Imagine a defense lawyer's firm suffers a data breach in the middle of a complex litigation, poses Lindsay Nickle, vice chair of the data privacy and cybersecurity practice at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith. The plaintiff's Social Security numbers and medical records could be exposed, she says, raising the stakes in an already contentious dispute.

"That can impact ongoing litigation and can add a layer of complexity to a litigation that is already pretty complex on its own," Nickle says. "In notification situations with ongoing litigation, we have to think about how we are going to notify this individual. As a lawyer, I am not able to contact opposing counsel's clients directly. It can be really difficult to navigate."