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Formal Opinion 477R: Securing Communication of Protected Client Information
ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, American Bar Association, 2017
Read the originalRead on October 17, 2026
- What it is
- The ABA opinion on how lawyers should protect client information sent electronically. It says the Rule 1.6(c) duty is a fact-based process of reasonable efforts rather than a fixed checklist.
- How much weight it carries
- The ABA's own copy blocks automated access, so this reproduction is on a legal-AI company's site (Ezel AI). The quoted sentence is reproduced there as the opinion's wording. Check the ABA original before relying on it.
Facts taken from this source
- ABA Formal Opinion 477R says what counts as reasonable efforts to protect client information is not a fixed rule, but depends on a set of factors.
“what constitutes reasonable efforts is not susceptible to a hard and fast rule, but rather is contingent upon a set of factors” (Reasonable efforts discussion)