BOOKS
A Cybersecurity Handbook for All Attorneys and Law Firms
By Shawn E. Tuma
Cover courtesy of ABA Publishing.
Cybersecurity is one of the most important issues of our time and one
that most certainly will impact all attorneys and law firms across the
entire spectrum of practices. Despite the importance of this issue for
the legal profession, most of the information written about
cybersecurity is not very usable by practicing attorneys and, in many
cases, makes it seem as though being cyber secure is only important to
the largest of law firms—and out of reach to all others.
Recognizing this need, in the second edition of their book, The
ABA Cybersecurity Handbook: A Resource for Attorneys, Law Firms, and
Business Professionals (ABA Publishing, 2017), editors Jill D.
Rhodes and Robert S. Litt assembled an all-star team of 26
well-respected practitioners who share their expertise with the readers.
This book, written by practicing lawyers for practicing lawyers, is 464
pages full of substantive content that goes from high-level,
easy-to-read top 10 lists that even the most technophobe lawyer can use
all the way down into the weeds of deep technology, cybersecurity, and
legal analysis that even the most advanced readers will find valuable.
The focus on practicality is what makes it so useful.
The Handbook provides helpful guidance for attorneys who
practice in every type of setting across all practice areas. Whether it
is a solo attorney doing probate work in a rural county looking for a
few simple tips, the attorney practicing in the international firm
counseling clients on substantive cybersecurity and data privacy issues,
or in-house counsel, government lawyers, and public interest lawyers,
they will all find the Handbook helpful.
The authors avoid much of the hysteria and fearmongering we often hear
with cybersecurity. Instead, they provide clear examples of the risks
and practical solutions to the problems. The book addresses how
cybersecurity risks apply to attorneys and law firms in particular and
why legal and ethical obligations require lawyers to protect against
those risks, and provides practical solutions for how attorneys and law
firms at every level can help protect against those risks. This is
reflected in the organization of the book, which is broken down into
four primary sections: (1) cybersecurity background and risks and common
forms of attack, especially against attorneys and law firms; (2)
lawyers’ legal and ethical obligations for protecting their networks and
client data; (3) application to different legal practice settings from
large to small law firms, in-house counsel, government lawyers, and
public interest attorneys; and (4) guidance on incident response and
cyber insurance issues.
Most larger and more sophisticated firms are addressing cybersecurity
because their clients are demanding that they do so or else they will
not send them business. The attorneys that frequently need the most help
are the solo and small-firm practitioners that do not have the
information technology and cybersecurity teams in place. This book
provides excellent straightforward advice to them in Chapter 9,
“Cybersecurity for the Little Guys.” The introductory paragraph sums up
my experiences in this area quite nicely:
I can hear some lawyers saying it now: “I’m just a solo. I don’t need a complicated computer security system. Nobody is interested in me. Besides, I don’t have an IT department to handle it or a big budget to spend on computer security. This is just for the big firms.”
The chapter goes on to explain why this thinking is not
only incorrect on several levels, but provides 12 specific steps solos
and small firms can take, with explanations and a table for checking off
completions, for effectively improving their cybersecurity.
TBJ
For more information about cybersecurity from the American Bar
Association, go to ambar.org/cyber.
SHAWN E. TUMA
is an attorney
widely recognized in data privacy and cybersecurity law, areas in which
he has practiced for over two decades. He is co-chair of the Data
Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice Group at Spencer Fane and works
primarily in the firm’s Collin County and Dallas offices.
