Pachimond Attorneys

04/05/2026

Many businesses are focused on growth, efficiency, and speed, but very few are asking a critical question:

Is our handling of information ethical?

Customer data is collected daily. Personal details are stored, shared, and sometimes reused across platforms and teams.

Often, this happens without clear structure, oversight, or accountability.

The assumption is simple:
“If the system works, then it’s fine.”

But that is not always true.

Ethical responsibility does not begin when something goes wrong. It begins with how systems are designed and how information is handled from the start.

In today’s digital environment, trust is no longer built on service alone. It is built on how responsibly information is managed.

This is not just a technical issue. It is an ethical one and, one that businesses can no longer afford to overlook.

Responsible systems build sustainable trust.

—
EthICS Advocate

09/03/2026

Rethinking the RPC

Is your legal competence still analogue in a digital world?

As lawyers, we pride ourselves on our mastery of the law. Many of us know the Rules of Professional Conduct 2023 inside out. However, through my ongoing work at the intersection of cybersecurity and legal ethics, I have increasingly been reflecting on a difficult question:

Can a lawyer truly be considered “competent” today if they cannot technically secure their client’s most sensitive digital data?

Through my ongoing cybersecurity research within an international curriculum accredited by the American Council of Training and Development, one reality has become increasingly clear: the concept of confidentiality we learned in law school is no longer sufficient on its own.

In today’s digital environment, protecting client information means more than simply not disclosing secrets. It requires:

• Digital stewardship – actively safeguarding sensitive legal data against modern cyber threats.

• Technical ethics – recognising that a preventable data breach may also constitute an ethical failure, not merely an IT problem.

• Awareness of global cybersecurity frameworks such as NIST 2.0

As our profession becomes increasingly digitised, the legal community may need to rethink what professional competence truly means in a technology-driven world.

I would be interested to hear the views of my learned colleagues:

Should cybersecurity awareness become a mandatory part of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for legal practitioners?

These reflections arise from a cybersecurity and legal ethics framework I have been developing within legal practice, which I am currently expanding into a scholarly article.