Fidelity Diluted: Client Confidentiality Gives Way to the First Amendment & Social Media in Virginia State Bar, Ex Rel. Third District Committee V. Horace Frazier Hunter

Campbell Law Review Volume 36 Fall 2013 Number 1

37 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2013 Last revised: 11 Nov 2014

See all articles by Jan L. Jacobowitz

Jan L. Jacobowitz

Legal Ethics Advisor; University of Miami - School of Law

Kelly Jesson

University of Miami - School of Law

Date Written: July 26, 2013

Abstract

Fidelity and confidentiality are hallmarks of the attorney-client relationship. However, as social media use permeates the legal profession, new challenges have arisen to the traditional interpretation of client confidentiality. The Virginia Supreme Court’s recent holding, which concludes that to deny attorney Horace Hunter the ability to blog about his clients’ cases without client consent, after the case concludes and based upon what is found in the public record, is to deny Hunter his First Amendment right of free speech has spurned controversy. The Hunter opinion arguably undermines the long standing legal ethics rule of confidentiality and strikes at the heart of the attorney-client relationship as it has been defined and has evolved since the late nineteenth century. Ultimately, the central issue for the legal profession is whether an attorney’s relationship with a client and the simultaneous duty of confidentiality owed to the client survives the completion of the case notwithstanding what may appear in a public record and regardless of First Amendment considerations. The underlying components that define the attorney-client relationship and the history, evolution, and moral underpinnings of the ethical rule of client confidentiality suggest that the Virginia Supreme Court has diluted client confidentiality in a manner that warrants both further exploration and extreme concern for the fundamental attorney-client relationship.

Keywords: attorney blog, client confidentiality, fidelity, First Amendment, Hunter decision, attorney-client

Suggested Citation

Jacobowitz, Jan L. and Jesson, Kelly, Fidelity Diluted: Client Confidentiality Gives Way to the First Amendment & Social Media in Virginia State Bar, Ex Rel. Third District Committee V. Horace Frazier Hunter (July 26, 2013). Campbell Law Review Volume 36 Fall 2013 Number 1, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2309156

Jan L. Jacobowitz (Contact Author)

Legal Ethics Advisor ( email )

6500 SW 100th ST
Miami, FL 33156
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://legalethicsadvisor.com

University of Miami - School of Law ( email )

1311 Miller Drive
Coral Gables, FL 33146
United States

Kelly Jesson

University of Miami - School of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 248087
Coral Gables, FL 33146
United States

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