To the average law firm owner, I.T. can seem both complicated and terrifying. On one hand, the intricate and technical knowledge needed to navigate I.T. issues is over the heads of the average business owner. Add to that the constant news stories about cyberattacks on law firms, and it can all feel overwhelming and impossible to deal with.
That’s why any law firm owners who are serious about building up their I.T. department and tightening the security of their systems should be part of a MasterMind program like the one Brain Trust Legal runs. A constant flow of training, brainstorming, and candid disclosure about the challenges and struggles of other motivated and successful law firms is just the beginning of what your firm can get from a MasterMind program. Keep reading below to get a peek at just some of the topics and insights that you’ll glean from being a MasterMind group member.
The true nightmare scenario for any law firm is to discover that through some internal mistake or outside hack, someone has gotten hold of sensitive information or worse yet, gained access to your system and is holding it hostage. By the time it has happened, it’s too late to do anything to prevent it. So how do you protect your firm?
One excellent solution is to have a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution. SIEM is a system that collects and observes data from your business’ event logs, allowing it to keep a careful watch for activities that are suspicious and could be building towards something dangerous or compromising. By monitoring and responding to incidents and potential problems, it acts as a real-time barrier to cybersecurity issues before they take hold of your system. Many I.T. and security companies in the legal arena have SIEM options that are well worth looking into for protecting your firm.
Like many aspects of operating a law firm, such as marketing and intake, there are options in the marketplace to hire outside companies who will handle the work for you. This is especially true in a tech-driven industry like I.T. But just because it’s available, does that mean it’s the right decision? Is it better to hire someone who works directly and solely for you and have them handle your I.T. needs?
For anyone with a smaller firm, or someone who is just starting to embrace I.T., the best solution is to find an outside company or individual who can provide those services for you, and for a few reasons. First, the cost of finding a talented and knowledgeable I.T. team member would be considerably more than the cost of finding a vendor who offers services at varied rates depending on the level of involvement and complexity.
Secondly, an attorney with no I.T. knowledge or representation would be unlikely to know what a good I.T hire would even look like, and that could saddle them with someone who wasn’t up to the task of protecting the firm.
As your law firm grows, an outside vendor can grow with it. Ultimately, it may be worth hiring someone internally to learn the process and work hand in hand with the vendor with the intent of eventually moving those services in-house.
The short answer is YES, and the answer is an emphatic one. Often, law firms spend a lot of time looking at the bottom line financially and come to the conclusion that spending more money on their I.T. department is a cost for which they don’t see a return. The truth is, the safety that I.T. investment provides is worth more than most law firm owners could possibly understand.
Look at it this way: you could potentially look at the amount that you’re paying in car insurance every month and conclude that since you haven’t been in an accident in a long time, paying for insurance is a waste of your money. However, it only takes one serious accident in a vehicle without insurance to absolutely wipe you out financially. This is something lawyers know intimately from seeing situations like this with potential clients all the time.
That’s why you can’t risk it yourself in your business. If you have a trusted I.T. expert who is impressing on you the importance of a certain program or equipment or method, it’s almost always better to err on the side of caution and trust what they’re telling you. You likely won’t be able to see the return on that investment in an easy or obvious way, but the continued successful and uninterrupted operation of your business is the actual reward.
It’s not hyperbole to say that there are constant threats to your law firm in the form of cyberattacks, malware, and other bad-faith actors trying to infiltrate your law firm’s sensitive systems. On top of that, you risk data breaches from simple and preventable issues like team members opening the wrong email or accessing sensitive client data from the wrong device or not logging out from their computer when they leave their desks. The sheer number of threats to your business can, and should, make you nervous.
However, that nervousness should spur you to action, not to fear. There are things you can do right now to protect your business better, train your employees more effectively, and make your system naturally more resistant to the kinds of tricks and tactics that cyber criminals use to get into your system. One of the first and best steps you can take is to find a group to support these changes, one like the Brain Trust Legal MasterMind program. Let the shared knowledge and achievements of our entire BTL membership give you the I.T. edge you need. To learn more about BTL’s MasterMind program, visit our page on this website or call (855)743-1636 from anywhere across the U.S. to speak with a team member from Brain Trust Legal.
