The Atlanta Lawyer December 2018 / January 2019 | Page 11

ing, LLP and Shannon Sprinkle
of Carlock Copeland and Stair,
LLP. These presenters reminded
attendees of the importance of
these matters and stressed the
importance of consulting with
others to get feedback, providing
the potential client with a writing
that contains adequate informa-
tion and detail about risks and
reasonable alternatives without
omitting pertinent information
and recommending the potential
client consult with an independent
counsel.
Anuj Desai of Arnall Golden Greg-
ory LLP, Bianca Motley Broom of
Miles Mediation & Arbitration and
Clyde Mize of Morris, Manning &
Martin, LLP presented the session
on “Acknowledging and Interrupt-
ing Implicit Bias.” Implicit bias is
created by the things we see, the
things we hear, and the things we
experience. Stereotype activation
is ingrained in all of us; we can-
not stop our brains from thinking
about a stereotype, but we can
control it and set up practical ways
to control it. As many of us know,
law is not a diverse profession, but
lawyers and our clients are becom-
ing more diverse. To ensure the di-
versity, it is helpful to create aware-
ness in the organization about bias
and stereotypes. It is also helpful to
standardize interviews and make
them blind (like the television
show The Voice) instead of only
hiring candidates who are referred
to you. In law, there is bias about
gender and bias about race. Wom-
en, especially women of color, face
increased bias. They feel like they
have to walk the tightrope between
masculine and feminine. Their
commitment and competence are
often questioned because of having
children. Moreover, women and
people of color often feel like they
need to go above and beyond to be
on the same playing field as a white
male. Examine your firm’s policy
on how work is assigned, how raises
are calculated, how promotions are
given, etc. to determine if changes
should be made to curtail bias. The
speakers recommended visiting
the website www.biasinterrupters.
org to assist you in this endeavor.
It is aspirational to overcome bias
in the practice of law, yet it is both
professional and ethical to work
towards that goal.
Next, attendees learned about
“Preserving ESI and your Sanity:
Best Practices in eDiscovery.” The
panel was comprised of Larry
Kunin of Morris, Manning & Mar-
tin, LLP, Kevin Patrick of Kevin
Patrick Law and Harry Winograd
of Bodker, Ramset, Andrews, Win-
ograd & Wildstein, PC. Electronic
information, and the storage of
same, is a relatively new area of
law. Georgia law does not provide
much guidance on these issues.
Of course, it is not reasonable to
keep every piece of electronic in-
formation and it is good practice to
establish a routine deletion policy.
It becomes necessary to keep the
information once someone has
reason to believe the information
will be needed in litigation. To
ensure information is maintained,
send a spoliation notice to anyone
you believe has pertinent informa-
tion. Many lawyers rent machines
– like copy machines – and those
machines have hard drives. When
getting a new machine, it is pru-
dent to require that the hard drive
from the machine being replaced
is destroyed.
Finally, the day concluded with a
presentation entitled “Unbundled
legal services and limited scope
representation,” which was pre-
sented by Margaret “Max” Ru-
thenberg-Marshall of The Ruthen-
berg-Marshall Law Firm. Limited
scope representations are not full
representation, rather for a specific
or finite event like going to court
one time, drafting a pleading or
attending a mediation. This type
of representation is increasing in
prevalence as 62% of legal house-
holds have at least one legal issue
per year; the average household
has 2.88 legal issues per year. Of
those, only 3.8% pay for a lawyer
– 74% attempt to represent them-
selves and 17% do not do anything
to resolve the issue. Accordingly,
limited scope services may create
a path to legal representation that
is more affordable to the average
household. Max cautioned that not
all matters are meant for limited
scope representation, so it is im-
portant to vet the situation care-
fully. Moreover, when handling a
limited scope representation situ-
ation, ensure you have been clear
with the client as to the lawyer’s
role, have the client sign to indicate
his or her understanding of the
lawyer’s role.
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association THE ATLANTA LAWYER
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