For all the damage caused by the audacious and often successful breaches of law firms, the attacks have been beneficial in waking many in the industry up to the need for data security. “You think of ESI…you have had a few bad hits where [firms] got hit with gross findings and punitive damages. So everybody started learning about ESI and putting standards in place,” Martin D. Beirne, chairman of law firm Beirne Maynard & Parsons, told the audience at Legaltech West Coast’s “Protecting Against Cyber Hacking and Computer Fraud” session.
But while law firms, like companies in the financial and healthcare industries, are implementing security practices, “when you look outside of those areas, there’s not a whole lot of standards,” said David Pluchinsk, partner at Beirne Maynard & Parsons.
