Partners in a law firm have a professional responsibility to know what
an ethical wall is, and when it is appropriate to use one. Considering
that words are their stock in trade, so to speak, they also have the
ability to communicate in precise terms why they feel the need to
segregate some matter's information from people outside their work
teams, so there should be very little confusion about what needs to be
done, and the motivation behind it, if you simply engage the partners
who respond to your initial inquiry with a little direct conversation. 

Wall Builder, for example, specifically has built in at least 3 types of
walls, inclusive ethical walls, exclusive ethical walls and confidential
matter walls (used to protect confidential information for reasons other
than ethical considerations, such as maintaining the confidentiality of
parties involved in stock swaps, mergers and acquisitions, etc). I think
the latest versions may also contain walls to segregate geo-political
variances.

While a confidential matter wall works, in practice, like an inclusive
ethical wall, it is not motivated by ethical concerns, yet the vendor
made it a part of the ethical wall software because, mechanically, the
issues are the same - to protect certain information from certain
parties. Each type of wall is clearly labeled within the software as to
which type it is.

If the software you are using does not have a fully developed ethical
and non ethical wall process (like Accutrac or ARM, formerly CARM,
formerly FileSurf), I see no reason why you could not still use the
ethical wall tools included in that software to protect information that
was not ethically walled, but still needed to be walled off from other
persons in the Firm due to confidentiality, rather than a purely ethical
need, after all it wouldn't be the first time software was not used in
exactly the way it was intended, but I'd like to hear opposing views.

Bill Creamer
Records Manager
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Julie J. Colgan
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 10:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] RMS roll out - preparations re: Chinese walls

As Stephen noted, the more common term nowadays is Ethical Wall or
Ethical
Screen.

Ethical Walls are erected when two attorneys in the same firm are
representing competing (or potentially competing) interests of a client.
Typically clients will only accept this type of scenario because the
potential for serious harm is minimal, however considering the
possibility
exists, will erect the Wall to ensure the attorneys are effectively
working
within their own silo without benefit of the information the other has.

My note of caution is this:

Do not use Ethical Walls for other security classification needs.
Ethical
Walls are constructed for specific ethical purposes, not to simply
protect
confidential information.  I have great concern about you asking all
partners what other info should be subject to a Wall that isn't actually
subject to a Wall.  If they have a need to protect certain information
in a
client's file - perhaps PII or PHI - that should be done under normal
course
information protection procedures, not using a Wall.
Just my two cents.

Julie
-- 
Julie J. Colgan, CRM


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