Major Law Firms Threatened With Cyber Class Actions

Chicago attorney Jay Edelson, said in a New York Times profile last year to be “if not the most hated person in Silicon Valley, very close to it,” has set his sights on 15 major law firms, according to a report on Bloomberg BNA. This follows reports that several firms, including Weil Gotshal & Manges and Cravath, Swaine & Moore, have suffered major data breaches in recent months. Bloomberg quotes a cybersecurity expert from Nuix who agrees with a basic contention of Edelson: that many law firms are lax on cybersecurity and not upfront about breaches when they occur. “They typically overstate the complexity of the attack and then understate the impact,” said Pogue. Edelson told bloomberg that his firm has corporate clients, and that the lawsuits will seek injunctive relief and lay out preventive steps for hardening security systems.