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You are viewing ARCHIVED CONTENT released online between 1 April 2010 and 24 August 2018 or content that has been selectively archived and is no longer active. Content in this archive is NOT UPDATED, and links may not function.Extract and examples of Model Codes of Conduct (MCoC) from two legal technology and eDiscovery-centric industry associations, the LTPI and the EDRM.
LTPI Reveals Adaptable MCoC for Legal Technology Companies
Extract from article by Zach Warren
Every legal technology company puts forth its own contractual obligations and legal terms and agreements. But missing from many of those agreements are ethical and behavioral obligations.
The Legal Technology Professionals Institute (LTPI) is trying to change that. LTPI has released the first edition of the LTPI Model Code of Conduct (MCoC), a document intended to establish ethical standards and guidelines for the legal technology community. The 21-page document breaks the ethical guidelines down into eight sections separated by relevancy to various sectors of the legal technology community.
The document is written from the perspective of a technology company rather than from a third party so that the code can be easily adopted and posted to a company’s website as its own. In exchange, LTPI asks to be credited on the company’s site, as well as for the company to redline any changes that a company makes to the model code. The document is free to download and adopt.
LTPI Model Code of Conduct (Public Comment Version)
LPTI MCoC Public Comment Version (April 2017) (1)
Sources: Legaltech News and LTPI
EDRM Model Code of Conduct (November 2011 – EDRM.net)
This Model Code of Conduct (MCoC) sets forth aspirational guidelines intended to serve as a basis for ethical decision making by all participants in the electronic discovery process. The MCoC was drafted by members of the EDRM MCoC Project and reflects years of exhaustive dialogue and a wide array of viewpoints representative of the interests of corporations, law firms and service providers across the country. Adherence to the MCoC is voluntary.
The MCoC consists of five Principles and their Corollaries, which contain statements of the duties of Service Providers1 and the related duties of their Clients. Each Principle and Corollary set is accompanied by Guidelines and a Discussion section, providing our view of ethical considerations that should be addressed by participants in the electronic discovery process.
Update: Proposed Revisions to November 2011 MCoC (January 2, 2015)
EDRM, the leading standards organization for the e-discovery market, announces a proposed clarification to the language in Principle 3 – Conflicts of Interest of the EDRM Model Code of Conduct (MCoC) as well as a clarification to the language in the corollary to Principle 3.
The clarification distinguishes between (a) entities that are “members of the team,” i.e., participants in shaping legal strategy; and (b) technology providers that, while delivering capabilities to the team, are not on the team; i.e., they are not privy to or helping to shape case strategy. Principle 3 of the MCoC is intended to apply to the former, not the latter.