The Law Firm Cyber Insurance Gap

A recent report from Citibank says that law firms are at high risk for cyber-intrusions, that incidents are probably underreported, and that standards for cybersecurity at law firms is relatively low. It’s an alarming report, considering that law firms are habitual custodians of extremely sensitive information from their clients. Mark A. Cohen, in his Legalmosaic blog, considers the issue in particular with regard to insurance, or the lack of it. The great majority of major law firms, he writes, don’t have stand-alone cybersecurity policies, relying instead on lawyers’ professional liability insurance, better known as malpractice insurance, which provides “partial, but not complete relief in the event of a successful cyber attack.”