Email for Lawyers: Keep Client Communications Confidential

As a lawyer, you’re responsible for keeping all email communications with your clients confidential, which is impossible without strong email security.

Lawyers must be careful about what they send to their clients and partners via email. Their email must be encrypted and in compliance with applicable data privacy regulations.

Can Lawyers Just Use Gmail?

No, lawyers should not use Gmail. The basic security features of a Gmail account will not be able to protect all your client’s private data from possible breaches or hacks.

Why Should Lawyers Use Secure Email?

The American Bar Association (ABA) lays out specific rules for professional conduct relevant to lawyers. According to Rule 1.6 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, also known as the Client-Lawyer Relationship, a lawyer “shall not reveal information relating to the representation of the client unless the client gives consent.

While there are exemptions to this rule, a lawyer must take all relevant and reasonable steps to protect their clients’ information, including personally identifiable information (PII) provided by, or to, the client. This obligation extends to all forms of communication, including email.

Most email platforms however don’t encrypt, or properly encrypt, email bodies or attachments shared with third parties. Gmail, for example, uses TLS encryption, but this only helps when the client’s provider uses the same type of encryption. Since most email providers don’t offer encryption or at least the same standard of encryption, it’s impossible to know for sure whether a message or its attachments arrive safely.

Law firms that invest in email security and compliance protect their clients both professionally and ethically. That’s because:

1. Secure email for lawyers ensures all communications stay confidential: With a comprehensive email security approach, you can protect client correspondence, PII, PHI and other sensitive information. This is especially relevant if you serve clients in healthcare or financial services where you must meet industry-specific regulatory demands beyond ABA. Email and file sharing for law firms should always maintain confidentiality.
2. Secure email prevents data leaks: A leak, either from a phishing attack or an employee sending an email to the wrong John Smith, can compromise health information, payment information and any other data that and in turn jeopardize your client or your firm’s reputation. Secure email helps prevent easily avoidable leaks from unencrypted messages.
3. Secure email helps demonstrate compliance: A secure solution configured for regulatory compliance like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or GLBA can ensure that your business can operate in critical industries like healthcare and finance.

Lawyers who do not follow basic protection protocols to protect client-attorney privilege risk penalties or disbarment from the ABA.

What Are Common Threats to Email Security?

Email is still one of the top forms of business communication in the world. It’s cheap, ubiquitous, and built on robust, open technology that is easy to deploy and scale. Furthermore, it is flexible. Email is also one of the biggest vehicles for security threats and attacks. Some of the common threats that exist in email security include:

1. Phishing: Fraudulent emails that look like legitimate ones to trick users into clicking on links or providing personal information
2. Malware: Malicious software that can be spread through email attachments, which can infect the user’s device and potentially steal sensitive information
3. Spoofing: Impersonating a legitimate sender to gain access to sensitive data, often done through domain name spoofing
4. Spam: Unsolicited emails that can be a nuisance, fill up inboxes, and potentially contain harmful links or attachments
5. Man-in-the-middle attacks: Intercepting emails between sender and recipient to access and manipulate sensitive information
6. Denial-of-service attacks: Flooding email systems with excessive traffic, which can prevent users from accessing their email accounts
7. Email bombing: Sending a large number of emails to a user or organization, overwhelming their inbox and potentially preventing them from receiving other important emails
8. Email spoofing: Forging the sender’s email address to make it appear that the email is coming from a different source, often used in phishing attacks
9. Email interception: Unauthorized access to emails in transit, allowing an attacker to read sensitive information or manipulate the messages
10. Email eavesdropping: Intercepting emails that are being sent between two parties, allowing an attacker to gather sensitive information

It is important to be vigilant and cautious when it comes to email security, especially in the face of these common threats. Users can protect themselves by using strong passwords, avoiding suspicious emails or links, and keeping their email software up to date.

How Do I Send Secure Legal Emails?

Fortunately, there are several ways to share emails with clients:

1. Encryption: Encryption can fall under two primary categories. For example, all email is vulnerable both when it is “at-rest” (stored on a server) or “in-transit” (traveling to its destination). Encryption must protect that data in both stages to be considered safe.
2. Utilize a secure online portal with internal messaging: Alternatively, you can host your own messaging service where you have a server that secures your information and controls (and monitors) client access. While this option is much easier to manage than encryption, it also requires the user to manage their account, login, and check their messages.
3. Use secure email links and a dedicated server: With this arrangement, you create an account on an encrypted cloud server, store your confidential data there, and invite your clients to retrieve their messages using a dedicated link rather than enclosing sensitive data. Your client will simply need a username and a password to access those messages.

This option is not only the safest, but also the most practical way to share confidential data with clients. It allows you to protect privileged messages and attachments while monitoring access to them without impeding productivity because clients use their preferred email platform, like Microsoft Office 365 or Outlook.

Why Is Email Encryption Important for Lawyers?

Email encryption is important for lawyers for several reasons, including:

1. Confidentiality: Lawyers deal with sensitive and confidential information regularly, such as client communications and legal documents. Email encryption ensures that this information is protected from unauthorized access, keeping it confidential.
2. Compliance: Many compliance regulations require that lawyers protect client information and maintain attorney-client confidentiality. Email encryption ensures that lawyers are in compliance with these regulations.
3. Professional responsibility: Lawyers have a professional responsibility to protect their clients’ information from unauthorized access. By using email encryption, lawyers demonstrate their commitment to this responsibility.
4. Reputation: Law firms that prioritize email encryption demonstrate a commitment to privacy and confidentiality, which can enhance their reputation and build trust with clients.
5. Cybersecurity: Email encryption helps protect against cyberattacks, such as phishing scams, which can compromise sensitive information. By encrypting emails, lawyers can reduce the risk of these attacks and protect their clients’ data.

Protecting Legal Communications With the Kiteworks Platform

If you need to ensure confidentiality in your email communications with clients, then you should utilize a proper email and file management system that can centralize protection.

The Kiteworks Private Content Network provides law firms a dedicated on-premises, private, hybrid, or FedRAMP deployed platform for secure email, file sharing, file transfer, managed file transfer, web forms, and application programming interface (API) protocols. The Kiteworks platform is built from the ground up with security in mind, including email encryption. The platform ensures data privacy and demonstrates compliance with rigorous data privacy regulations with features and capabilities like:

1. Secure email links: Our platform allows you to send secure email links via general-purpose email that direct users to an encrypted server. Recipients must authenticate themselves before they can retrieve the information on the server. When lawyers send a link rather than a file, it not only eliminates the risk of sending confidential information to the wrong recipient, but also eliminates file size limitations.
2. Compliant cloud servers: The Kiteworks platform offers flexible deployment options, including dedicated private, hybrid, or FedRAMP virtual private cloud servers. As a result, your data isn’t sharing hard drive space with other users. Additionally, we can configure our servers and services around top national and international compliance regulations in healthcare, government and defense, finance, and more.
3. Reporting and audit trails: An audit trail becomes critically important in the event of a breach or eDiscovery process. The Kiteworks platform provides an immutable audit trail for diagnostics and compliance. Our platform also includes a CISO Dashboard to help your IT staff track data access and usage.

If you want to learn more about sensitive content communications for lawyers, schedule a custom demo today.

Additional Resources

• Blog Post Secure File Sharing for Law Firms: Must-have Features
• Blog Post Secure File Sharing for Law Firms and Lawyers: Ensuring Confidentiality in the Compliance Era
• Blog Post Secure File Transfer for Legal: Protecting Clients’ Sensitive Content
• Case Study Globally Recognized Law Firm: Providing Clients With Expert Counsel Efficiently and Securely
• Blog Post File Sharing for Lawyers | How to Keep Your Client Docs Safe