What this site is — and what it isn’t.

HackFirstAid is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Reading this website, downloading a checklist, subscribing to a newsletter, completing the free triage walkthrough, or engaging us for security services does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and HackFirstAid, and does not make us your firm’s counsel on any matter.

When a question is genuinely legal — what a specific bar rule requires of you, whether a particular event is a reportable breach in your jurisdiction, what your engagement letters or your malpractice policy obligate you to do — that is a question for a licensed lawyer admitted in the relevant jurisdiction. Often that lawyer is you or one of your partners. Where an incident calls for it, we will recommend you engage independent breach counsel, and we can point you to qualified options.

Our playbooks, assessments, training, and advisory describe how to prepare for and respond to cyber incidents — the security steps, the operational decisions, and the general shape of the obligations firms commonly face. They are educational and operational, written for the typical solo, small, or mid-sized firm.

They are not a legal opinion on your firm’s obligations, and they are not tailored to the rules of your specific bar or the facts of your specific situation. Rules of professional conduct, breach-notification laws, and trust-accounting requirements vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Where we reference a rule (for example, ABA Model Rule 1.6 or Formal Opinion 483, or a state or provincial requirement), we do so to orient you — not to tell you what your duty is in your jurisdiction on your facts. Confirm the current rule and its application with counsel.

Your professional and regulatory duties — competence, confidentiality, safeguarding client property and client funds, supervising staff, and notifying clients and regulators after an incident — are non-delegable. Engaging HackFirstAid does not transfer any of them to us, satisfy them on your behalf, or create a safe harbor. We help you build the readiness and the record that make those duties easier to meet; we do not assume them.

HackFirstAid’s role is advisory, training, and incident-response readiness. We do not host, store, or take custody of your client files or matter data. That data stays on your firm’s systems. Our engagements are designed so that we do not become a custodian of privileged or confidential client information in the ordinary course. Where an engagement would require us to see specific client data, we will say so in advance and scope it narrowly in writing.

Our incident-response offering is readiness and decision support — playbooks, retainers, drills, tabletops, and a person to talk to when something is on fire. We do not deploy responders into your environment, perform digital forensics, or carry out technical remediation. When an incident needs hands-on response, we will help you understand what you need and can warm-introduce a vetted DFIR (digital forensics and incident response) firm.

We can help you read your cyber and legal-malpractice policies, assemble an application, and understand what a client’s security questionnaire is asking. We do not sell insurance and are not your broker; your policy is placed by your broker and underwritten by your carrier. In a wire-fraud incident, the actions that may recover funds — contacting your bank, filing with the authorities — are taken by you and your bank; we help you understand the steps and their urgency, but we do not act on your accounts.

If you have an active incident right now — a fraudulent wire that has just left your trust account, a ransomware event, a suspected breach — act first and read later. The free triage walkthrough tells you the immediate steps. For a wire that has just been sent, the recall window is short: contact your bank’s fraud line and the appropriate authorities without delay. Then call us if you want a person alongside you. This site’s general guidance is not a substitute for prompt action and, where needed, advice from counsel admitted in your jurisdiction.

Cybersecurity reduces risk; it does not eliminate it. Nothing on this site or in any engagement is a guarantee that your firm will not experience an incident, that a fraudulent wire will be recovered, that a breach will not be reportable, that a client questionnaire will be passed, or that a regulator or carrier will reach any particular conclusion. We commit to competent, good-faith work; we do not warrant results.

We serve many firms, and firms are sometimes adverse to one another. Engaging HackFirstAid for security services does not give your firm any claim on our exclusivity, and our work for you does not make us part of your matters or your conflicts system. We maintain our own intake process to manage situations where serving one client could affect another, and we will raise any concern we identify before it becomes a problem.

If anything about the boundary between our role and yours is unclear, ask before you rely on it. Email Travis at travis@hackfirstaid.com. We would much rather answer the question than have a firm assume we cover something we don’t.