Ed. note: This article first appeared in an ILTA publication.
With cyberattacks and data breaches dominating the headlines, legal professionals, whether in law firms or corporate legal departments, now serve as protectors of trust, privacy, and some of the world’s most sensitive information. Today, security is no longer a background IT task; it is a leadership imperative in legal service delivery, risk mitigation, and brand management. Legal work is digital and distributed, and expectations extend far beyond merely checking off compliance boxes.
Clients, corporate leadership, and regulators are watching. They demand transparency and assurance that your law firm or legal department is proactive about securing all privileged data, monitoring the vendor ecosystem, and adapting to an evolving threat landscape. This article outlines the seven most critical security strategies to safeguard information and proactively build client and stakeholder confidence.
[1] Build a Culture of Vigilance
Both law firms and in-house legal teams are now judged not just on legal skill, but also on their ability to protect highly sensitive data. Research shows that roughly one in three law firms will be targeted by a data breach this year, with the average incident costing over five million dollars. Even more troubling, 63% of those breaches trace back to third-party vendors or partners, making external risk management as important as internal controls.
Law Firms
Clients are sending increasingly detailed security questionnaires and often require contractual proof of your security controls, including documentation on vendor oversight.
Corporate Legal Departments
Boards and nonlegal business leaders expect you to uphold or exceed the security standards that govern the rest of the organization. There is often a need to oversee both your internal systems and the security practices of your outside counsel and legal technology vendors.
Action Steps
Map every touchpoint where client or company data exchange occurs, internally and externally. Ensure that the appropriate levels of protection (e.g., encryption or access controls) are in place at each touchpoint.
Designate security champions on both legal and business teams to bridge communication gaps and remediate any gaps in protection.
Create open channels with IT and compliance, ensuring you receive alerts about new risks and best practices.
[2] Turn Compliance into a Competitive Advantage
Regulations, including HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and more, dictate how legal organizations handle information. But the best law firms and legal departments go beyond the minimum, positioning compliance as a value proposition and a reason for clients or the C-suite to trust them.
Law Firms
Highlight a culture of compliance in RFPs, outside counsel guidelines, and pitches. Clients increasingly differentiate between firms based on their ability to manage risk and share audit documentation.
Legal Departments
Be the compliance role model for your company. Demand documentation from outside counsel and review every supporting vendor for regulatory gaps. For example, when working internationally, confirm GDPR controls at every stage. Do not just rely on a signed business associate agreement or a sweeping, generic statement: require proof, process walk-throughs, or third-party certifications.
Action Steps
Catalog applicable regulations: Map which statutes and guidelines (e.g., PIPEDA for Canadian matters, HIPAA for health care, etc.) apply to each workflow.
Train every team member: From senior counsel to administrators, make compliance part of onboarding and annual reviews.
Demand regular vendor audits: Require outside partners to provide up-to-date certifications and respond to standardized compliance questionnaires.
[3] Treat All Client, Company, and Case Data as Highly Sensitive
Legal risk does not respect any boundaries between official records and working documents. IP filings, deal memos, video depositions, transcripts, background emails, and anything else associated with legal matters may contain highly confidential or regulated material.
Law Firms
The days of treating only internal firm files, such as retainer agreements or billing records, as the most important or confidential are over. Anything related to a client must be considered mission-critical security data.
Legal Departments
Internal memos, early-stage project files, and communications often get overlooked. Everything, including scratch notes and emails, should be subject to the same protections as a finalized contract.
Action Steps
Adopt a universal classification rule. If it touches a legal matter or sensitive business strategy, protect it fully with no exceptions.
Invest in secure collaboration platforms. Choose tools that support granular access controls, transparent audit trails, and easy revocation of access.
Audit legacy data. Regularly sweep shared drives and email archives for unprotected or improperly stored files.
[4] Proactively Vet and Monitor Every Third-Party Vendor
Breaches rarely start at home. More than half originate in the extensive web of litigation support providers, software vendors, contract staffing agencies, and, sometimes, expert witnesses. Both in-house and law firm legal teams must scrutinize every vendor as a source of risk.
Action Steps
Adopt a standardized risk-vetting tool (such as Shared Assessments’ SIG questionnaire) to screen all vendors.
Require multitiered evidence: Ask for independent audits (SOC 2, ISO 27001), vendor supply chain risk questionnaires, and regular IT/infosec reviews.
Insist on regulatory attestation: Obtain written, renewed sign-offs from both vendors and their critical subcontractors confirming compliance with every relevant statute (HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, etc.).
Consider legal industry specialists: Firms like Prevalent focus on legal technology supply chains and can streamline complex vendor reviews.
[5] Make Encryption a Nonnegotiable, Visible Standard
Encryption must be used everywhere: for files at rest, for data in transit, and for backups. Encryption not only protects sensitive data (by making it unreadable) but it also helps minimize risk if any information is ever exposed in a data breach (since it’s unreadable if encrypted using strong protocols).
Law Firms
Document your encryption policy in your client security briefing. Make clear that encryption is not just “enabled”: it’s enforced, monitored, and routinely audited. Using a cloud service does not guarantee encryption, and vendor claims should be scrutinized and independently verified.
Legal Departments
Don’t just rely on generic IT statements. Request and periodically review encryption documentation and processes, especially when onboarding or updating tools and vendors.
Action Steps
Mandate encryption for all client and company data—from emails and files to backups and endpoints.
Demand encryption transparency from every vendor. Require written confirmation in RFPs and ongoing contracts.
Keep it clear and straightforward. Non-tech stakeholders should always know which files are encrypted, when, and by whom.
[6] Require Multifactor Authentication Everywhere
Passwords are among the most easily compromised protections, and breaches using stolen credentials are among the most expensive to remediate. MFA adds another layer of protection against password-based incursions.
Law Firms
Deploy MFA on all document and case management systems, communication tools, and any platform that supports remote access.
Legal Departments
Work with corporate IT to ensure MFA is enforced across legal tool sets, third-party logins (for vendors or outside counsel), and SaaS platforms, old and new.
Taking advantage of single sign-on (SSO) in tools or with service providers that support it will simplify staff authentication and give you more direct control over who can access external systems.
Action Steps
Apply MFA universally for every employee, partner, business unit, and critical vendor account.
Engage users. Use mobile authenticators, push notifications, or biometric options. Explore the feasibility of passkeys, which eliminate passwords and further reduce your exposure to security risks.
Communicate your MFA posture to business leaders, clients, and stakeholders. Highlighting MFA as a default, not an exception, signals your seriousness around cybersecurity and can differentiate your legal department or firm in pitches and proposals.
[7] Elevate with Ratings, AI Guardrails, and Human Training
Just as credit scores are used to gauge risk, legal teams should require up-to-date security ratings for any company with access to their data. Tools like SecurityScorecard and Bitsight provide objective, actionable vendor scores based on data breaches, patching cadence, network hygiene, and more.
It is also essential to set clear AI and data governance standards. The adoption of GenAI is transforming both legal work and associated risks.
A staggering 60% of breaches are due to human error, not software failure, which is why it’s crucial to treat security training and testing as a continuous process. The strongest legal operations create a culture where everyone, from junior admin to senior partner, proactively learns and tests their cyber awareness.
Best Practices for All Legal Organizations
Never use unredacted client or company data to train external or internal LLMs.
Insist that vendors provide written guidelines and controls on AI use, data retention, and LLM training.
Create your own firmwide policy on the responsible use of AI and review it at least annually. Ensure every person in the firm understands its full scope.
Conduct monthly phishing training for all staff, including senior partners, C-suite legal officers, and contract attorneys.
Treat missed exercises as learning, not punishment. Provide specialized remedial training only for repeat misses.
Ensure that all providers and their staff undergo security awareness training with documented results.
A New Era for Legal Security Leadership
Security is now a legal leadership imperative and a trust multiplier. Today’s forward-looking law firms and legal departments are not just rule followers but risk managers, business protectors, and confidence builders. By embedding these seven strategies deeply across every internal procedure and external partnership, your legal organization can protect its clients, work, and reputation.
Leadership means working hand in hand: corporate counsel and outside firms collaborating on joint risk reviews, sharing best practices, and speaking up together for stronger protections in the marketplace. Security is everyone’s job. By making it visible, proactive, and continuous, you transform it from a vulnerability into an enduring strength.
Jacob Mathai is the chief information officer for Veritext Legal Solutions, the leader in technology-enabled court reporting services and litigation support solutions.
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