Second Chances and Risky Business

Can attorneys accept payments through web-based apps?  As our world moves toward conducting just about every form of business electronically, it was inevitable that clients would want to pay your fees, send retainers and send contract deposits to you via one of the several web-based payment apps.  Attorneys raised concerns about whether this was appropriate and permissible under Florida Bar ethical guidelines around confidentiality and security.  The Florida Bar recently issued an Ethics Opinion on this topic (Opinion 21-2).  It is very interesting reading and I learned more about how these web-based payment processing services work.  Here is a link to the opinion. https://www.thefund.com/information-center/pdf/fl-bar-ethics-op-21-2-web-payments.pdf

Good day at the office?  In my last posting, I asked for responses to the question "What is your definition of a good day at the office?  I did not get many responses…..I realize you are really, really busy and this may be the last thing you want to spend any time on.  But I thought I would send this again and see if anyone is inspired to respond.  

It's been rough for a while.  And it has been hard for many of us to focus on the positive parts of what we do every day.  So take a moment and think about how you would complete this sentence:  "Today was a great day at the office because………"  Did you pull off a last minute closing that helped a Seller who really needed to close?  Did the loan package arrive "on time," no changes were made at the closing table and funding was confirmed within 15 minutes?  Did the buyer and seller thank you for helping them with their transaction?  Please share your thoughts with me.  Just email them to mmurphy@thefund.com.  You might see your story in a future blog posting!

That's all for this week. Let me know how we can help you.

Melissa Jay Murphy
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer,
and General Counsel