redundant or

36:36

backup site for your email

36:37

for your files you know just for your

36:39

you know management in general

36:42

so if something happens to your office

36:43

and you cannot access your server your

36:45

your information there at the office

36:47

there's another site that has it

36:48

available and ready to go if you want to

36:52

look at a

36:53

ethics opinion that gives you really

36:56

clear

36:56

rules that are implicated when for

36:58

example a data breach occurs and that's

37:00

another type of disaster

37:02

a cyber security issue you want to look

37:05

at

37:06

aba article uh aba ethics opinion 483

37:11

uh it's a really good article there that

37:13

i think

37:14

it has not been addressed by the texas

37:16

bar or the

37:17

professional ethics committee but i

37:20

think

37:20

the aba does a good job of letting you

37:22

know what happens if there is such a

37:23

breach

37:24

again we're dealing with a lot of

37:25

Disasters here disater preparedness on

37:27

the natural disaster side but there can also be

37:28

the

37:29

cyber security disaster that can happen

37:31

you know with a ransomware or a breach

37:32

of your data

37:33

and when that happens you know whether

37:35

you have insurance or not uh you want to

37:37

consider

37:38

uh reading aba ethics opinion 483

37:41

as to what your duties are then to

37:43

notify your clients about that breach

37:45

when that happens and how you're

37:46

supposed to notify them uh and what you

37:48

want to be uh

37:50

looking out for in the news lately too

37:54

i was mentioning here to our host uh

37:57

you've heard a lot about ransomware

37:58

uh when i first gave this presentation

38:01

on on disaster preparedness for the law

38:02

practitioner

38:04

the one that had just that happened last

38:05

year was the office of court

38:06

administration

38:07

if you all remember when the pandemic

38:09

hit they had to actually

38:10

have another site all together for the

38:13

office of court administration for the

38:15

courthou

38:15

courthouse closures for the youtube

38:17

listing videos and that was because they

38:19

had a ransomware attack

38:21

uh since we started preparing for this

38:23

cle this time there was another attack

38:25

Happened  a colonial pipeline

38:27

about a month ago or so that caused a

38:29

gas storage over in the east coast

38:31

well actually across the nation for some

38:32

reason everybody thought they were going

38:34

to end up

38:34

not having any kind of gas there and

38:36

just uh this week when recording this

38:38

the jbs meat packing

38:40

had us another ransomware attack uh and

38:43

they're all suspected the latter ones at

38:45

least i don't know about three of them

38:46

the latter two are considered to be

38:48

maybe a russian based you know um

38:50

attacks ransomware uh so unless

38:54

you're doing some kind of job with the

38:55

uh

38:56

russian mafia which you have other

38:57

issues to worry about you know be

38:59

careful for these things you might have

39:00

some ransomware attacks that happen

39:02

it might be a low level one employee

39:04

doesn't realize what they've done and

39:05

then they end up

39:06

locking all the files uh you want to be

39:09

ready for that data breach you want to

39:10

be ready to kind of recover from that

39:11

and be able to have an off site

39:13

you know to get to access of the files

39:15

so your client management

39:17

files and other matters that help you

39:18

move your office forward

39:20

that's something new that i think has

39:22

developed in the past few years that you

39:23

want to keep in mind

39:25

some of the protections uh in addition

39:27

to the backups are the ones that

39:28

Stuart mentioned here that come also in

39:30

the article by john browning

39:31

in the texas bar journal talk about

39:34

search protectors

39:35

battery backups for your servers um the

39:37

phone charger for your phone

39:39

and then these personal mifi's or wi-fi

39:41

spots because your wi-fi might go down

39:43

you may or may not know that your phones

39:45

can become a mifi some phones

39:46

actually smartphones have

39:48

availability and your phone service

39:52

provider can actually give you a mifi

39:56

option on that phone if you don't have

39:58

it for a prorated rate you know

40:00

so that you can use it for those days

40:01

that you're out of the office and then

40:02

of course cancel it after that

40:04

that's a great way to be able to get

40:05

online in case you don't have any wi-fi

40:08

at home or at the office um

40:11

there's also several different uh cloud

40:14

computing services mentioned in john

40:16

browning's article that i want to kind

40:17

of tell you all to look for

40:20

uh he on the cloud-based storage ones

40:22

and the texas bar generally talks about

40:24

carbonite google drive icloud

40:26

onedrive dropbox and a few other ones

40:29

you might seem familiar to you

40:31

you might have some of these but there's

40:32

also the cloud-based practice management

40:34

ones and that can include a clio

40:37

rocket matter amicus attorney and clio

40:40

in fact actually has a membership fee

40:44

that can be

40:44

you can get a discount if you're an aba

40:46

member actually it works either way

40:48

you can get a discount for aba

40:50

membership and you can get a discount

40:52

clear membership if you have one in the

40:53

other

40:54

and that's a good uh

40:57

basic cloud-based practice management

41:00

software not necessarily just

41:02

the uh cloud file storage you want to

41:05

look into those services and have those

41:07

available

41:08

real quickly uh earlier in the

41:11

presentation there was a vpn

41:13

acronym thrown at you what that stands

41:15

for is a virtual

41:16

private network if you don't know what

41:18

that is you want to look into it if

41:19

you're doing kind of remote advocacy or

41:21

work you want to have that kind of

41:23

secured access as stuart mentioned

41:25

because you want to be in the public

41:26

network and not have that

41:27

look for a little vpn shield look for

41:30

that option in your phones and your

41:31

services and some

41:32

companies out there offer that app and

41:35

it's just like um

41:36

stuart said it's like a protection

41:37

shield if you will over

41:39

anyone kind of accessing your network

41:41

and what you do

41:42

it might affect some connectivity to

41:44

some of your maybe remote access

41:46

issues but if you work on it ahead of

41:48

time you'll be able to have a better

41:50

secure

41:50

access to your client files in other

41:53

places

41:54

apart from what you're working at so

41:57

let me just kind of tell you there's a

41:59

theme that'll come up you know in

42:00

discussing any kind of technology

42:02

needs or uh ethic issues uh

42:06

and especially disaster assistance i

42:08

always say it's gonna be competency

42:09

confidentiality and safe keeping those

42:12

are the three things you're gonna hear

42:13

one or all of them most of the time when

42:15

you have a discussion like this

42:17

a great resource for you to go and look

42:19

at some of the professional ethics

42:20

committee

42:21

opinions or some just opinions in

42:22

general and some maybe um

42:24

hypotheticals post is the texas center

42:27

for legal ethics

42:28

that's a state bar excuse me the supreme

42:30 

court of texas

42:32

agency that collects information that

42:35

does nothing but this and i have to uh

42:37

give it a plug because

42:38

um i am a board member for tcle  and i

42:40

can tell you that

42:41

before we can be in a more member i find

42:43

it incredibly uh useful you might want

42:45

to consider going to their site if you

42:46

research

42:47

or look up or google the texas

42:50

discipline rules of professional conduct

42:51

it's probably going to take you to their

42:53

site you have them there

42:55

along with the opinions  another

42:58

resource that you also definitely want

42:59

to look into or another aba opinion

43:01

is aba opinion ethics opinion 482

43:05

and those are rules applicable when

43:06

affected by a disaster

43:08

483 that i mentioned earlier when a data

43:10

breach happens 482

43:12

is when a disaster hits and that

43:14

actually that article is anybody ever

43:16

discusses any ethics issues and

43:17

discovery recovery is going to mention

43:19

that

43:20

aba ethics opinion 482. it includes some

43:23

interesting issues like

43:24

multi-jurisdiction

43:25

multi-jurisdictional practice and

43:27

advertisements so

43:28

um i would say you know some other folks

43:30

in the texarkana area maybe the

43:32

panhandle over in el paso who you know

43:34

might cross state borders

43:36

and have multiple uh licensing and

43:38

jurisdictions you know something happens

43:40

in their

43:41

area and they can move on over to

43:43

louisiana

43:44

oklahoma new mexico to open up you know

43:47

continue their practice over there

43:49

uh this so opinion 482 tells you about

43:51

certain things you want to be careful

43:52

for not end up with a upl

43:54

charge against you because you know you

43:55

are in a different jurisdiction

43:57

and you don't want to jump you know step

43:58

into that the supreme court of texas

44:01

what does happen

44:02

here whenever disaster hits you i think

44:04

you'll see those emergency orders that

44:05

come up by the supreme court

44:07

and it allows for attorneys from other

44:08

jurisdictions to practice here in texas

44:10

uh to assist in disaster recovery and

44:13

avoid the upl issue

44:14

you want to look for that you know in

44:16

those jurisdictions and you move out of

44:18

texas or you come into texas you want to

44:20

look for something like that with the

44:22

uniform bar exam now being part of the

44:25

texas bar exam

44:26

i think this mobility is going to be

44:28

quite common so you definitely want to

44:30

look at that opinion 482 and be careful

44:32

to not end up

44:33

falling into one of these traps of uh

44:36

upl issues because you are recovering

44:38

from a disaster and you don't realize

44:40

that you should have probably been

44:40

careful when you started practicing your

44:42

different jurisdiction

44:44

that's just one of the issues in the

44:45

opinion but you definitely want to look

44:46

into the other things mentioned in 482

44:49

uh let me go right into the texas into

44:51

several of the rules that are applicable

44:53

here you want to look into when it comes

44:54

to disaster recovery but before i do

44:56

uh stuart belinda i want to make sure

44:58

you all are awake um any questions you

45:00

all might have or anything that i might

45:01

have

45:01

gone through by too fast anything that's

45:03

scaring you right now you're writing

45:04

down thinking i should go back and

45:06

correct this

45:08

i'm awake and if i was scared i'm not

45:10

gonna comment on publicly on a podcast

45:13

possible deniability oh yeah

45:16

about no no questions and

45:20

just thank you for getting into the aba

45:24

and the texas rules on this uh i know a

45:27

lot of attorneys out there may not

45:28

realize

45:29

that there are rules about that during

45:32

the

45:33

ethical obligations during disaster that

45:35

you have to follow

45:37

they are they are now you know

45:39

disasters happening more often in many

45:41

different ways natural ones uh

45:43

cyber security ones even man-made ones

45:45

as described at

45:46

the local bar services the article in

45:49

the bar journal concerning local bar

45:51

associations talks about

45:52

these man-made disasters which you know

45:54

these uh incidents where you have an

45:56

active shooter you know had some

45:58

community or some place happened in el

45:59

paso in midland there now is a response

46:02

for that it's a

46:02

disaster recovery response where instead

46:04

of having the fema

46:06

application you know being discussed in

46:08

the cle about recovery you talk about

46:10

the

46:11

Crime victims compensation fund to help

46:13

people recover from that

46:15

interesting discussion there that i

46:16

think many of us in the community

46:18

have talked about for a while that is

46:19

now part of the discussion or lexicon if

46:22

you will

46:23

of disaster recovery within when the

46:24

state bar articles

46:26

so let's get into the ethics in the rules

46:29

here

46:29

or disciplinary uh there's so many rules

46:31

of professional conduct there's specific

46:33

rules you want to consider

46:34

uh during disaster recovery first and

46:36

foremost and this is one of the most

46:37

common grieved ones even without a

46:39

disaster

46:41

1.03 communications keeping your client

46:44

you know informs to what's happening you

46:46

know where you're at

46:47

you have to update your client you know

46:49

if you close the office or even move

46:51

that's one of the first things you want

46:52

to do have that listing call them as

46:53

much you know

46:54

send them an email letter whatever you

46:56

can

46:57

you want to also consider and i've done

46:59

this too when the pandemic and we're in

47:00

quarantine and people need to get a hold

47:02

of me

47:03

i went to texasbar.com and i went to my

47:07

texas bar and um i changed the

47:10

information

47:11

on the contact information there so when

47:13

somebody would look me up

47:14

and uh find a lawyer they would have my

47:17

direct number there not just my general

47:19

office number and that way

47:20

they knew how to get a hold of me that

47:22

number you know write it down to the

47:23

home number or my mobile phone number

47:25

uh that's something you want to consider

47:26

doing because the find my

47:29

find a lawyer um link to texasbar.com is

47:32

the most commonly used link in

47:33

texasbar.com

47:34

so your clients the public out there is

47:36

using it often

47:38

and that's a small little free thing you

47:39

might consider about you know doing and

47:41

changing so you can have information

47:43

uh for your clients uh belinda have a

47:45

question

47:46

uh not more so much a question um just i

47:49

know you said

47:50

make sure your clients can get a hold of

47:51

you more than just your office number

47:53

i know a lot of people may not be

47:54

comfortable giving out their personal

47:56

cell phones

47:57

i know for me google voice was an

47:59

excellent solution to that

48:01

because it wasn't my private cell phone

48:04

and i knew if

48:05

if a call was coming in through google

48:07

voice it was one of my clients

48:09

so just a little option out there for

48:11

you that's that's that's a good point

48:12

and i've had google voice for like eight

48:14

years then when i first got it people

48:16

thought it was the fanciest you know

48:18

the tracy james bond looking guy around

48:20

i'm like it's google voice you can get

48:21

it i mean you should

48:22

it's free at least it is a certain

48:24

amount you know and it is you're right

48:26

it's great

48:27

i use that a lot for any online

48:30

sweepstakes you know uh registration

48:32

i'll give my google voice so i can

48:33

screen them all together but that's

48:35

actually a good point you know for

48:36

screening calls or having your clients

48:37

know where to get a hold of you

48:41

the other rule and the other most grieved

48:43

uh you know

48:44

complain is 1.01 it's proper

48:46

communications i'm sorry competency

48:49

when it comes to dealing with your case

48:50

in other words negligence not in the

48:52

malpractice sense but just kind of

48:53

neglecting the case and then not moving it

48:55

forward not knowing what you're doing if

48:56

you will

48:57

that can happen during disaster you just

48:59

go you know forget about it and you

49:00

leave the case behind you don't want to

49:02

do that you want to move it forward um

49:04

you want to know and tell your client to

49:05

look you're going through a recovery i'm

49:07

going through a recovery and i think

49:10

that helps then them understand you know

49:12

what is happening you know to the

49:14

community in general

49:15

the texas bar website will have great

49:18

information about disaster recovery that

49:19

can

49:20

give your client a better idea not only

49:22

to protect themselves from certain kind

49:23

of like

49:24

predatory you know issues but to

49:26

understand that you as an attorney are

49:28

also recovering from all this stuff

49:30

and then that way they know why it is

49:32

that you know you haven't moved the case

49:33

along because the office you know the

49:35

courthouse is closed or you haven't been

49:36

able to file some you know

49:38

transaction documents because secretary

49:40

Of state office is down or you can't

49:42

go to the deed recording office you

49:43

know

49:44

that would help a lot to avoid that 1.01

49:47

uh

49:47

complaint but there's something recently

49:50

too that you want to consider

49:51

looking into that was kind of very

49:53

subtle but um i don't want to scare

49:54

anybody about this

49:56

but you now also have to have some

49:58

competency when it comes to the

49:59

technology that you use

50:01

uh you know competency in general so

50:03

what you do in law practice is just the

50:04

obvious thing

50:06

but if a year or two ago on 1.01 there's

50:09

about eight comments to the rule uh

50:11

comment number eight the last

50:13

sentence had the additional words where

50:16

you need to know the benefits and risks

50:18

associated with the relevant technology

50:21

those few words then added into your

50:23

requirement to know apart from the law

50:25

also the relevant technology so uh it

50:28

can be knowing about vpn networks cloud

50:30

computing uh cyber security

50:32

how to keep your clients information

50:33

safe you know uh encrypted you know

50:35

email so that nobody else can you know

50:36

see them or capture them

50:38

and i i think the fact that you

50:39

listening to this podcast

50:41

uh that you will look these things up

50:43

that you look into kind of these cloud

50:44

services that matter

50:46

is not just it's a good way to start you

50:49

know into that rule requirement

50:51

uh it was a subtle addition to the

50:53

comments but i think it

50:55

i know it is a in compliance with the

50:57

language of the aba model rules

50:59

and so you wanna make sure that you know

51:02

your technology that you know what's

51:03

available that you know what you're

51:04

using

51:05

that it's safe and then it'll help you

51:06

then communicate with your client and

51:08

also

51:09

make you move their case along forward

51:11

so you have i can avoid the 1.01 or 1.03

51:14

uh grievances against you the other

51:17

important one that we i've

51:18

it's mentioned throughout all this when

51:20

it comes to client information it's of

51:21

course confidentiality that's 1.05

51:24

you want you want to know again is your

51:26

email secure is it

51:27

you know encrypted or not your zoom

51:29

video conferencing discussion is it

51:30

being overheard

51:32

when i first gave this presentation

51:34

about

51:35

this part of the presentation about a

51:36

year ago um

51:38

zoom had just started to be encrypted

51:40

because it wasn't as encrypted as it is

51:42

now and what they did they hired the i

51:44

think

51:45

head of security cyber security at

51:46

facebook brought them over and now you

51:49

have

51:50

end-to-end or peer-to-peer encrypted

51:52

securities for discussions

51:53

communications but in the beginning

51:55

you know when zoom didn't expect the

51:56

pandemic to hit they didn't have that

51:58

much of security and now they do

52:00

uh you know when also you share

52:02

documents make sure they're not left

52:03

open in public space for others to use

52:06

uh there are some services or emails

52:07

where you have to probably maybe

52:08

download the document look at it you

52:10

know and then

52:11

you might forget to you know your client

52:12

might forget to delete it wherever it

52:14

might be and it might be a library it

52:16

might be

52:17

you know um at some public access you

52:19

know place where they can actually get a

52:21

hold or see those at

52:22

the business uh center of a hotel you

52:24

know and i've always i'm surprised when

52:26

i go and i print documents there and i

52:27

can find some documents people left

52:29

behind

52:30

you want to delete all that matter and

52:32

you don't want to leave it behind and

52:33

tell your clients to do the same

52:35

um 1.14 the last rule here before we

52:38

finish off is 1.14 again safekeeping

52:40

that's the first rule that i mentioned

52:41

to you and i'll mention to you again

52:43

that is iolta requirement apart from

52:46

keeping your clients properly in a safe

52:47

location

52:48

uh this is the only rule i want to tell

52:51

you that has a time

52:52

requirement of all the disciplinary rules of

52:54

professional conduct none other one will

52:56

give you

52:56

a time requirement except for this one

52:58

which states that

53:00

you must keep your trust account records

53:02

five years after representation has

53:04

ended that's the only rule that tells

53:06

you that about the five rule the five

53:07

years

53:08

that's why a lot of people i think

53:09

follow that rule to keep records you

53:12

know

53:13

five years after litigation is completed

53:15

representation representation has

53:16

concluded

53:17

now with the advent of you know scanning

53:20

the documents you can probably keep them

53:21

longer and you don't have to take up a

53:22

lot of space like you would in

53:24

years past but keep that in mind you

53:26

know once even after you recover from

53:28

you know a disaster and you have your

53:30

trust account issues you close it off

53:31

and you have to wait five years before

53:33

you destroy any records uh

53:34

post uh representation

53:37

and that's my end here of the

53:39

presentation i think we have about five

53:41

or six minutes left and i don't know

53:43

for stuart  if you need questions you

53:44

want to cover anything you want to add

53:46

or any horror stories you went through

53:48

learn from

53:51

i think we all have horror stories LANWT

53:53

With emails  going

53:55

down

53:56

LSLA which just apparently mother nature

54:00

decided to hate our office building the

54:02

last hurricane um

54:05

i just want to thank everyone for all

54:06

the hard work they put into this we got

54:08

this idea to do this podcast i think

54:10

mid-may

54:11

so it was a bit of a scramble and a

54:13

quick turnaround to get this

54:14

presentation together so just thank you

54:16

for all the hard work

54:18

and hopefully out there you have learned

54:21

the steps to protect yourself and your

54:22

firm in a disaster

54:25

as you can see prepping for a disaster

54:27

takes a lot of mental and physical

54:29

effort

54:30

our clients often have to do that

54:33

everything mentioned above well

54:34

not the ethical obligations but most of

54:36

the stuff above

54:38

except it's their home they're trying to

54:39

save

54:41

    Alos  with disasters for our clients

54:42

come a lot of the after effects

54:44

some are obvious such as insurance or

54:46

fema claim disputes contractor issues

54:49

replacing lost documents et

54:51

what often gets forgotten are also

54:53

there's probate issues

54:54

for those unfortunately that didn't make

54:57

it through

54:58

even custody visitation issues for

55:00

children that have been

55:01

displaced by the disaster and custodial

55:03

parent no longer lives in the city

55:05

sometimes not even the state

55:08

as the recent texas bar journal stated

55:10

it is our responsibility to use our

55:12

privilege to have

55:13

as lawyers to take on these challenges

55:15

within our communities

55:18

so just as a final message, please visit

55:20

our website at

55:22

texasdisasterlegalhelp.org

55:23

not only to see the resources that we've

55:25

mentioned throughout the podcast

55:27

but to see how you can help a disaster

55:28

survivor today

55:30

click that volunteer button and help us

55:32

help Texans thank you

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