The year 2020 will be remembered as the year that lawyers were catapulted into the future. As a result of COVID-19, the majority of law firms suddenly found themselves thrust into a work-from-home (WFH) environment. Some were prepared for working remotely, but many were not. We’ve helped a lot of lawyers transition to a different working environment by providing training and implementing new technologies in their practice. Along the way, we’ve learned some things about how lawyers have responded to the pandemic. Here are ten cybersecurity lessons we’ve learned about WFH.

1. Home networks are 3.5 times more likely to have at least one family of malware than corporate networks. A study by BitSight analyzed data from 41,000 U.S. companies. The study found that 25% of devices (e.g. printers, computers, IoT devices, etc.) on a home network had services exposed to the internet. Another scary statistic is that “Nearly one in two organizations (45%) had one or more devices accessing its corporate network from a home network with at least one malware infection.” Ouch.

2. Sharing the device you use for law firm work with family members is a bad idea. Devices used to access the law firm network and work on confidential client data should only be used for that purpose. Family members should not be using the same device even if there is a separate login ID and password for the device. If a family member inadvertently performs an action that allows the installation of malware, client data and law firm access could be compromised.

3. Zoom is currently the choice of clients/potential clients. Teams, Webex, Zoom, and GoToMeeting are all good video conferencing platforms. The reality is that Zoom is the technology of choice for your current and potential clients. All the other platforms are playing catch-up to Zoom. Despite some early histrionic media reports, you can use Zoom securely for client communications.

4. Make sure your confidential client conversations are kept private. Many of us are sharing working space in our homes. As a lawyer, you have an obligation to ensure that client conversations are private. That means having a separate room to conduct client conversations and consider using a headset too. You wouldn’t loudly discuss a client matter while commuting on the train so why would you allow family members to eavesdrop?

5. Employee security awareness training is more important than ever. The WFH environment has put law firm employees into situations that carry different risks than when they were in the firm’s office. As item #1 in our list identifies, we need to be even more diligent with practicing safe computing. The cyber criminals know there are a lot of targets working from home using insecure home networks, Training employees to recognize the current cyber threats is an absolute must at this time.

Read the entire article here.

The world is trying to deal with the COVID-19 in a variety of ways. Controlling the spread of the deadly virus is at the top of the list. Travel is being restricted, and some countries have even closed their borders. The United States was slow to react, but eventually states imposed restrictions for business operations to reduce the coronavirus spread and then began re-opening in phases. Social distancing and maintaining clean hygiene practices are the normal mode of operation now. More and more businesses are allowing their employees to stay at home where possible.

What does that mean for the practice of law? How will you meet with clients? Most firms have adopted a telework environment and allow their employees to work from home, even while some firms have begun re-opening. Working from home has different consequences depending on your current capabilities and whether a plan is already in place. While we can’t cover all the possibilities and capabilities of every law firm, we’ll attempt to attack some of the common considerations.

Equipment

Let’s start with a very basic item…the computer. Hopefully, everyone is already using a laptop as their main office machine. As expected, some popular models of laptops are still in short supply. Worst case, you may have to find a Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. and see if you can purchase a consumer-grade machine. If you planned properly, laptop users are already configured for remote access. Perhaps now would be a good time to modify your infrastructure plans and budget for laptops and docking stations for those folks that need a mobility option. You may even consider docking stations for home use in addition to one at the office.

Many firms have already adapted and have their employees working from home. Believe it or not, in the early days of responding to the pandemic, some people picked up their work computers, monitors, keyboards and all other peripherals on their desk and took them home. We can’t imagine the headaches the IT support people had instructing a user to connect all the cords and devices up properly, not to mention configuring the desktop to connect to the home network. Our suggestion is to avoid taking desktops home and just deal with laptops and home machines. It will save a lot of headaches, wasted time and support costs. Speaking of home machines…they bring a whole new set of problems and liability which we’ll address later.

Read the entire article here.

When lawyers turned the calendar page to January 2020, they could not have dreamt of the two-fold nightmare that would descend upon the profession so quickly. A global pandemic and a tanking economy at the same time? We thought we had seen the end of hard times when we finally emerged from The Great Recession in 2009. Some of our lawyer friends still have lines of credit to pay down from that recession.

While government leaders say the economy will “come roaring back” or “I’ll bring the economy back,” most lawyers are skeptical, to say the least.

The New Normal

What have we seen so far? Beyond the fact that virtually all lawyers are working remotely, with some phased reopening in the works, we have seen dismal news.

Clio’s survey, released in May 2020 showed that during March, new legal matters were down more than 30% compared to the first five weeks of 2020 and down by more than 40% from the year’s highest weekly averages. 56% percent of legal professionals say they have seen a serious reduction in the number of people asking for legal help, and 53% say they are significantly less busy.

Though understandable, 49% of companies say that if they had a legal issue now, they would probably delay getting legal help until the pandemic has receded.

Sixty-seven percent of lawyers are worried about the success (and even the survival) of their practice and 57% are worried about making a living over the next few months.

The survey found that 75% of legal professionals report higher levels of stress and anxiety, and nearly half are more worried about their finances than their health. Not all lawyers are in pain. The bankruptcy attorneys are doing just fine – and other areas of law practice have not yet seen a decline.

Eleven percent of firms say they have already laid off staff, the survey found. Another 15% expect layoffs in the next three to six months.

Read the entire article here.

“The pandemic and ensuing disruption to routines and stability is unquestionably taking a toll on the mental health and well-being of many in the legal profession, just as it is for individuals in all walks of life . . . fear, uncertainty, stress and worry are widespread.”

Patrick Krill, founder of well-being consulting firm Krill Strategies

Double Trouble

No one dreamt of a simultaneous pandemic and a depressed economy. In a matter of weeks, the legal world was upended as law firms sent their lawyers home to work remotely and scrambled to find new solutions to practice law in “the new normal.” As has been said many times, “to be a good lawyer, you have to be a healthy lawyer.” COVID-19 and the troubled economy have created enormous pressure on lawyers and law firms.

The effects of “the new normal” vary from lawyer to lawyer, but some report increased alcohol usage, sleeping less, feeling anxious/stressed all the time, having headaches, gaining weight as they stay at home, obsessively watching the news or being distracted by everything at home to the point where they can’t focus on their law practice, worrying over whether they will have enough money to retire – or ever being able to retire, being frightened of contracting COVID-19, feeling overwhelmed by trying to learn new technologies to adapt to the current crisis, feeling lonely or depressed, taking tranquilizers/depression medication/sleeping pills and the list goes on.

Read the entire article here.

 It is hard to believe there was such a thing as “the good old days of ransomware,” but we might be forgiven for looking back nostalgically. While ransomware was a bloody nuisance, law firms generally felt protected if they had a well-engineered backup system to facilitate recovery.

With multiple backups, usually in the cloud, or (with small firms) on two or more external USB drives, you could ignore the badgering requests to pay the ransom, the clocks counting down to when your data would be totally inaccessible, etc.

The trick was always to have multiple backups so that a single backup solution didn’t leave you vulnerable to having all your data encrypted if you were struck by ransomware while backing up. Having that “virgin” backup meant you could restore the data. This of course assumes that you regularly performed test restores on your backups to make sure you could indeed restore data from them.

Good guys, 1 — bad guys, 0.

The exception was often in the health-care industry, where lives were at stake and taking the time required to restore data might cost lives. Often, those entities paid up—and once the cybercriminal discovered that, health-care entities were targeted.

If you are scratching your head about all the state and city governments that were brought to their knees by ransomware in the last two years, you should know that their backups were not properly engineered. In fact, they were a mess. The cleanup took forever and cost millions of dollars. Many local and state government agencies never understood what constituted properly engineered backups—nor did they budget for it. Even now, they are more likely to get cyber insurance to cover the risk than to adequately address the baseline problems.

Read the entire article here.

The world is trying to deal with the coronavirus pandemic in a variety of ways. Controlling the spread of the deadly virus is at the top of the list. Travel is being restricted, and some countries have even closed their borders. The United States has been slow to react, but recent events have accelerated action by the federal government, states and major corporations. Social distancing and maintaining clean hygiene practices are the normal mode of operation now. More and more businesses are asking their employees to stay at home where possible. Some are being commanded by civil authorities to have their employees work from home.

What does that mean for the practice of law? How will you meet with clients? Many firms have or will adopt a telework environment and allow their employees to work from home. Making the working remotely decision will have different consequences depending on your current capabilities and whether a plan is already in place. While we can’t cover all the possibilities and capabilities of every law firm, we’ll attempt to attack some of the common considerations.

Equipment

Let’s start with a very basic item…the computer. Hopefully, everyone is already using a laptop as their main office machine. If not, expect some popular models of laptops to be in short supply. Worst case, you may have to find a Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. and see if you can purchase a consumer-grade machine. If you planned properly, laptop users are already configured for remote access. Perhaps now would be a good time to modify your infrastructure plans and budget for laptops and docking stations for those folks that need a mobility option.

Read the entire article here.

Excerpt:

We realize that many of you are reading the title of this column and saying to yourself, “What annual technology review?” You belong to a big club. But if you are not doing an annual technology review, you are not serving your law firm well. So, let’s start with the threshold question . . .

WHY DO LAW FIRMS NEED AN ANNUAL TECHNOLOGY REVIEW?

You may have noticed that keeping up with technology is next to impossible. The authors each read an average of two hours a day and we still can’t keep up. The best advice is to be pragmatic and recognize that if you assess your technology once a year, including your cybersecurity, you’re doing much better than the average firm.

One very good reason to do an annual technology review is to control your technology budget. If you fail to review your technology costs each year and plan for an annual budget, you are very likely on your way to a “big bang” expenditure caused by your failure to plan. No law firm enjoys an abrupt and large depletion of its funds.

Annual reviews also allow you to spot software you are using that may be going out of support. It is astonishing how many lawyers are still using Windows 7, which is now out of support and therefore not receiving security updates (except for rare situations which apply largely to big firms). That makes Windows 7 unethical to use.

As you go through your annual reviews, you will undoubtedly note that your technology costs (hardware, software and IT/cybersecurity support) have increased over time. As our friend Jim Calloway is fond of saying, “Every law firm is also a technology business.” That is very true in the digital era. As Jim has also noted, older technology impedes the efficient running of your law firm – it hurts productivity, which obviously impacts your bottom line.

Read the entire article here.

Excerpt:

ABA RESOLUTION 105

 The ABA House of Delegates adopted Resolution 105 at the 2018 ABA Midyear Meeting. The resolution supports the goal of reducing mental health and substance use disorders and improving the well-being of lawyers, judges and law students. It urges stakeholders within the legal profession to consider the recommendations set out in The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. The pursuit of lawyer wellness has spread rapidly through law firms, bar associations, state bars and state supreme courts.

The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, assembled in August 2016 to “create a movement toward improving the health and well-being of the legal profession,” defines lawyer well-being as a “continuous process whereby lawyers seek to thrive in each of the following areas: emotional health, occupational pursuits creative or intellectual endeavors, sense of spirituality or greater purpose in life, physical health, and social connections.”

Read the entire article here.

Excerpt: The majority of lawyers don’t know a lot about artificial intelligence (AI). Everyone has heard the hype, few know the reality, and everyone groans when the words “robot lawyer” are spoken.

There may really be robot lawyers one day, but not soon.

ABA RESOLUTION 112

On August 12, 2019, the ABA House of Delegates passed Resolution 112, which states:

“RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges courts and lawyers to address the emerging ethical and legal issues related to the usage of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in the practice of law including: (1) bias, explainability, and transparency of automated decisions made by AI; (2) ethical and beneficial usage of AI; and (3) controls and oversight of AI and the vendors that provide AI.”

The authors are delighted to see this resolution passed. We are being shaped by artificial intelligence in ways we have not yet fully grasped. Kudos to the ABA’s SciTech Section for bringing the resolution forward and forming a working group to address these issues.

Read the entire article here.

Excerpt: We always look forward to the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center’s Annual Legal Technology Survey Report on the use of technology in the legal profession. The summary of the “Marketing and Communication” portion of the 2019 survey was recently published. It was written by our good friend Allison Shields and contains some fascinating (and worrisome) statistics.

Respondents to the 2019 Survey segment covering websites and law firm marketing were mostly solos or from smaller firms, consisting of 27% solos, 29% lawyers in firms of 2-9 lawyers, 18% from firms of 10-49 lawyers, 11% from firms of between 100-499 lawyers, 10% from firms with 500+ lawyers, and 5% from firms with 50-99 lawyers. The average age of respondents was 58 years old, with 55% of respondents identifying as 60+ years old, and another 24% between 50-59 years old. Wow, the graying of the profession is noteworthy – or do younger lawyers not participate in surveys?

Read the entire article here.