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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Yes, You Are My Data’s Keeper
Josh Hummel
Federal Court Decision Among the First to Allow a Data Breach Liability Claim to Proceed Under Common Law Bailment Theory
Data breach lawsuits have often struggled to match up the unique realities of data breaches with traditional theories of legal liability. A recent decision from the Southern District of Indiana, however, cut through these issues by allowing a class action claim to proceed on a theory of liability often proposed by commentators as a solution to the data breach liability conundrum but until recently almost uniformly rejected by courts: the common law theory of bailment.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
AI Regulation in the U.S.: What’s Coming, and What Companies Need to Do In 2023
Kim Peretti, Dan Felz and Alysa Austin
Part Two of a Two-Part Article
In Part One, the authors addressed the industries most affected by AI, and began the discussion on U.S. federal and state regulations to expect in 2023. Part Two, continues the discussion on potential federal AI regulation and what companies can do to prepare.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Legal Operations Success In 2023
Ari Kaplan
Strategies for Navigating an Uncertain Economy, Leveraging CLM Technology to Streamline Processes, and Embracing Change
During a recent discussion with a select group of leaders in legal operations in highly-regulated organizations, several key themes emerged that are likely to drive new initiatives in 2023.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Federal Jury Rejects First Amendment Defense In ‘MetaBirkins’ NFT Standoff
Todd Larson and Yonatan Shefa
Leading the charge in thorny IP issues have been cases addressing whether NFT makers who utilize other parties’ trademarks can turn to the First Amendment as a defense to trademark infringement. This article analyzes the summary judgment decision that set the stage for trial in Hermes International, and provides some takeaways concerning the legal landscape for NFTs moving forward.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Start-Ups, Cyber Attacks and Regulations
CLS Staff
A Q&A with Christina Gagnier, a Shareholder with Carlton Fields and President of the newly-launched privacy and cybersecurity consultancy CTRL, on the cyber issues specific to start-ups and small businesses.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Strategies to Improve Security and Optimize Your Technology Spend
Mike Henderson, Whitney Jones, and Bill Pitcairn
Uncertain and challenging markets are times when firms and organizations of all types conserve cash. If this can be achieved without cutting needed projects, equipment or services to ensure successful returns to the office, then this is clearly an ideal financial strategy. In fact, leasing and financing not only helps firms conserve cash, but when done right, helps firms also maximize their IT budgets.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Podcast: Crypto’s Down, But It’s Far From Dead
Listen in on a post-webinar chat on “The Crypto Landscape: Post-FTX,” with Blockchain Legal LLP partner Aaron Krowne and counsel Ali Derie, along with veteran entertainment industry lawyer Eric S. Goldman, about cryptocurrency's rocky recent past (and present) as well as its still-promising, if uncertain, future.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Financial Strategies that Improve Security and Optimize Your Technology Spend
Mike Henderson, Whitney Jones, and Bill Pitcairn
Shifting large IT purchases over to a predictable monthly expense is a pricing model that has taken over most industries with the introduction of cloud services, and this can be a particularly useful model during challenging markets.
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
New York Federal Jury Rejects First Amendment Defense In ‘MetaBirkins’ NFT Standoff
Todd Larson and Yonatan Shefa
Perhaps no other area in the technology sector — save perhaps the recent explosion of generative AI models — has raised as many thorny intellectual property issues as the proliferation of Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs. Leading the charge have been cases addressing whether NFT makers who utilize other parties’ trademarks can turn to the First Amendment as a defense to trademark infringement.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Shrinking Demand? Top 7 Reasons Firms Are Leveraging Experience Data
Jason Noble
While the competition for outside legal services has never been more intense, the strategic approach firms take — including a strategic approach to technology — will define whether the market pressures are a threat or opportunity.
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Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy
Can ChatGPT Take the Place of Real Estate Lawyers?
Tony Alfonso
While we marvel at the myriad applications of ChatGPT, it’s important to note that this newly introduced tool has nuances which can create problems if misunderstood — especially when attempting to produce legal documents or legal advice in real estate transactions.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Marketing Tech: Legal Ops Success In an Uncertain Economy
Ari Kaplan
Ari Kaplan speaks to leaders in legal ops on key themes emerged that are likely to drive new initiatives in 2023.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
AI Regulation in the U.S.: What’s Coming, and What Companies Need to Do In 2023
Kim Peretti, Dan Felz and Alysa Austin
Part One of a Two-Part Article
Despite the steady growth of global AI adoption, there is no comprehensive federal legislation on AI in the United States. Instead, the U.S. has a patchwork of various current and proposed AI regulatory frameworks. It is critical for organizations looking to harness this novel technology to understand these frameworks and to prepare to operate in compliance with them.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Best Practices in Second Request Document Review: How to Execute An E-discovery-Based Plan
Jessica Robinson and Amit Dungarani
Part 2 of a Two-Part Article
Part 1 of this article discussed approaches to managing second requests using core project management principles that allow you to control the timeliness, cost, and quality of your organization’s response. This follow-up looks at the pragmatics of strategizing and executing a successful plan.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
The Increasing Challenges of Verification on Social Media
Christine Au-Yeung and Chidera Dawodu
The recent flurry of online impersonators, ranging from accounts posing as President Joe Biden to the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, exposes the challenges of social media platforms’ verification and authentication processes. These events show that monitoring and policing trademark infringements and right of publicity violations can be increasingly difficult in the social media context.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Successful Hybrid Plans Offer ‘Best of Both Worlds’
Anthony Davies
We're seeing is a variety of successful measures that are designed to help attorneys get what they want: a best-of-both worlds scenario where they keep some work-from-home and fold-in an opportunity to intentionally connect and collaborate with colleagues in the office.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
The Future of AI Is More Ironman than Terminator
Cat Casey
Many fear cyborgs stealing corner offices from rainmakers, that the future will be Robolawyers instead of humans. The reality is that the most powerful AI today, when applied to complex areas like legal, is more reliant on human interaction, not less.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Political Football Section 230 Case — Why This One?
Bruce Heiman
The Supreme Court has decided in the context of national security to consider the parameters of, and possible limits to, “Section 230” liability protections for social media companies. The question is why this case? The Supreme Court has decided to accept a case that, while sounding narrow and technical, actually goes to the heart of the way many Internet platforms operate — algorithmic targeted content recommendations.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Legal Tech: The Attorney-Client Privilege Purpose Requirement and E-Discovery
Kelly Lavelle
On Jan. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on whether the attorney-client privilege protects against disclosure of dual-purpose communications — where the communications contain both legal and nonlegal advice.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Regulators Reaching Deep In Their Toolbox to Prosecute Users of Encrypted Messages
Andrey Spektor and Laura S. Perlov
If you use Whatsapp or similar platforms for work-related communications, then you’ve probably heard that regulators are putting an end to that practice. Ephemeral and encrypted messaging, they have noted, evades monitoring and prevents retention. A seldom used doctrine allows prosecutors to charge executives with misdemeanor offenses just for being in the position of power when others commit the misconduct. Rather than take a wait-and-see approach, companies and their leaders would do well to prepare for prosecutors to reach deep into their toolbox.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Typically Uncommon: Defending Class Action Certification in Data Breach Litigation
Brian E. Middlebrook, Tyrik Jiang, John T. Mills and Joseph Salvo
The most common questions and key elements of a negligence claim are whether the defendant breached a duty of care, whether there is any injury as a result of the defendant’s breach of any purported duty of care, and whether the defendant’s alleged breach caused the plaintiff any damages. While these essential questions and elements apply with equal force in data breach litigation, the difficult question to answer in these cases is “what is the value, if any, of your injury or damages?”
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
A Legal CIO’s Guide to Technology Procurement In 2023
Ted Theodoropoulos
For a legal CIO, one of the key responsibilities is to establish that the organization has the right technology in place to support its operations and achieve its business goals. This can be challenging, as there are many factors to consider when choosing new technology for your organization. One bad decision can have a material impact on not only the bottom line, but on the ability of your firm to compete in an ever-changing legal market.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Best Practices In Second Request Document Review: Eliminating the Fear Factor
Jessica Robinson and Amit Dungarani
Part One of a Two-Part Article: Challenges and solutions in document review
HSR second requests have become increasingly common in mergers or acquisitions that meet the premerger reporting threshold, which in 2022 was a transaction value of more than $101 million. The burdens of complying with second requests are onerous. The mere thought of undergoing such an exercise tends to strike fear in the heart of the legal department. In this article series, we’ll outline the major challenges of second requests, suggest strategies to overcome them, and discuss how to face a second request with equanimity and confidence.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
The NFT Market and Fallout from the FTX Scandal
Mark Cianci, Charles Humphreville, Kelley Chandler and Ty Owen
The FTX bankruptcy scandal that has shaken the largely unregulated cryptocurrency world has slowed but isn’t likely to end the roll-out of celebrity-related, non-fungible digital token (NFT) offerings. But how might the FTX story impact a push for federal regulation of the NFT market?
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Innovating Hybrid: Empathy and Iteration
Alaa Pasha
Recognizing that this is a time of innovation, one way law firms can ‘prepare for a future we can’t yet see’ is through leveraging two key levers: the need for empathy and iteration.
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Marketing The Law Firm
5 Digital Marketing Trends to Follow to Stay Competitive In 2023
Alexis Sikorski
Amid the seismic shift of law firms joining the digital revolution, five key trends are emerging that will help shape how clients interact with firms and determine who their representation will be in the coming year.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
What’s In Store for the Blockchain Industry In 2023?
Chris Sloan and Justin Daniels
The FTX bankruptcy caps a very difficult 2022 for the entire blockchain industry, spanning exchanges to decentralized finance to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Blockchain and crypto skeptics are shouting “I told you so,” while investors watch billions of investment dollars evaporate under the harsh light of the bankruptcies of Celsius, Compute North and now FTX.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Is Asking E-Discovery Vendors for Indemnification for Data Breaches Provide Security of Clients’ Data?
Cassandre Coyer
Threats of cyberattacks have not only made legal professionals more wary — especially as legal teams in firms and in-house are increasingly the target of cyber hackers — but it has also changed their relationship with vendors.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Privilege Logs: Strategy, Best Practices and Practical Advice
Bansri McCarthy, Leonard Impagliazzo and Tara Lawler
This article provides an overview of the different types of privilege logs, lays out best practices for negotiating ESI or privilege-log protocols, and discusses other issues that can occur with privilege logs in e-discovery.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Marketing Tech: Avoid Making Hasty Tech Decisions When In Crisis Mode
Tomas Suros
In March 2020 and the months immediately following, many firms found themselves scrambling to implement tools that would meet the needs of new remote work realities. Understandably, many of these decisions were done quickly without the normal level of due diligence. Now, the same firms are realizing that those hasty, though necessary, decisions should be revisited or undone.
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
Upcoming Webinar
Join Board of Editors member Kyle-Beth Hilfer, Editor-in-Chief Howard Shire, Aaron Krowne and Wenew GC Christine Lawton for Counseling the NFT Client: A Practical Guide to Legal and Business Issues.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Data Minimization Meets Defensible Disposition: Just Say No to ROT and Over-Retention of Personal Information
Martin Tully and Nick Snavely
Like a good diet and regular exercise for the body, data minimization and routine, defensible purging of outmoded documents are essential to maintaining healthy organizational information hygiene.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Leaning on Trusted Partners to Drive Legal Tech Adoption and Avoid Failed Implementation
Mark Wilcox
Turning to familiar, trusted partners to help navigate the unruly waters of change management, adoption and an ocean of new legal technology options.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
FTX Bankruptcy Sends Tremors Through Crypto Regulation
Steven Salkin
The sudden and spectacular crash of crypto-exchange FTX will send long-lasting tremors through both the nation’s financial regulatory and bankruptcy landscapes.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Attorneys Can Have Their (Hybrid) Cake and Eat It, Too
AshLea Allberry
Lawyers, especially young lawyers, want to work from home. But there are downsides, such as a decrease in networking and personal relationships. How can technology help balance these out so that attorneys and law firms can have their cake and eat it too.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Online Harassment In the Workplace
Jonathan Bick
As businesses expand their use of augmented reality games for the purpose of meeting and recruitment, internet harassment has become more prominent, particularly workplace sexual harassment.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
A New Stage for Online Copyright Infringement Disputes
Robert E. Browne and Michael D. Hobbs
Copyright holders would be well advised to familiarize themselves with the Copyright Claims Board for resolving copyright infringement claims and to consider its benefits and potential downsides in bringing or defending copyright infringement actions.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Cyber Insurance Costs Are on the Rise, But Law Firms Can’t Afford to Forgo It
Rhys Dipshan
While law firms are feeling first-hand the impact of a cyber insurance market struggling to stabilize, the full extent of all the changes have yet to fully hit home.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Legal Tech: Twitter’s Future and E-discovery
Cassandre Coyer
Whether Twitter’s doomsday is coming is still uncertain. But the threat of loss of years’ worth of companies’ data could be the impetus behind testing collection tools and reevaluating e-discovery processes.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Incident Response Plans and Tabletop Exercises May Be A Waste of Time
Larry Gagnon
Developing and delivering an IRP or TTE to improve the effectiveness of your incident response approach, in isolation, does not work. If your incident response preparation activity does not include some fundamental tactical actions, when the time comes and your house is on fire, your breach response will fail to meet your expectations.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Hot Button Enforcement Issues In the New Canadian Consumer Privacy Protection Act
John Beardwood and Shan Arora
Part Four In a Series
The conclusion of the series on Canada’s recently introduced Consumer Privacy Protection Act looks at hot button enforcement issues in the Act.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
The Great Resignation and Its Impact on Legal Department Contract Workflows & KM
Shanil R. Vitarana
Like other organizations, including law firms, in-house legal departments have not been spared from the “great resignation.” Lawyers and professionals across all industries are actively seeking new opportunities for a host of reasons including better pay, better culture and better balance. When they leave, they take with them not just their talent but the institutional knowledge they’ve accumulated, while their former team members are left to piece things together.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Arm Yourself Against Crypto Regulatory Uncertainty
Kristin L. Burnett
The promise that the crypto and digital assets markets bring comes bundled with uncertainty — especially on the regulatory front. Until jurisdictions adopt unified and consistent frameworks that account for the unique facets and features of cryptocurrencies, institutional investors and other market participants must keep abreast of ever-changing, dynamic laws to avoid sanctions and fines.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Courts Strictly Construing Cyber Insurance Policies, Finding Coverage Is Narrow
Ella Shenhav and Eric S. Adams
In several recent cases, companies with cyber insurance discovered that provisions in these policies led their insurers to limit coverage. Courts have been strictly construing cyber policies, and have found that the coverage provided is narrow. These decisions hinged upon whether an event constituted a covered “direct” loss and whether intervening actions precluded coverage, like an employee responding to fraudulent communications.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Evolution of the Standing Requirement In Data Breach Class Actions
Sean C. Coughlin, Vivian B. Isaboke and Akum K. Singh
As the landscape of cybersecurity and data privacy continues to evolve, so do the requirements needed to establish standing in regard to the type of harm suffered as a result of a data breach. Moreover, there has been a shift in the requirements needed to hold an organization legally and financially responsible for data stolen during a data breach.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Legal Tech: E-Discovery: Three Key Metrics Critical to Who Wins and Loses E-discovery Talent
Jared Coseglia
There are three key industry metrics that have, and will continue to, articulate how law firms, service providers, software companies, and corporations compete for and win (or lose) talent in e-discovery: speed of hire, compensation inflation, and workforce evolution (remote vs in-office; contract vs direct hire).
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Are You Stuck With the Hasty Tech Decisions Made In Crisis Mode?
Tomas Suros
In March 2020 and the months immediately following, many firms found themselves scrambling to implement tools that would meet the needs of new remote work realities. Understandably, many of these decisions were done quickly without the normal level of due diligence. Now, the same firms are realizing that those hasty, though necessary, decisions should be revisited or undone.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Why Your Law Firm Should Be Investing In SEO and PPC
Taylor Tobey
Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) are extremely beneficial digital marketing strategies your law firm can capitalize on. The question you may be asking yourself now is whether you should invest your marketing dollars in SEO, PPC or both.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
The Information Governance Groundhog Day Syndrome
Ben Schmidt and Nathan Curtis
Security and privacy start with good information governance, and for many firms — trying to get their information governance policy implemented feels a lot like Groundhog Day. Yes, the one with Bill Murray. Let’s take a closer look.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Compliance for Privacy Officers on the New Canadian Consumer Privacy Protection Act
John Beardwood and Shan Arora
Part Three In a Series
Part Three continues the analysis of new compliance requirements in Canada's new Consumer Privacy Protection Act, including the content of organizational privacy policies and anonymization of personal information policies, and business transaction policies contained in the Act.
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