John W. Dean, White House counsel to President Richard Nixon, will deliver a plenary presentation at ABA TECHSHOW from 8:30 – 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, at the Hilton Chicago. Dean’s presentation, titled “Nixon’s Watergate Abuses: The Hackings That Forever Changed Legal Ethics,” will focus on the inception of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers more than three decades ago and their evolution, including recent amendments covering a lawyer’s duty to be familiar with how technology can benefit their practice. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by security developers from Viivo, the sponsor of Dean’s appearance.
The impetus, in part, for the ABA creating the Model Rules was the Watergate break-in and the large number of lawyers involved in the cover-up.
“That’s one of the reasons we invited Dean to speak at TECHSHOW — to address how ethics today not only involves substantive knowledge in the law, as it always has, but how that also now includes the ‘benefits and risks associated with relevant technology,’ as the House of Delegates amended the Model Rules in August 2012,” said Natalie Kelly, chair of the 2014 ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board.
Dean was interviewed extensively for an ABA Journal article commemorating the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.
Before becoming counsel to Nixon in July 1970, Dean was chief minority counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, associate director of a law reform commission and associate deputy attorney general of the United States. He served as Nixon’s White House counsel for 1,000 days.
For the past 10 years, Dean has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He wrote on the subjects of law, government and politics, and he recounted his days in the Nixon White House in two books, “Blind Ambition” (1976) and “Lost Honor” (1982).
Dean did his undergraduate studies at Colgate University and the College of Wooster, with majors in English literature and political science. He received a graduate fellowship from American University to study government and the presidency before entering Georgetown University Law Center, where he received his J.D. in 1965.
A complete agenda and updated list of speakers for ABA TECHSHOW can be found online.
This event is free for members of the press. For media credentialing, please contact Ali Cybulski at Alisha.Cybulski@americanbar.org
ABA TECHSHOW is an annual legal technology conference and expo designed to bring lawyers and technology together for three days of continuing legal education programs and networking. Presented by the ABA Law Practice Division, ABA TECHSHOW helps lawyers practice efficiently through the use of technology.
