Sending an unencrypted e-mail message on a highly confidential matter may, indeed, be foolhardy but that in no way undercuts the proposition that what this network was built for is global communication. Like any city this one has long-term residents living in comfortable neighborhoods where the old ways, old laws and established mores are held dear. As newcomers barge in, bringing new activities and, often, insensitivity to the existing culture, clashes are inevitable. Lawyers making their way onto the Net are not immune. The case does not prove that the Net is inhospitable to lawyers, anymore than one should conclude that lawyers don't belong in country clubs from the outrage that would be harvested by a lawyer in business attire making his way around the course on a full day, stopping players mid swing to hand out his business card.
Lawyers belong on the Internet.
They are on the Internet. And once there, no great surprise, some of them will act like fools.