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Five Ways You May Be Contributing to a Data Breach
While attorneys understand the importance of client confidentiality, many are less concerned about data security. This can be a serious oversight, since law firms are becoming increasingly vulnerable to security breaches. As other industries such as healthcare, financial services and the government start to recognize the dangers of security breaches and deploy more stringent security measures, the hacker community has begun to eye the legal industry as low-hanging fruit. Since law firms have been slow to adopt the newest security technology and practices, they are becoming increasingly vulnerable to attacks.
With a security breach, law firms not only hurt their relationships with clients; they may be at risk of noncompliance with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), as well as data privacy laws. Such noncompliance can lead to large fines, a public announcement of the breach and damage to the law firm's reputation and business-development efforts. These costs, both quantifiable and non-quantifiable, can be enormous. Compared to the potential consequences of a data breach, the costs of actually implementing policies and technology to protect confidential client and personally identifiable data is trivial.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
CLE Shouldn't Be the Only Mandatory Training for Attorneys
Each stage of an attorney's career offers opportunities for a curriculum that addresses both the individual's and the firm's need to drive success.
Discovery of Claim Construction and Infringement Analysis May be Compelled Prior to a Markman Hearing
A defendant in a patent infringement suit may, during discovery and prior to a <i>Markman</i> hearing, compel the plaintiff to produce claim charts, claim constructions, and element-by-element infringement analyses.