A recurring complaint about IT departments is that they're sometimes filled with very smart people who lack people skills. Lack of people skills can make it hard for IT to communicate with non-technical departments whose work intersects with, or depends upon, IT. Failure to cultivate cross-departmental understanding with IT can increase a company's cyber vulnerability. Today, all departments, not just IT, need to be cyber smart. Companies who fail to cultivate cyber awareness throughout the entire organization will continue to suffer simple and preventable cyber incidents.
A recurring complaint about some lawyers (yes, there are some!) is that they may also lack social skills. For a cyber lawyer, this deficiency is a huge handicap. An attorney - whether in-house or retained - advising on cyber matters must translate both the technical and legal aspects of a cyber problem for the decision maker. A cyber lawyer who recites "black letter" law, but doesn't relate it to the company's cyber operations or IT infrastructure, adds little value for the decision maker. A cyber lawyer who can't effectively communicate with IT, or who doesn't understand cyber operations, runs the risk of giving misguided legal advice.
While the responsibility of "translating" IT for the decision maker belongs to IT, that responsibility is also shared with the cyber lawyer. The burden is sometimes heavier on the cyber lawyer because he or she is almost always right there with C-level management, giving advice at the decision point. This underscores the importance of selecting a cyber lawyer who can be a bridge between IT, legal, and management.
