Cybersecurity for law firms 

How important is cybersecurity to your law firm’s future?

In a word—very. In fact, one could argue that law firm cybersecurity should be the bedrock of every law practice, now more than ever. Here’s why. The year 2024 may be the biggest year on record for cybersecurity breaches at law firms. AI has enabled more sophisticated, realistic-looking attacks, and allowed hackers to launch them with no programming expertise or up-front investment. From the cybersecurity perspective, it’s the perfect storm of potential risk.

Yet, this isn’t even the most compelling reason to invest in cybersecurity at your practice. In our “2025 Integris Report Law Firms, Cybersecurity and AI: What Clients Really Think,” hundreds of law firm clients across the United States said they consider best-in-class cybersecurity to be the table stakes for simply considering a new law firm. Here’s what they told us during our interviews: 66% are hesitant to work with firms that rely on outdated technology; and 40% would be willing to pay more fora firm that uses the latest technology.

New compliance hurdles for law firms are coming

It’s not only clients that have ramped up demands on law firms to boost cybersecurity. Regulators are also increasing pressure on law practices. Your clients are being asked to meet tightened cybersecurity standards through the National Institutes of Science and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, which just upgraded its cybersecurity standards for companies in 2025.  Many other regulatory frameworks have also tightened expectations in 2025, including HIPAA for healthcare, CMMC for manufacturing, GDPR for those handling consumer data, and the California Consumer Privacy Act. If your client is bound by these cybersecurity regulations, as their vendor, your firm must also comply.

The pressure is mounting from professional and state sources, too. More than 40 state bar associations have adopted the ABA’s Model Rule 1.1, Comment 8, requiring law firms to implement cybersecurity measures. The state of New York has taken it a step further, issuing substantial penalties, including $200,000 fines, to firms that neglect basic cybersecurity protocols.

What clients expect from their law firm’s cybersecurity

It doesn’t matter whether your firm is small or large, your clients expect top-tier cybersecurity protections, full cybersecurity compliance documentation, and private portals for the safe transfer of documents. They also need assurances that your firm isn’t generating legal documentation solely with generative AI tools or over relying on AI tools for legal research.

“Clients expect security to be built in, not bolted on. They want firms that embrace modern technology—not as an afterthought, but as a fundamental part of the service.”

Greg Cooke, VP of Sales for Integris Legal 

During our interviews for the “2025 Integris Report Law Firms, Cybersecurity and AI: What Clients Really Think,” we learned clients aren’t willing to wait for their law firms to play catch up with cybersecurity. Consider these statistics:

Digital maturity: What does it mean for your practice?

“Digital maturity” should be an important goal for any law firm, because it allows you to transcend the reactive, break/fix approach to IT that spins out continual tech emergencies and unplanned expenses. The “digitally mature” firm stays one step ahead with best-in-class tools, thorough IT planning, a culture of cybersecurity and competent IT partners that take the lion’s share of IT management off your plate. Digital maturity has tangible benefits for your firm.

What a digitally mature MSP offers

• Fully compliant cybersecurity and productivity platforms that allow your firm to compete on any playing field and attract top-tier clients
• Written documentation including cybersecurity plans, policies, and procedures that tie together your monitoring/remediation into regulator-ready reporting
• Cybersecurity strategy that stays one step ahead of emerging threats and regulatory requirements, with key performance indicators that allow you to track the effectiveness of your security investments with senior leadership
• “No surprises” IT bills from your MSP that stabilize—and often reduce—your IT budget
• Quality help desk services available to your end-users 24/7/365, so your people can stay on the case and work safely on your private network, no matter their location
• Advanced, private client portals that allow you to safely transfer protected customer files with no data leaks
• Continuous staff security training that stays ahead of the latest scams

Any MSP can set your firm up with a suite of tools and platforms. But that won’t mean your firm is operationally mature. Digital maturity operates a step beyond—elevating your firm by combining strategy, smart platform investments, and cybersecurity governance (see Figure 1). The end result is a law firm that has moved from reactive IT operations to a cohesive IT infrastructure that’s truly predictive and one step ahead of your needs.

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AI and cybersecurity: The new frontier for law firms

Cybercriminals are learning new tricks every day, with a whole new world of tools available to create deepfake voice and video, create false documents, and develop creative new lures for social engineering attacks.  

Fortunately, AI and cybersecurity tools have become more widespread and affordable than ever. Getting a suite of cybersecurity tools that are geared for specifically for the needs of law firms is critical. Today’s AI-enabled tools can help your firm:

• Protect the devices logging into your network, including servers, tablets, laptops, phones, and more, with machine learning that understands usage patterns, and quickly identifies and isolates questionable activity.
• Create levels of access to your data security management, so client information and case activity is always available on a need-to-know basis by staffers—as well as any private AI engines that might scrape the documents during searches.
• Give you instant access into your system’s security performance, with key performance indicators analyzed and shown on a “single pane of glass” client portal in real time
• Funnel highly sophisticated, customized, continuous backups onto your servers and into the private cloud, so you never lose time or data.

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Additional resources

Check out some of our latest thought leadership on cybersecurity in the AI age as you consider IT support for law firms:

• Ten cybersecurity best practices for your law firm in 2025
• Law firm cybersecurity audits: how to prepare for your client questionnaire
• Building a cybersecurity strategy: How law firms can turn to MSPs for competitive edge
• How Microsoft 365 management is a game-changer for law firms
• How the right IT support and tools can help small law firms compete against bigger firms

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Data governance and cybersecurity compliance: The secret weapon that can help your law firm compete

What does it take to create a full compliance operation at your law firm? It takes dozens of written cybersecurity policies, daily monitoring and remediation, and lots of reporting to regulators, cyber-risk insurers, and more. It’s a heavy lift if you’re doing it alone. The right MSP can help. This is especially true when you hire an MSP that offers fractional chief information security officer (or CISO) services to help you with the heavy lifting for your cybersecurity compliance documentation.

With a premium IT partner, your compliance operations should be hard-wired into your organization, with monitoring and reports that are synchronized between tools and platforms, and results that are continuously tracked on your client portal. This checklist shows you the steps you must complete to have a fully compliant cybersecurity operation.

Additional Resources

Want to know more about what data compliance looks like at a digitally mature law firm? Here’s some of our latest thought leadership on the topic from our fractional CISOs and CIOs.

• Data compliance for law firms
• Third party vendor risk management for law firms

Cybersecurity for law firms: Choosing the right MSP

Choices abound for outsourcing your IT, from individual consultants to the small MSP down the street, to national, law-focused MSPs like Integris. It may be tempting to choose based on their size and location. But if you stop there, you’ll miss the opportunity to elevate your cybersecurity operations. The cloud-based nature of most businesses allows MSPs across the country to effectively manage your IT remotely, with only occasional on-site visits from engineering staff needed. Whether your firm is large or small, choose an IT partner that can offer you a full cybersecurity solution.

What full stack cybersecurity includes

• A coordinated suite of cybersecurity tools that work well together
• Cohesive monitoring, reporting, and documentation, continuously updated
• Management of your system governance and compliance reporting
• Access to a fractional CISO (chief information security officer) to help you with advanced governance tasks like regulatory reviews, responding to new client questionnaires, and preparing your applications for cyber-risk insurance
• Regular penetration testing to test your staff’s security knowledge and gauge where your overall system vulnerabilities lie
• Vetting of new software and productivity tools to ensure their safety on your network
• Onboarding/offboarding of users on your system, with advanced, cybersecure identity access management
• Security access training programs for your partners and staff
• A legal-expert service staff that’s available 24/7, with engineering escalations available in the event of system outages
• A service center that’s SOC2 Type2-certified, so as your third-party provider, they’ll contribute to your overall compliance standards

An MSP for your law firm: resources to help you choose wisely

In addition to these general, everyday offerings, you’ll also want an IT partner that can conduct thorough and regular cybersecurity risk assessments. Ideally, you shouldn’t start a new MSP relationship without a thorough assessment of your existing cybersecurity tools, your documentation, and protocols. Your MSP should be able to provide you with a comprehensive picture of your current system vulnerabilities, patterns of emerging risks and documentation gaps, and then offer up an implementation plan and budget for addressing these issues.

Choose wisely. A bad MSP can make more work and drive up expenses for your firm, sending your staff on a constant goose chase of administrative tasks. A good legal cybersecurity provider can take all these complex cybersecurity tasks off your plate and deliver an easy, high-quality service experience. If you’d like to explore how an MSP should work with your firm, start here with our deeper dive into IT Support for law firms:

• Will outsourcing my IT support save my law firm money?
• When should my law firm look for outside IT support?
• Top five IT challenges faced by law firms and how IT support services can help
• Why paid cybersecurity risk assessments are the key to the future of your IT

Interested in learning more about Integris and our legal cybersecurity services? We’d love to talk.