There is the risk of communicating too quickly. There is the risk of communicating too slowly. There is the risk of being overheard. Any attempt to regulate the way an attorney communicates with a client is a direct intervention in the attorney-client relationship. The common use of cellular telephones between attorneys and clients, and the soon to be common use of electronic mail between attorneys and clients, present a danger of de facto regulation by well-meaning, but pernicious, advisory rulings.
Technology is just a tool.
While technology is morally neutral, sometimes the way human beings use it raises ethical issues. The atomic bomb is a classic example of technology attenuating ethical concerns. Technology has become a threat to the attorney client relationship. It is the ethics that have been grafted to technology by the Iowa Supreme Court Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct that gives rise to the threat. My concerns are illustrated by ethics rulings in the areas of cellular telephones and encryption of email.