On 12 September 2020 the Council of Europe project "Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine" organised an online conference with participation of more than 60 lawyers from 15 European countries. The conference was organised jointly with the Council of Europe, the European Association of Lawyers, the Odessa Bar Council and the Gdańsk Bar Association.

Representatives of the communities of lawyers from Switzerland to Kazakhstan extensively discussed the ethical use concerning information technologies in the legal profession.

her opening Lilit Daneghian, Head of Justice Sector Reform Unit of the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department, Council of Europe, stated that the benefits of the new technologies enhance the ability of lawyers to analyse the data efficiently, to generate relevant statistics, to analyse legislation and case-law and to participate in online court proceedings. On the other hand, the new technologies may pose a risk to the professional secrecy, communication with clients, and personal data protection. The new realities are challenging and it’s important to address and discuss those issues and minimise the risks, also by installing the respective new procedures for the work of lawyers in line with the Council of Europe standards.

Speakers and participants from 15 countries shared their experience of using the new information technologies in the legal profession, the presentations can be found at: http://aea-eal.eu/?page_id=3431

The video record of the conference can be found here: https://vimeo.com/user82789672