Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Pandemic cyber security and information management for law firms: regulatory duties, confidentiality and client money, homeworking risks, BYOD and video-conferencing, incident response and staff training

Published by a LexisNexis Practice Compliance expert

Practice notes

Pandemics are extraordinary incidents that confront organisations with harsh trading conditions, ambiguity, and notably complex information and cybersecurity challenges. Office shutdowns and enforced social distancing during such outbreaks produce atypical business scenarios, including handling an exceptionally high proportion of employees working remotely, many doing so for the first time. Core information and cybersecurity threats to assess and address during a pandemic focus on:

ongoing compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
cybercrime
maintaining the security of systems and devices
staff awareness

This Practice Note examines each category and proposes practical measures you can adopt to reduce exposure.

Legal and regulatory requirements

Robust risk management requires you to identify, monitor and control all material risks to your business. See Practice Note: How to identify and evaluate risk across the business. Information and cybersecurity constitute significant risks for every organisation. For law firms, identifying, monitoring and managing material risks is a regulatory obligation.

Confidentiality

Solicitors and law firms must preserve the confidentiality of clients’ affairs, unless disclosure is mandated or allowed by law, or the client agrees—see subtopic: Confidentiality and disclosure...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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