We’re breaking down why law firm cybersecurity isn’t about flashy tools — it’s about disciplined execution: strong cyber hygiene, retiring legacy tech, behavior-based threat detection, and building a culture of learning that keeps you off the front page. This episode is inspired by Michael C. Maschke (CEO of Sensei Enterprises and CISSP/CEH with multiple forensic certifications), Sharon D. Nelson (Sensei co-founder and former president of the Virginia State Bar), and John W. Simek (Sensei co-founder and nationally known digital forensics expert).
In “Cybersecurity for Lawyers Who Don’t Want to Be Headlines,” Michael Maschke, Sharon Nelson, and John Simek argue that most law-firm security failures don’t happen because hackers are “too advanced” — they happen because firms skip the fundamentals. The piece frames cybersecurity as disciplined execution: knowing what systems and data you have, limiting access, keeping software patched, segmenting networks, and using basics like MFA and secure remote access as non-negotiables. Their point is blunt: relying on outdated tech and “it still works” thinking creates compounding security debt that eventually turns into a breach (and reputational damage).
They also push firms to stop treating cybersecurity like a one-time tool purchase and start treating it like an ongoing strategy: focus on detecting suspicious behavior (not just blocking rotating IP addresses), and build a culture where incidents and near-misses are openly reviewed so the same mistakes aren’t repeated. The article closes with four gut-check questions lawyers should be asking right now — whether you truly know your systems and access points, whether convenience is driving weak authentication, whether you catch threats early, and whether you’re learning faster than attackers — because unanswered, cybersecurity becomes a gamble courts and clients won’t sympathize with. If you want the practical, plain-English walkthrough of what this looks like in real law-firm operations, that’s exactly what we dig into on the Attorney at Work Today podcast—listen in.
Visit Attorney at Work to read the full article Cybersecurity for Lawyers Who Don’t Want to Be Headlines. Be sure to subscribe to Attorney at Work for more really good ideas.
