Cunningham's Counsel Corner

Moving offices - across town, across the country, to a different suite - involves risk. Like all things law firm related, some simple steps BEFORE the move can help prevent catastrophe.

Notify Active Clients of Your New Address

Model Rule 1.4 requires lawyers to keep clients reasonably informed about their matters and promptly respond to reasonable requests for information. An office move may be material to a client when it changes where documents, payments, or communications must be sent; affects scheduled meetings; temporarily alters telephone or technology access; or creates a ...

Legal malpractice claims rarely arrive without warning.

Long before the demand letter, grievance, fee dispute, or insurer notice, there is often a quieter period when the client relationship is deteriorating but the file still appears manageable. That is the calm before the claim.

The warning signs are usually easy to explain away. A client begins asking for copies of filings. An invoice goes unpaid for the first time. Emails become sharper, more frequent, or increasingly focused on deadlines and prior advice. Other individuals are suddenly copied on communications. The client ...

AI is the golden handcuffs for law firms.

Once a law firm meaningfully integrates an AI platform into its practice, ultimately leaving that platform will become extraordinarily difficult, and eventually close to impossible. The better the AI platform, the better the cuffs.

The lock-in does not just come from the subscription agreement alone. It stems from everything the law firm builds inside the system: prompts, workflows, drafting protocols, research methods, knowledge libraries, client preferences, customized agents, attorney feedback, integrations, and years of ...

“Cybersecurity,” invokes thoughts of passwords, firewalls, encryption, phishing emails, and multifactor authentication along with images of hackers in hoodies and computer screens with green matrix font. But some of the most serious threats to client confidentiality don't begin with malware, a compromised server, or a sophisticated hacker.

They begin with an unlocked file room, an unattended printer, an unverified caller, a former employee’s access badge, a computer screen visible on Zoom, or a confidential document left sitting on a conference room table.

This is ...

Whatever color shoes you wear, be careful out there.

AmLaw100 law firm Blank Rome caught two proposed class actions in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania following a May 2026 data breach incident allegedly exposed personal information for more than 57,000 current and former clients, including Social Security numbers and other choice tidbits. Only 20% of US law firms report being targeted by cyber attacks in 2025, but the real percentage is probably 100%.

Blank Rome is framing the breach as part of a broader pattern of super-cybercriminals (wearing hoodies in dark rooms filled with ...

New York’s new Court rule on artificial intelligence is (finally) not a ban on AI. It is more practical, and probably more important for law firms: a reminder that AI does not change a lawyer’s existing duties.

The new Part 161, effective June 1, 2026, applies to all New York Unified Court System courts in both civil and criminal cases. It expressly states that attorneys and parties are not prohibited from using AI tools to prepare court papers, so long as that use complies with the duties already applicable to anyone submitting papers to a court. It also states that attorneys should not ...

New York AVOID Act ("Avoiding Vexatious Overuse of Impleading to Delay") represents one of the most significant procedural changes to New York civil practice in recent years. By imposing stricter limitations and heightened scrutiny on third-party practice, the Act is aimed at discouraging defendants from delaying litigation through the late assertion of third-party claims. While procedural in nature, its impact extends well beyond the courtroom.

The AVOID Act fundamentally alters the timing of critical litigation decisions and, in doing so, reshapes the professional ...

By now, most lawyers have moved past the question of whether AI tools exist for their needs and beyond the "I'll just try to wait and retire" approach. Now, the better risk management question is whether law firms know who is using them, for what purpose, with what information, under whose supervision, and with what quality control. AI cannot be banned, feared, or treated like magic. It needs to be managed like any other powerful legal tool: through competence, confidentiality, supervision, communication, and documentation.

That approach fits comfortably within the existing ...

The recent Big Law insider trading scandal is the kind of story that will be read first as a criminal case, then as a legal-industry gossip item, and only later, if law firms are paying attention, as a profound risk-management warning.

Recently, the DOJ in Massachusetts announced charges against 30 lawyers in what the indictment describes as a decade-long, global insider trading scheme involving confidential information about mergers and acquisitions allegedly stolen from major law firms. The SEC filed a parallel civil enforcement action against 21 individuals, alleging that the ...

The James Comey indictment may be many things politically, constitutionally, or institutionally controversial, but (as much as some lawyers may want) that does not make it a Rule 3.8 ethics violation by the prosecutors.

ABA Model Rule 3.8(a) (and North Carolina's exact copy of Rule 3.8(a)) is not a general anti-politics rule. It does not say a prosecutor violates the Rules if a charging decision is unpopular, high-profile, politically useful, or even arguably motivated by political considerations. The Rule says the prosecutor must “refrain from prosecuting a charge that the ...