The NetDocuments team is in Chicago this week to participate in the 2015 ABA Techshow and is excited to report what the new trends, topics, and overall buzz are this year surrounding legal tech. The sessions focused heavily on cloud security, data protection, virtual practice, and ethical obligations surrounding new and developing technology. The one constant about legal technology is that it evolves year-over-year, which only validates the obligations that firms have to stay current on what clients are expecting in their representations. What we heard from session presenters, and our friends who stopped by the booth, is that there are growing expectations for law firms to upgrade and maintain technology to remain compliant with changing client demands. Below are some of the topics that were discussed today:

• Due Diligence: Firms do not want to spend inordinate amounts of time checking and double-checking on their vendors' technology to make sure that the security is up-to-date. The vendor should accept the obligation to protect any and all information that is being stored from their customers. The due diligence should include vetting the overall security model of the vendor to ensure that it meets the stringent requirements of the client base.

• Choosing a Cloud Provider: There are a lot of cloud-based services for law firms. Some important things to consider about the service during the due diligence process include:

1. What is the state of financial stability of the vendor

2. What type of access do vendor staff members have to your data?

3. What type of third-party protection is in place?

4. What happens if the service goes down, or even worse, goes out of business?

5. Where is your data located? Are the datacenters safe, secure, and redundant?

• Data Breach vs Leak: A breach typically comes from outside the office while a leak is usually internal. The majority of data intrusion happens from careless practices from within the office. Each and every attorney needs to watch their individual behavior and take special precautions to make sure they are not clicking on malicious sites or attachments. These types of mistakes open up the firm to extreme vulnerability.

• Client Expectations: Not only do clients expect that the firm undergo extreme proactive measures to keep their personal information secure, but there are increasingly growing expectations that attorneys in the firm undergo individual security training. To minimize data leaks, clients expect that any and all attorneys who may have access to personal information be trained on proper security processes to make sure that data leakage will not be an issue.