Last week wasn't great for law firm cybersecurity. With DLA Piper offices across Europe, the United States and the Middle East experiencing a severe ransomware breach and the finding that 40 percent of compromised firms are unaware they've been breached, the warnings to law firms to shore up security seem more important than before.

Some firms, however, are positioning themselves as cybersecurity experts, tailoring their services to respond to the current state of cybersecurity among clients. Among them is BakerHostetler, who after WannaCry formed a services group specifically for addressing ransomware. Staffed entirely of lawyers, the group is called BakerHostetler's “SWAT” team, and it offers its services on an on-call basis to clients as well as other organizations.

Among the types of decisions the team makes for organizations are whether to actually pay a ransom and how; managing business operations while systems are down due to an attack; engaging law enforcement; issuing notices to clients and other external parties; working with executives on compliance and legal obligations; and preserving evidence and data. The team will also engage third party providers to help provide services like ensuring secure offline communications as needed.