This may sound like a broken record, but a new report found lawyers have cloud computing concerns.

To be sure, more lawyers are leveraging cloud computing for their work, according to this year's American Bar Association's "Legal Technology Survey Report" released last week. Indeed, according to the ABA, 58% of respondents said they are using cloud computing for work-related tasks, an increase from the 2018 report's 55% and 2016's 38%.

But despite an uptick in usage, the ABA also found lawyers' concerns with cloud are also growing. The ABA survey found that "confidentiality/security" was the top cloud concern for firms, rising from 2018's 47% to this year's 50%.

Law firm tech consultants said that uneasiness is warranted. They argue that most law firms, such as solo practitioners and small law firms, lack the subject-matter expertise to truly vet cloud-based providers to understand the cloud's risk and best practices.

"As you have more people collaborating across different platforms, someone else's bad cybersecurity practices could have a negative impact on you, even when you are doing everything right," said Dennis Kennedy, president of Dennis Kennedy Advisory Services, a legal innovation consulting company. "And the threats have become so much more difficult to deal with and more common at the same time."

Kennedy noted law firms' sensitive client data can easily place them in cybercriminals' crosshairs, but rather than proactively addressing those concerns, most firms haven't taken the initiative to understand cloud-based providers' security practices.

"I always tell people if you look at a YouTube five-minute video, you would understand how the security measures they have are infinitely greater than what you can do at your firm. I think people don't have an understanding about the security in the cloud and have an inflated sense of what they can control," Kennedy said.

"You have to ask questions about the cloud to know how protected you are or not," added Sharon Nelson, president of digital forensics, IT and cybersecurity provider Sensei Enterprises Inc. "If you are Big Law you have cybersecurity experts probably on staff, you have someone on staff that knows the questions to ask."

Ross Bruch, a wealth planner and Philadelphia Bar Association technology chair, agreed. He said that all law firms should try to figure out "how to properly vet their third-party vendors, because you don't know how much exposure you have to risk when you are relying on the security systems of third-party vendors."

But as Nelson noted, big firms are more likely to have personnel assigned to track and manage cloud services than smaller firms.

"When you get to midsize and smaller firms, there could be one person wearing many hats," said Kleinbard partner Jennifer Zegel. "When you pile on those different roles, it could be difficult to manage and stay abreast of the latest cloud innovations."

The survey also noted 50% of respondents cited a lack of control over data as a cloud concern, a 3% uptick from last year's survey results. Legal Cloud Technology Inc. president Pegeen Turner said it's a significant hurdle for some firms to give up direct control of their data.

"There's always concerns moving to the cloud where they can't physically see their servers in the office," she said. 

Slightly more respondents to the ABA survey this year also reported the cost and effort of switching from existing solutions as a concern, which grew from 2018's 18% to this year's 20%.

"I think that is a bit of a fallacy that moving to cloud is going to save [you] so much money," Turner said. Instead, law firms save by relying on their cloud service provider to maintain, update and backup the files and infrastructure, she noted. "Cloud computing won't save them necessarily money, but it saves them from the headaches of people watching the shop."

Bruch added that the ABA survey also noted an uptick in clients having concerns about firms using the cloud. He said he wasn't sure if clients were just formerly oblivious to their counsel's cloud usage, but it was notable because it added more responsibility onto lawyers.

"It's a sign clients are becoming more knowledgeable and as so, law firms need to become more knowledgeable."