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Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 11 offices, was ranked number 1 in the category “Most innovative North American law firms: New working models” by The Financial Times and was 1 of 7 firms shortlisted for The American Lawyer’s inaugural Legal Services Innovation Award. The firm has been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Legal Technology Trailblazer and featured by Bloomberg for its innovative service delivery models, which drive accuracy and predictability. The firm’s commitment to innovation is embodied in Thompson Hine SmartPaTHTM – a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. For more information, please visit ThompsonHine.com and ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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<img style="max-width: 100%;height: auto;max-width: 100%;height: auto" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2542" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2016/05/Social-media.6-300x290.jpg" alt="scientific_CloudComputing45" width="300" height="290">Law firm cybersecurity is in the news again with two developments.&nbsp; First,&nbsp;the latest ABA TechReport says that large law firms were more likely to be victims of a data security breach last year than mid-size or small firms, with one in seven&nbsp;respondents having been hit overall.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s a big deal.&nbsp; Next,&nbsp;a federal class action complaint in what is&nbsp;thought to be the&nbsp;first suit attempting to&nbsp;base liability solely on a U.S. law firm&rsquo;s allegedly inadequate cybersecurity was unsealed on December 9.&nbsp; But&nbsp;that suit possibly turns out not to be such a big deal.
BigLaw take warning
As <a href="http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/872612/biglaw-has-biggest-problem-with-data-breaches-report-says?nl_pk=58fe0a6d-e6f7-4cad-97bb-4afe211f56d6&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=ip">reported </a>in Law360 (subs. req.), the 2016 ABA Legal Technology Survey collected responses from 800 ABA members, and it showed that 26% of firms with more than 500 lawyers had experienced a security breach.&nbsp;&nbsp;That contrasts&nbsp;with&nbsp;about 15% of firms with 50-99 lawyers, and 20% of firms with 100-499 lawyers.&nbsp; Only 8% of solos said they&rsquo;d had a breach.
A possible explanation of the data may be what Willie Sutton said about why he robbed banks:&nbsp; that&rsquo;s where the money is.&nbsp;&nbsp;Large and mid-size firms can be treasure troves for hackers looking to gain access to client info on deals and other financial activity, and&nbsp;law firms can&nbsp;provide &ldquo;back door&rdquo; access to the data of financial institution clients.&nbsp; With more lawyers and more staff, larger firms also have more chances to suffer from human error.
The good news there, according to the survey, is that only 2% of respondents reported that hacking resulted in unauthorized access to client data.
Failure to secure data?
On the litigation front, a <a href="http://filehost.thompsonhine.com/uploads/Johnson__Bell_Class_Action_Complaint1_dec8.pdf">class action complaint </a>was unsealed against Chicago-based firm Johnson &amp; Bell Ltd., brought by former clients who asserted that the firm&rsquo;s &ldquo;computer systems suffer from critical vulnerabilities in its internet-accessible web services.&rdquo;&nbsp; Plaintiffs also alleged that client confidential information &ldquo;has been exposed,&rdquo; and identified the firm&rsquo;s time-charge system, e-mail server and virtual private network as vulnerable to cyber-attack.
However, the plaintiffs never alleged that any actual breach has occurred, and the firm moved to dismiss the claims.&nbsp; Potential vulnerability is not actionable, Johnson &amp; Bell said in its <a href="http://filehost.thompsonhine.com/uploads/Johnson__Bell_Mtn_to_Dismiss_dd73.pdf">motion </a>&mdash; otherwise &ldquo;every lawyer who carries a briefcase, takes notes in court or in a deposition ... could be subject to&nbsp;being named in a class action lawsuit, because in each instance a client&rsquo;s confidential information was &lsquo;exposed&rsquo; or &lsquo;vulnerable.&#8217;&rdquo;
Counsel for plaintiffs in the suit is Jay Edelson, who has <a href="http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=1202774571406/Facing-a-Data-Breach-Suit-Without-the-Data-Breach-Scary?slreturn=20161121093436">litigated successfully</a> on behalf of consumers against businesses where actual breaches have occurred.
Although expansion of liability&nbsp;against law firms where no actual cyber-breach is alleged&nbsp;would be a&nbsp; scary development, the possibility has fizzled for the moment.&nbsp;&nbsp;As detailed in the district court&rsquo;s <a href="http://filehost.thompsonhine.com/uploads/Johnson__Bell_Mem._and_Opinion_2fd5.pdf">opinion</a>, the plaintiffs acknowledged that&nbsp;the time-tracking system vulnerability&nbsp;was &nbsp;remedied&nbsp;shortly after the complaint was filed, and plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their class action complaint&nbsp;in order to pursue arbitration under a provision of their retainer agreement with the firm.
Lawyer training = ounce of prevention
Law firm data vulnerability consists of at least two factors &mdash; technology and humans.&nbsp; As we&rsquo;ve pointed out <a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2015/08/legal-departments-among-most-likely-to-fall-for-phishing-says-report/">before</a>, a good way to address the human factor is with plenty of lawyer training, because we seem to be particularly prone to falling for scams and clicking before we think.&nbsp; As for the technological factor, staying ahead of the bad guys is&nbsp;always going to be a game of <a href="http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/whack-a-mole">Whack-a-Mole</a>, which law firms will be striving to win.

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Ethics

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Thomas F. Zych

Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Business of Law

Data breach report says BigLaw is most likely to be hit, and cybersecurity complaint is unsealed