Questions of privacy, legal jurisdiction, protection against terrorist attack, client confidentiality, and data security are just a few of the legal issues raised by the increasingly small planet created by the Internet. What is the lawyer's role in these disputes? We are litigators, mediators, advisers and should be, according to our clients, soothsayers. I have written in this space about the current hot issues of conflict between those who advocate less privacy in the name of protection against terrorism, and those who advocate free speech and privacy as a bedrock of our democratic system. Should we as lawyers sit on the fence, or just represent a particular client's point of view? If technology can make our lives as lawyers easier, it can make the bad guys' ability to do evil easier as well. Is this the price we pay for technological progress? If it is, do we need to stand up and speak out? Lawyers have a unique perspective on most issues of the day; we have a duty to express it. Let's use the technology for good; there are enough bad people out there using it for other purposes.
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