February 13, 2015 - Suzanne Brown Walsh Comments on Facebook's Legacy Contact, Raising the Question: Who Gets to Control Your Digital Assets After You Die?

For questions or more information, please contact Andrea Race. 

HARTFORD, CT(February 13, 2015)…On February 12, 2015, after Facebook announced its new Legacy Contact feature, Suzanne Brown Walsh, a partner in Murtha Cullina’s Trusts and Estates Department, was immediately contacted by the media for her comments because of her longstanding work on fiduciary access to digital assets on behalf of the Uniform Law Commission.

Since 2005, Ms. Walsh has served as one of Connecticut’s eight Commissioners on Uniform Laws. As such, she represents the State as a member of the Uniform Law Commission, a national organization which promotes statutory uniformity. She recently chaired the ULC’s drafting Committee on Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets, addressing this issue.

In the commentary, Ms. Walsh underscores the key issue of control over digital assets after an account holder’s death or incapacity. She discussed the tension between the interests of social media companies like Facebook and individual account holders and their fiduciaries over the control of such assets.

Regarding this subject, Ms. Walsh has been interviewed and published by GIGAOM in an article entitled “New Facebook tool masks tech industry's digital death fight,” and has also been quoted by Tech Reformer and the Isaac Daniel Report.

For additional comments, Ms. Walsh can be reached directly at swalsh@murthalaw.com or 860.240.6041.

About Suzanne Brown Walsh

As a member of Murtha Cullina’s Trusts and Estates Department, Suzanne Brown Walsh represents clients in the areas of estate and tax planning, particularly for families of children with special needs, elder law, estate and trust administration, trust modifications and trustee changes. Ms. Walsh is nationally known for her speaking and writing, including the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning and numerous regional organizations throughout the country. She has been interviewed for On the Media, PBS Newshour Weekend and Marketplace Money. She has been quoted in the New York Times, Time Magazine, Bloomberg BNA’s Electronic Commerce Law Report, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Kansas City Star and by NBC News, CBS News and Agence France-Presse.

About Murtha Cullina LLP

With more than 100 attorneys in five offices throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts, Murtha Cullina LLP offers a full range of legal services to meet the local, regional and national needs of our clients. Our practice encompasses litigation, regulatory and transactional representation of businesses, governmental units, non-profit organizations and individuals. Core practice areas include litigation, labor and employment, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, construction, energy, health care, trusts and estates, affordable housing, real estate, land use and retail and hospitality.

Murtha Cullina is the exclusive member firm in Connecticut for Lex Mundi – the world’s leading network of independent law firms with in-depth experience in 100+ countries worldwide; and the exclusive Connecticut member firm of State Law Resources, an international network of independent law firms. Visit www.murthalaw.com.

# # # #

Back to News & Alerts Search