Foley Hoag’s Security and Privacy practice provides clients with experienced and effective legal counsel on the security and privacy issues encountered by businesses that often require immediate and discreet solutions. We actively guide our clients through the process of complying with the ever-growing number of state, federal, and international laws governing information security, identity theft, surveillance and other privacy issues. We have decades of experience in investigating, litigating and resolving a wide variety of security incidents, including thefts of confidential information, government investigations, competitive espionage, as well as breaches and leaks involving proprietary data.
Our lawyers advise clients striving to guard company records, personnel files, customer data, intellectual property and other valuable information assets. The Security and Privacy practice is a comprehensive advisory service for clients that face an expanding universe of security and privacy issues that affect numerous industries, including technology companies, healthcare providers, investment and financial services firms, manufacturing companies, government contractors, insurance companies, and retail businesses.
We draw together experienced counsel from all areas of legal specialty, including litigation, labor and employment, business crimes and government investigations, intellectual property, technology transactions, health care, regulatory compliance and tax. This enables us to provide efficient, cross-disciplinary solutions tailored to our clients’ needs.
Our lawyers assist clients with questions on how to legally and ethically investigate abusive email, take down infringing websites, maintain surveillance of company facilities and information systems, and fix breaches of security. We work with clients to ensure the legality and success of existing security policies and protocols and help them develop new programs when necessary. Our lawyers have managed unexpected crises ranging from surprise inspections by government investigators, to obtaining emergency court orders needed to secure stolen company computers from rogue insiders. Above all, we successfully safeguard our clients’ confidential information and manage each matter with the level of attention and discretion companies require from security and privacy professionals.
Representative Experience:
- Guided clients through compliance with new state and federal information security regulations.
- Investigated leaks of information governed by Massachusetts security breach disclosure laws and regulations and developed the required customer and government notifications.
- Successfully secured confidential data misappropriated by potential competitor by implementing an internal investigation and obtaining the emergency court orders needed to seize computers, track anonymous electronic transfers and prevent damaging disclosure of trade secrets.
- Negotiated favorable settlements from former employees that were discovered using company computers to make unauthorized copies of confidential information.
- Guided client through the process of isolating and removing unauthorized copies of a competitor’s materials brought to the client by a new employee.
- Assisted clients in responding to unexpected “knock on the door” from law enforcement officers seeking to secure evidence from proprietary files or protected computers.
- Investigated insider trading activity that involved stock information obtained by hacking a client’s computer systems, negotiated a favorable resolution to the matter with SEC regulators and developed a program for the client’s technology managers to address similar breaches.
- Successfully effected the removal of confidential company information from numerous public websites and bulletin boards.
- Advised and managed internal investigations and audits to ensure compliance with federal and state surveillance laws, including the wiretap acts, Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act as amended by the U.S. PATRIOT Act as well as other information privacy laws.
- Structuring business transactions and agreements to comply with state and federal privacy laws.
