PORTLAND, Ore. ―
Allison D. Rhodes, a Partner in the
Portland,
Oregon, office of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP has co-authored an article in the
Suffolk University Law Review. The piece, entitled, “Client Files and Digital Law Practices: Rethinking Old Concepts in an Era of Lawyer Mobility,” appears in Volume XLIII, Number 4, of the publication.
The article discusses the effects of digitizing client files and law firm information in light of lawyer mobility and evaluates the existing framework of law and ethics developed largely in a world of hard copies. It also offers some practical suggestions for firms seeking to assert greater control over client information and firm intellectual property.
Ms. Rhodes co-authored the article with Robert W. Hillman, a leading authority on legal and ethics issues arising from lawyer mobility and law firm breakups. Mr. Hillman teaches at the University of California at Davis, where he holds an endowed chair. His treatise,
Hillman on Lawyer Mobility (Aspen Publishing), is the definitive work on mobility issues and is cited frequently by state and federal courts.
Ms. Rhodes focuses her practice in legal professional responsibility with particular emphasis on legal ethical matters, attorney disciplinary defense and lawyer mobility. She also handles complex conflict of interest and multiple representation questions, as well as attorney-client privilege matters and work product doctrine matters.
Ms. Rhodes advises individuals and entities, from solo practitioners to large firms and in-house legal departments in sophisticated professional responsibility matters for a variety of legal fields, including transaction and litigation practices. She also advises lawyers and law firms in partnership and corporate structuring, lawyer dissociation and lateral hiring. In addition, Ms. Rhodes litigates law firm dissolution, fiduciary duty matters and lawyer separations. Ms. Rhodes also represents lawyers in white collar criminal investigations at both the state and federal levels, and has a general commercial litigation practice.
Founded in 1934, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP is a national law firm with approximately 500 lawyers in 24 offices spanning 12 states, including
Arizona,
California,
Florida,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Massachusetts,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
New York,
Oregon,
Rhode Island and
Wisconsin.
Hinshaw offers a full-service practice, with an emphasis in litigation, business law and corporate transactions, environmental, intellectual property, labor and employment law, professional liability defense, estate planning and taxation matters. The firm represents a range of for-profit and not-for-profit clients in industries that include alarm and security services, construction, financial services, health care, hospitality, insurance, lawyers and law firms, manufacturing, real estate, retail and transportation. Hinshaw clients also include government agencies, municipalities and schools.