This week, I am attending the Evolve conference put on by International Legal Technology Association (ILTA). ILTA, of course, sponsors the large conference in the summer that is attended by thousands. Evolve is much smaller and is designed to address two topics: GenAI and Cybersecurity. Attendance is capped at a limited number, and exhibitors and sponsors are confined to small, uniform spaces in hallways outside the sessions.
The result is a smaller, less formal, and less overwhelming conference. It’s a good idea. Sometimes less is indeed more.
The Evolve keynote was given by Tara Wheeler, CEO and founder of Red Queen Dynamics, a cybersecurity compliance company. The title of her keynote was Unveiling the Intersection of AI and Cybersecurity.
Wheeler focused on the cybersecurity risks to law firms and the problems particularly small firms face. My two main takeaways from the risks she identified:
Security through obscurity won’t work. Too many law firms and lawyers seem to think they aren’t vulnerable because they only handle stuff no one is interested in. This ignores a key problem the bad guys exploit. Most people might not care, but clients do—and law firms do—both for business and ethical reasons. When something is extremely valuable to even a small group, it’s valuable to the bad guys. Small businesses and small firms are especially vulnerable. Many law firms don’t have the resources to keep up with the rapidly changing world of cybersecurity or to deal with regulatory requirements. When faced with a cybersecurity crisis, many small businesses simply go out of business.
These two problems are related, of course. Their intractability is one reason so many lawyers and law firms remain deficient in cybersecurity protection and knowledge.
The Risks
The impact of these two problems was apparent when you look at the risks to law firms Wheeler identified in her keynote:
