In the 1987 film “Wall Street,” Charlie Sheen’s character is impelled by the “greed is good” ethos, gleaned from his mentor, to sneak into a corporate law firm to steal mergers and acquisitions files with a sleek spy camera—cutting-edge technology in the 1980s. Technology has changed since then, but the sensitivity of such files has not. Technology now permits that type of theft from a world away and the ability to steal more files in far less time.
Law firms are no exception to today’s pervasive data breaches and, in fact, may have even more at risk than most businesses because they possess information that is, in many ways, distinct from the typical categories of data tempting hackers. Law firm data include secrets, and this reality makes lawyers targets. For instance, firms possess proprietary information that may provide for their competitive advantage. They will have compensation figures, and they often have human resources and employee data that can be quite sensitive. And then there is the highly restricted information that law firms receive and generate in the everyday course of their client representations. Examples include patent drafts, prepublic disclosure mergers and acquisitions transaction documents, estate planning and administration documents and forensic litigation damages analyses.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
