Lawyers are known to “talk shop” with other lawyers, online or in person, to review hot legal issues of the day. One popular legal community is the listserv—an email group that may be tailored to a specific geographic location or subject matter interest. Listservs for lawyers are commonplace because they are spaces where lawyers can talk about high-profile news stories, developments in the law, or, sometimes, to crowdsource novel strategies. They can be the online equivalent of attending a conference or of chatting with a lawyer to get their take on an issue.

Recently, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility addressed the prevalence of listservs, particularly with regard to the duty of confidentiality. Opinion 511 concludes that lawyers may not post questions or comments relating to a client representation on a listserv, even as a hypothetical, “without the client’s informed consent if there is a reasonable likelihood that the lawyer’s questions or comments will disclose information relating to the representation that would allow a reader then or later to infer the identity of the lawyer’s client or the situation involved.” The opinion also observes that client consent is not needed to discuss “legal news, recent decisions, or changes in the law,” if the lawyer’s comments are not otherwise reasonably likely to allow others to identify confidential information.