Ethics

Here's an interesting twist on the increasingly discussed problem of metadata mining.  As part of e-discovery, a defendant sent plaintiff's counsel numerous electronic documents.  The plaintiff's lawyer shared the documents with the plaintiff himself, including numerous documents that the defendant had claimed were privileged.  Oddly, rather than withholding the allegedly privileged documents, the defendant password-protected the files and instructed the plaintiff's lawyer not to look at them.  (I suppose that's a little like handing a litigant an envelope and telling her that the proof of wrongdoing may be inside the envelope, but that she can't open the envelope.  Ever.) 

In any event (and not surprisingly), the client found a way to "unlock" the password protected documents, which he promptly sent to his lawyer. 

A parade of legal ethics issues followed, many of which are analyzed very nicely over at Hinshaw's Practical Ediscovery blog here.  The opinion from the actual case is here.