We are pleased to announce that Amy Stewart Law Managing Principal Amy Elizabeth Stewart and Principal Tarron Gartner-Ilai were both named to D Magazine’s 2016 listing of the Best Lawyers in Dallas. The two lawyers were recognized for their work in insurance law.

Insurance policyholders may want to temper their reactions to yesterday’s decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Travelers Indemnity Co. of America v. Portal Healthcare Solutions LLC.

In its unpublished opinion, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that Portal Healthcare’s data breach was covered under the company’s commercial general liability (CGL) policies. While the decision is significant, it’s worth highlighting an important fact: the policies at issue were issued in 2012 and 2013. More recent CGL policies may contain language purporting to exclude data breaches and other cyber events from traditional CGL coverage. An exclusion that surfaced in 2014, for example, precludes coverage for claims arising out of access to or disclosure of confidential or personal information.

People will be talking about the Panama Papers leak – called the biggest leak in the history of data journalism – for a long time. And there is certainly a lot there to talk about: offshore holdings, shell corporations, tax evasion and the financial accounts of an international roster of world leaders, businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars, just for starters.

The Panama Papers, so named because the information that was hacked came from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, are a solid reminder that law firms are seen as a “soft target” in the hacking world. That’s because their cybersecurity protocols aren’t usually as robust as those in the financial services world, even though they maintain huge amounts of confidential information on behalf of their clients.