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What constitutes computer competency? How about attorney competency?

The answers might be closer to each other than you think. Earlier this year, the ABA revised their model rules to emphasize two duties relevant to both questions: keeping up to date on relevant technology and protecting clients’ sensitive electronic data.

That means computer competency, for attorneys, requires a lot more than simple typing skills. It might also require proficiency with PDF files, Bates-numbering, and Excel, at least, if you want to be outside counsel for a multi-national auto manufacturer.

We feel so dirty.

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting story last week about a new tactic that companies are employing to deal with cybersecurity threats and data breaches - hiring lawyers. Now, that probably isn't surprising to you - for nearly every significant data breach, there's a class action lawsuit filed in response. However, the real surprising part of the story was that the firms aren't being hired for their legal skills - they're being hired for privilege.

A breach happens. Data is compromised. A company's first response is probably to call a cybersecurity expert. After all, they can assess the damage, plug the leak, and prevent future hacks.

For many businesses, the announcement of anything involving new regulations elicits groans. New regulations means retraining, adjusting company policies, and often, increased compliance costs.

However, despite whispers of the dirty “r” word in the initial discussions of President Obama’s Cybersecurity Executive Order, the impact of the initiative could be positive for the few companies that are actually affected.

More than half of all in house counsel cite data security as their top concern, according to Inside Counsel. It's not a wonder that lawyers are freaking out - with the increase in online everything and move towards cloud computing, data breaches are seemingly an everyday occurrence.

Inside Counsel cites hackers' breaching of 63 PIN pads at Barnes & Noble stores late last year, leading to discontinuance of the use of PIN pads in 700 stores and even worse, a major PR hit.

Based on the recent Apple-Samsung lawsuit and CIA Director General David Petraeus' dismissal, employee email isn't as private as we'd like to believe.

There's a lot you can do to protect employee email messages from being leaked to the media or to competitors. But in the case of a trial, email between employees are rarely considered privileged. That means a lot of private information could potentially be discoverable.

It doesn't help that eDiscovery plays a significant role in many trials and that email is an increasingly important piece of evidence. There's no better time to help your company by updating the corporate email policy.

When there is copyright infringement probably an attorney's first thought is to file a takedown notice.

The DMCA has done a lot for copyright holders in terms of making it easy to protect their rights. The process is well known to any corporate counsel whose company owns at least one copyright.

What if automatically filing a takedown is the wrong idea?

Big businesses are involved in social media, whether they want to or not. That means their in-house counsel needs to understand the ins and outs of these interactive websites to continue protecting the company from legal harm.

It doesn't matter whether a business actually takes time to create an account on a popular social media website. Consumers, fans, and detractors can still bring the company into the online conversation and those actions aren't always legal.

As NBC's Twitter debacle during the Olympics showed, the way companies handle social media can have a huge impact on public perception.

So how can you manage legal concerns on social media in the best interest of your client?

Be careful when evaluating e-Discovery service providers. Every penny matters, especially when heading towards litigation.

Many companies use e-Discovery services when litigation arises. Some statutes provide recovery of fees and costs to the prevailing party in litigation.

But not all costs are recoverable.

Staying on top of continuing legal education classes is a problem no corporate counsel wants to deal with. Well good news, GC Advisor for your iPad can take the hassle out of this chore.

The new free app from Thomson Reuters was designed exclusively for in house counsels. It gives users direct access to CLE-accredited webcasts from West LegalEdcenter via RSS feed. Over 25,000 lawyers used LegalEdcenter every year to stay on top of their requirements.

But GC Advisor can do way more than just let you catch up on your CLE. It can also make you a better in house.

Are you using social media? Your colleagues are.

Inside Counsel has followed up on its 2010 survey with the 2012 In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey, and the results are pretty interesting.

Researchers talked to 334 GCs, chief legal officers and other corporate counsel, and 86% of them reported using some sort of new media. Most of them preferred LinkedIn, too.