Use Outside Counsel to Control Data Breach Loss

Early use of outside counsel to control data breach loss provides compliance expertise and possible privilege shield for later litigation.

One of the first people a distraught chief information officer or chief executive officer will call when a company’s data security has been breached is the general counsel. But who should that general counsel call? The first reaction might be to call an outside auditing or security firm, or the organization’s own technical experts, for an immediate analysis of the problem and risk to the corporation. However, there are very good reasons why that first call ought to go to outside counsel.