In a blog post, Google announced that Gmail users can now receive email attachments up to 50MB in size.

By way of an explanation, Google recognizes that, "sometimes you need to receive large files as direct email attachments." The key phrase here is "direct email attachments." This change appears to be an effort to minimize Gmail account holders' need to use third party, cloud file-upload (e.g., Hightail, SendBigFiles) or storage services (e.g., Box, Dropbox) to share access to a document. Now Gmail account holders can receive these larger documents directly from the sender(s).

Recently, a Virginia court ruled that an insurance company had waived its privilege in a matter when one of its representatives uploaded case documents to an uprotected file storage service. The judge found that uploading the documents to an unprotected file storage service was, "the cyber world equivalent of leaving its claims file on a bench in the public square and telling its counsel where they could find it." Sharing those documents directly with the intended recipient might have avoided the finding of loss of privilege.

The increase only applies to incoming attachments. Outgoing attachments are still limited to 25 MB. Larger files can be "attached" to outgoing emails by including a link to the document stored in your Google Drive.

Lawyers currently using Google's G Suite to power their practice (or who are considering making a switch) should check our webinar schedule for MCLE presentations on lawyers' use of Google's G Suite of cloud apps to improve their communications with clients, manage their documents better, and manage their workload more efficiently. CLE credit is available in approximately 20 states.