William Hughes recalls being at a client’s office at 3 a.m.—in the midst of responding to an ongoing cyberattack—when they discovered that the hackers learned of law enforcement’s involvement by infiltrating an employee device.
Those issues commonly require a lawyer’s involvement, and firms that developed specialized practices in advance of last year’s barrage of data breach headlines said they’re feeling the increase in demand for cybersecurity counsel.
Scott Christie, a partner in Newark-based McCarter & English’s cybersecurity and data privacy practice, said, “That’s why the lawyer who’s coordinating that needs to walk the walk and talk the talk. … It’s vital for an attorney who professes to do cybersecurity work have not only the legal background, but the technical background.”
Christie agreed that demand for cybersecurity services—”driven by the fear of bad consequences”—is high.