Expertise

Our previous edition of Expertise was published in May, just before the full impact of Covid-19 started to be seen in the UK and around the world.

Organisations and individuals have switched rapidly and impressively to home working by employees, especially since conventional disaster recovery plans never envisaged the current situation. Most of us have adapted remarkably smoothly to the “new normal” of working remotely. This is not just a short term crisis management issue - the success of home working may act as a tipping point both for employers, who see it as a potential source of much needed cost savings, and for employees, who are attracted to the possibility of reducing commuting time and expenses.

However, the process of moving large amounts of data over potentially insecure links to newly acquired hardware or employees’ own devices provides multiple opportunities for data theft or accidental releases and has generated a whole new subset of risk areas.

A further spotlight has been shone on this issue by the “Ransomware” attack on the New York law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. Hackers are threatening to release stolen documents relating to the firm’s clients and in fact have already started to do so.

One potential solution to both these risks is to encrypt 100% of all data held on a law firm’s IT systems. Our affiliate GBRW Consulting is working with a Data Security Solutions firm which provides this service and we would be happy to provide further details to any of our readers who are interested.

This quarter’s edition of Expertise contains two articles:

• The issue of insurance cover for losses caused by the pandemic has been a major focus for many business and their legal advisers. My fellow director Tim Dowlen, an experienced insurance broker and expert witness, discusses various forms of insurance cover and the issues determining whether they will, or will not, respond to Covid-19 claims.
• In contrast to many other professional sectors, there is no clearly established path to working as an expert in the fields of banking, investment and insurance in which we operate. We are often asked how people become expert witnesses and John Williams, a seasoned investment banking professional, tells how he came to do his first case as an expert in the Lloyds/HBOS class action litigation (Sharp & Others v Blank Others, EWHC 3220), one of the highest value and highest profile cases in the High Court in recent years.

 

Managing Director,

GBRW Expert Witness
May 2020