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• @AmenZwa@mathstodon.xyz 2026-09-02 19:08

  @dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz Good question. There are ABA ethics rules (which most jurisdictions have adopted) that prohibit publication of the case details. And we can’t answer questions from the individuals who are not already our clients about laws and facts specific to their unique situations. Unless one enjoys flirting with disbarment, one never discusses cases publicly, not even with coworkers from the same firm. For advice, a firm lawyer goes to the managing partner and other lawyers working on the same case. The partners have to be even more careful about discussing cases amongst themselves, because the same international firm may represent both sides of the case. There are firewall rules that apply to that situation. A good analogy is the "need-to-know" standard followed by the intel analysts. The situation is vastly different in medicine. I have listened in on my parents' discussions of their day's surgeries at dinner table—fancy eating while listening to that! It is acceptable, perhaps encouraged, to share amongst doctors the knowledge of how to treat various ailments, because they all have one client, the human patient, and one opponent, the disease. In law, a lawyer has the ethical duty to represent zealously even the most despicable defendants. In CS and EE, the topics that can and cannot be discussed with coworkers, or with the public, is often clear: steer clear of the proprietary information and methods—which should always have been expressly communicated to the geek by his employers—and the geek is free to talk about anything else. This is what we all do on this platform, and this free, open discussion is very beneficial to all concerned.

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