What White House Cybersecurity Strategy Means for Tech Clients: The Morning Minute

A HARD LOOK AT SOFTWARE –  After much anticipation, the White House unveiled its National Cybersecurity Strategy 2023 last week. Now, don’t go getting it tattooed on your ribcage just yet: the document is not binding by any stretch, merely the federal government’s blueprint for cybersecurity. And until its contents pass Congress’s muster, its real teeth remain to be seen. In the meantime, though, businesses have much to glean from the strategy as the focus shifts from actions of small providers and individuals onto larger players, especially Big Tech. Attorneys and cybersecurity professionals in the space told Law.com’s Isha Marathe that the next decade is poised for more software liability scrutiny, along with increased legislative debates around cybersecurity. Stephen Lilley, a partner at Mayer Brown, said that, while not much is likely to happen immediately as a result of the strategy document, “if you’re a software company, you should be thinking very hard about the security of your software development process—do you consider security and work on security from the beginning of the design of the product through its lifetime?”

WHO’S GONNA PAY FOR THIS? – Speaking of software… today’s corporate legal departments are dealing with a tough combo: a need to invest in tech tools that can help them handle data in unprecedented amounts and complexity—and shrinking budgets. According to the 2023 State of Corporate Legal Industry Report, these conflicting pressures will continue into 2023 and beyond. The report, which was conducted by e-discovery and data governance technology solutions company IPRO and the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists, is based on a survey of 126 corporate legal professionals interviewed in December. Many of the findings weren’t surprising, IPRO Chief Executive Officer Dean Brown told Law.com’s Cassandre Coyer, but rather a confirmation of some of the trends he’s seen emerging over the last couple of years. And navigating these issues will require legal departments to get better at creating business plans to present to chief financial officers to justify costs, which ain’t easy. “It’s continuing to think about the process of legal as a business, which is a little scary too because there are things within legal that simply can’t be quantified—risk, regulatory pressure, those kinds of things,” Brown explained.

ON THE RADAR – All eight Ivy League schools and the Ivy League Council of Presidents were hit with an antitrust class action Tuesday in Connecticut District Court in relation to the schools’ no athletic scholarship policies. The complaint contends that the schools have agreed not to award athletic scholarships, which allegedly constitutes unlawful price fixing. The lawsuit further contends that the schools agreed not to compensate or reimburse students for education-related expenses for their athletic services. The suit was brought by Berger Montague; Freedman Normand Friedland LLP; and Zeisler & Zeisler. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:23-cv-00305, Choh et al v. Brown University et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

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