Gemini Risk Partners, a Bloomfield Hills-based independent professional liability insurance brokerage for law firms, has introduced a new cyber liability program developed specifically for the legal industry.
Called CyberMate Legal, the program is written by a syndicate on the Lloyds of London platform.
“We are seeing a proliferation of cyber breaches and cyber liability claims against law firms, including significant ransomware demands,” says David Kramer, principal at Gemini Risk Partners. “With more firms offering remote work options to lawyers and staff, cyber intrusions on law firms have increased exponentially. We can now meet those needs for firms of all sizes with an ‘A’ rated insurer and comprehensive coverage.”
Kramer says the coverage has features typically not found in the cyber insurance marketplace such as “generous limits and is considered expressly primary against other insurance, meaning it will respond before a lawyer’s professional liability policy, which typically has a higher deductible.”
CyberMate Legal offers wording specifically tailored to law firms, including specific reference to loss or theft of data in the course of the attorney-client relationship and reference to lost billable hours in calculating income loss.
“This coverage offers law firms what they tell us would help them the most in the event of a cyber loss,” says Theodore Nittis, principal at Gemini Risk Partners. “Notably, it offers social engineering coverage up to $3 million. This means coverage for what is now a relatively common situation — someone at the law firm is asked to wire money to a specific bank account and the request appears to come from a member of the firm or client but is actually from a bad actor impersonating the attorney or client.”
CyberMate Legal coverage also includes costs for credit monitoring, forensic work, data restoration, and cyber ransom payments, as well as financial harm to vendors and financial loss to clients as a result of a data breach. In addition to risk management services, the policy includes access to a 24-hour incident response hotline.