The increasing threat of cyber-attacks and data breaches is causing a shift in priorities for many large corporations and law firms, inciting worry amongst Chief legal officers and general counsels. The drastic rise of these threats is becoming a common concern even for those who don’t directly supervise their company’s security measures.

Notably, a survey conducted in 2023 by the Association of Corporate Counsel and e-discovery firm Exterro highlighted this growing concern amongst the legal professionals surveyed. Nearly 900 Chief Legal Officers who took part in the survey identified challenges related to data protection and privacy rules as a top concern in their day-to-day operations. The complete results of the survey can be found
here.

These issues aren’t just legal in nature. Privacy and data security are multifaceted and complex problems that touch companies, their customers, and their employees alike. The ongoing threat from large-scale hacks—which can be orchestrated using low-tech methods such as spam email or sophisticated social engineering techniques—routinely poses risks of reputational damage and serious material loss.

Chief legal officers and general counsels, in addition to handling a myriad of other responsibilities, are now finding themselves at the forefront of this battle, grappling with new risks and threats that were unheard of just a few years ago. In the age of digital information, they stand as the first line of defense against threats not only to their companies’ data but also to their reputations and fiscal health.