Filling the Gaps in your Insurance Coverage

Data breaches and the theft of funds – both are big concerns for law firms right now.  Criminals are trying to get your client data and your money through creative and increasingly sophisticated schemes.  There is no way to protect your firm from every possible scenario, but there are ways to fill in many of the gaps.

If you are reading this, there is a good chance you have professional liability insurance, which protects you from errors and omissions made in the course of providing legal services.  You probably also have a commercial general liability (CGL) policy to protect you against liability claims for bodily injury and property damage.  You may even have an employment practices liability policy to cover employment-related claims.  Will any of these policies provide coverage when your network is hacked and your client data is stolen or encrypted or held for ransom?  What if an employee or third party steals money from your operating or trust account?  Would you have coverage?  The answer is not clear.  What is clear, though, is that by not putting specialized cyber liability and crime coverages in place, you are exposing yourself to gaps in coverage. 

Securing a cyber liability policy and a crime policy provides coverage for many of these gaps.  Cyber premiums have gone down recently, and the underwriting process has become streamlined.   Crime insurance has been around for a long time and is often referred to as a fidelity bond.  Employee theft, or fidelity, is still the lead coverage on these policies, but many new coverages have been added to them over the years, such as computer fraud, funds transfer fraud and social engineering fraud. 

Although there is no way to fully protect yourself from all cyber crimes and fraud schemes, the insurance industry is rapidly evolving to offer products specially tailored to meet the needs of law firms.  We are able to offer all these products and would be happy to walk you through the options that are available. 

Educating your staff and yourself is a good way to reduce your chances of becoming a victim of one of these crimes.  Check out our CLE schedule for our upcoming program, Unlocking the Mysteries of Cyber Liability: What Every Lawyer Needs to Know, which will be held in various locations 11/3/15 – 11/5/15.