We helped guide a national design firm through the charged environment of a cyberattack, a risk exploding in the design and construction industry. Bad actors increasingly exploit information in invoices and payment schedules that routinely pass between title insurance companies, escrow agents, lenders, and others working for real estate developer project owners. Here, perpetrators leveraged information in our client’s invoices and targeted the owner in a scheme requiring no system breach or error by our client. The perpetrators deceived the project payors and diverted funds, jeopardizing a large payment due to our client and its relationship with its valued, long-term client. Such incidents often involve law enforcement, lawyers, and cyber experts – along with concerns from all parties about broader information technology (IT) system vulnerabilities, potentially affecting other projects and matters – increasing the high-stakes and tense atmosphere. Leveraging our relationships and experience advising clients on a wide variety of challenges, we helped it to locate, vet, and retain co-counsel – a leading cybersecurity attorney with high-level government experience – to work with its team of cyber experts, and to communicate effectively and constructively with the project owner. Working together, the team determined what happened, located the diverted funds, causing our client to be paid for its design services, securing its reputation and business relationship with the project owner, and enabling them to collaborate on future design projects.
