Four companies that offer legal-oriented products and services through the cloud have banded together to form the Legal Cloud Computing Association. LCCA’s purpose, according to its announcement, “is to promote standards for cloud computing that are responsive to the needs of the legal profession and to enable lawyers to become aware of the benefits of computing technology through the development and distribution of education and informational resources.”

The four companies that make up LCCA’s founding membership are:

As its first official act as an organization, the LCCA published its comments on  the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 paper concerning lawyers’ use of Internet-based client-development tools (PDF).

The LCCA tells the ABA commission that it supports efforts to provide clarity to the legal profession on the ethical implications of Internet technologies. With regard to cloud computing, the LCCA proposes that the ABA endorse a minimal set of standards for cloud-computing providers along with model terms of service for cloud providers.

Those minimal standards, the LCCA says, should cover data-center security, network security, software security, data-transmission security, back-ups and redundancy, confidentiality and privacy, and data portability.

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Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.