INFORMATION SECURITY IN LAWYERS’ PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

The purpose of this paper is to study the issues of ensuring information security in lawyers’ activities, primarily in the context of revealing the theoretical and applied aspects of maintaining the legal professional privilege policy when an advocate uses information technologies. In the process of studying the subject matter of this paper the authors applied a set of general scientific and specific methods being characteristic of legal science, both to achieve the aim of the work as well as to ensure the scientific objectivity, thoroughness, reliability and credibility of the obtained results. In particular, with the help of the system-structural method the general structure of the scientific research was formed, which enabled the authors to elaborate the issue in question and solve the set tasks profoundly. The dialectical method of cognizing legal reality has made it possible to analyze different types (classes) of threats to the information security of advocacy. The general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis have been extensively employed in this scientific paper. This article reveals the theoretical approaches of scholars to determining the nature and types (classes) of threats to the information security of advocacy activity, as well as clarifies the provisions of the domestic legislator which are aimed at ensuring the protection of advocate secrecy (also know as attorney-client privilege). The major part of the work is devoted to the analysis of practical aspects related to the implementation of advocacy guarantees that aim to ensure information security, in particular, such as bans on interfering with communication between a lawyer and a client, the advocate’s testimonial immunity, and guarantees in case of searching or inspecting the dwelling, the advocate’s other possessions, premises where he conducts advocacy practices). Attention is drawn to the main shortcomings in the regulatory framework for the aforementioned guarantees and there have also been put forth the appropriate proposals to remedy them, taking into account, first of all, the experience of foreign countries and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. On the basis of the conducted research, it is concluded that ensuring the proper level of information security in a lawyer’s activity depends not only on the quality of legal regulation, in particular, the guarantees of a lawyer’s activity and their observance in practice, but  also on the fact whether a lawyer himself takes into account the possible security threats to his information activity. (of all its classes). The use of information technologies by a lawyer in his professional activity is aimed not only at improving the ability to obtain, process, store and transmit information of any kind, but also requires that an advocate should take more active steps to ensure its confidentiality (the adequate level of information security of advocacy).