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¦ From ALEXA on PAGE 7 “It’s frightening and I’d say this is one of the things
second to look at things like emails a second and that keeps me up at night, The hackers are getting
third time. Instructions in emails could be from an more sophisticated with the quality of phishing that
impostor.” they use,” Porter said.
The end result, Augustinos said, could be a big Porter said members of the firm will be the targets
payday for hackers. of phishing “probably multiple times a day. It’s just
“Extorters are looking for money. The opening relentless.”
bid for information is often over $1 million. Many Perhaps the most notable law firm cyberattack oc-
law firms now are more inclined to pay because you curred in 2017 when DLA Piper, one of the world’s
need to do everything you can to protect client data,” largest law firms, was hit with a ransomware attack
Augustinos said. infecting hundreds of thousands of its computers.
Augustinos added: “The tools these hackers use While there are often ways to combat bad actors,
are very sophisticated.” Porter gave a pessimistic note to those who have the
There have been several instances over the past power of a foreign country behind them for an at-
several years of law firms throughout the country tack.
being victim to such episodes and, for those refus- “Most of what we are seeing are from criminals,
ing to pay the extortion, their information is then bad actors. But if you have a state actor, like China,
laid out on the internet for all to see, Freedman that wanted to attack a law firm, there is little we
said. could do to stop them. Some of the biggest law firms
One of Augustinos’ Locke Lord law firm clients is in this country have been attacked and there have
Parker, Poe, Adams & Bernstein in Charlotte, North been significant consequences.”
Carolina. ¦

J. William Porter, general counsel at Parker Poe, Robert Storace covers legal trends, lawsuits and
said his firm, which has 250 attorneys in seven of- analysis for the Connecticut Law Tribune. Follow
fices on the East Coast, trains every one to prevent him on Twitter @RobertSCTLaw or reach him at
hackers from gaining access to its computers. 203-437-5950.

Big Law Attorneys Outside Georgia Are
Pouring Money Into Senate Candidate Races

By Meredith Hobbs

Many Big Law attorneys in Georgia—and lis; Sullivan & Cromwell; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
even more from New York, Washington, Wharton & Garrison.
D.C., and California—are donating to the Overall, lawyer contributions to the Democratic
four candidates in Georgia’s hotly contested U.S. challengers, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock,
Senate runoff races. far outpaced those to incumbent Republican Sens.
In a reflection of the immense outside interest David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. That continues
in the races, out-of-state lawyers in large firms that a longtime trend of lawyers and law firms heav-
have no Atlanta offices have poured money into the ily favoring Democratic candidates in election
race. That includes attorneys from Wachtell Lipton contributions, said Brendan Quinn of the Center
Rosen & Katz; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan nonprofit that
Flom; Latham & Watkins; Cooley; Kirkland & El- tracks the data.

CONNECTICUT
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