Janice Ta, Dan Austin, Hannah Lanham, and Madeline de la Torre recently presented at an Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Austin CLE titled An Ethical Toolkit for Corporate Counsel.
Abstract
When technology moves faster than corporate guardrails, in-house counsel gets the call. From an AI notetaker on a privileged call to conflict in the courtroom, this practical, two-part CLE tackles the moments when legal duties, business priorities, and professional ethics collide. Part one looks at the AI notetaker in the room and what it means for privacy, privilege, and enforcement, using In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation. Part two looks at what happens when the legal team itself becomes the liability, drawing lessons from Dynamic 3D Geosolutions v. Schlumberger and case about attorney sanctions.
Join Andrea Leyva (Itron Associate General Counsel for Compliance, Litigation and Legal Operations); Iris Mok (Intel Corporation Assistant Director of Patents); Janice Ta (Ashurst Perkins Coie IP Litigation Partner); Dan Austin (Ashurst Perkins Coie Corporate Partner); Hannah Lanham (Ashurst Perkins Coie Corporate Counsel); and Madeline de la Torre (Ashurst Perkins Coie IP Litigation Associate) for a case-driven discussion of ethical challenges facing in-house counsel—with practical lessons from the courtroom for your next tough call.
Part one: The AI notetaker in the room: privacy, privilege, and enforcement
- When the vendor becomes the eavesdropper. In In re Otter.AI, the claims at issue allege that a notetaking bot recorded Zoom and Teams calls without all-party consent and trained AI on them.
- Do you know what your tool does? Examine how real-time capture, AI training on calls, and stored voiceprints kept the claims alive, and why counsel need to know who else has the client's information and who controls the vendor.
- The lawyer's ethical duties when the bot joins the call. Revisit the duties of competence, confidentiality and privilege, and supervision of nonlawyer assistance. Leave with a practical toolkit: vet the vendor before rollout, bar training on client data, and keep bots off privileged calls, HR calls, and incident calls.
Part two: When the legal team becomes the liability
- The conflict contagion. Explore how an IP lawyer's past work can follow her to a new legal team. Dynamic 3D Geosolutions v. Schlumberger shows how one former in-house lawyer's conflict got the entire in-house legal department and outside counsel disqualified, and the case dismissed.
- Silence isn't golden; it's sanctionable. Unpack how hiding a known defect in a litigation can turn a weak case into a bad-faith finding.
