"x x x.
More specifically, the ABA’s House of Delegates voted to amend Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1, which pertains to competence, to read as follows:
Maintaining Competence
To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject. (Emphasis added.)
Of course, the Model Rules are just that — a model. They provide guidance to the states in formulating their own rules of professional conduct. But each state is free to adopt, reject, ignore or modify the Model Rules. For the duty of technology competence to apply to the lawyers in any given state, that state’s high court (or rule-setting body) would first have to adopt it.
So, roughly 30 months after the ABA approved this amendment, how many states have adopted the duty of technology competence? By my count, 13 states have so far formally adopted the revised comment to Rule 1.1. They are: xxxxx."
x x x."
