“Fla. Firm Looks To Dodge Bank’s DQ Bid In Trade Secrets Suit” —

• “Florida-based Trenam Law fought Friday against a disqualification bid in a trade secrets case over residential solar lending technology, arguing that its prior representation of defendant Climate First Bank ended two years ago and was limited to handling a few real estate deals.”
• “In a response to the disqualification bid, Trenam Law said Climate First overstates the firm’s prior representation of the bank, which involved three real estate lending matters and one general litigation advice matter and ended by September 2024.”
• “The limited representation of Climate First should not preclude Trenam Law from representing plaintiff Atmos Financial PBC, a financial technology platform, in this ‘wholly unrelated’ dispute over the alleged misuse of solar-lending technology and development of a competing platform, according to Trenam Law.”
• “Climate First argued that Trenam Law attorneys met with the leadership team members responsible for developing and implementing the operating procedures for the solar program. But the law firm said just because those people were familiar with the solar program does not mean they shared confidential information about it with the Trenam Law attorneys when discussing unrelated real estate lending matters.”
• “‘The fact that Trenam once met with certain CFB leadership team members about commercial and SBA loans who were otherwise familiar with CFB’s solar lending program does not support an inference that Trenam obtained confidences relevant to CFB’s decisions to purport to partner with plaintiff, to solicit plaintiff’s confidential and proprietary information, and to use that information to develop a competing residential solar lending product and platform,’ the law firm said.”
• “Climate First hired Trenam Law in July 2021. The bank says that between 2021 and 2025, Trenam Law and Climate First’s employees exchanged approximately 1,411 emails on a variety of issues.”
• “In its disqualification motion, the bank said it told Trenam Law about a variety of matters affecting its banking operations, including liability and risk-management issues, loan and mortgage transactions, line-of-credit closing procedures and internal policies and practices.”
• “But Trenam Law says its work for Climate First was limited to preparing notes, mortgages and other lending documents for two real estate lending matters. Neither of the loans were related to the bank’s residential solar lending program, the law firm said.”
• “A third real estate lending matter was opened because the bank had issued a commitment letter to a borrower, but the borrower ultimately chose a different bank, according to the firm.”
• “In addition, Trenam Law said its attorneys provided advice on a narrow legal question regarding a proposed change to the bank’s terms and conditions governing business accounts and the provision of notice of forgery. The firm provided an answer to that narrow legal question on Sept. 11, 2023 and did not provide any further legal advice on any litigation issues, according to the firm.”
• “Trenam Law said Climate First has not sought advice from the firm since September 2024.”

“Gov. Newsom Signs Bill Targeting Unethical Client-Recruiting” —

• “California lawyers who use non-attorneys to recruit clients could face $25,000 in civil penalties as well as summary disbarment under a measure signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.”
• “AB 2039, signed by the governor late Sunday, offers protections to whistleblowers who report attorney misconduct to law enforcement or the state bar and places new restrictions on lawyers who lend money to clients.”
• “The provisions are a response to reports earlier this year that plaintiffs firm Downtown L.A. Law Group, or DTLA, improperly offered financial incentives to individuals to represent them in childhood sexual assault claims against Los Angeles County.”
• “‘If we’re going to demand that corporations, government, and powerful institutions be held accountable, we have to be, and we are, willing to hold ourselves to that same standard,’ CAOC President Doug Saeltzer said.”
• “Neither prosecutors nor the state bar have charged DTLA attorneys with wrongdoing in connection with the firm’s work on sexual abuse claims, although District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said he is investigating DTLA’s efforts to tap into part of Los Angeles County’s $4 billion settlement fund. DTLA attorneys have denied any misconduct. Daniel Azizi, one of the firm’s co-founders, did not return a message seeking comment on Monday.”
• “AB 2039 is among a handful of legislative responses the plaintiffs bar lobby introduced this year after both the DTLA allegations surfaced and after repeated corporate messaging targeting so-called billboard lawyers. In June, the CAOC agreed to limits on medical cost recoveries as part of a deal with Uber to stop a potential ballot initiative fight. In August, the lobby was part of a group that crafted legislation placing new restrictions on childhood sexual assault claims. And just last week, Newsom signed CAOC-backed legislation aimed at limiting investors’ influence over legal decisions.”
• “Additionally, lawyers will be required to sign contracts with any clients to whom they loan money. Those agreements must include repayment terms fees and conditions, list all potential conflicts of interest and be interest-free. Lawyers can be sanctioned up to $15,000 per violation and face possible state bar discipline.”
• “The new law also bars retaliation against clients, law firm employees, contractors, vendors and ‘any person with a professional relationship to an attorney or law firm’ who report attorney misconduct. “

“Hogan Lovells Cadwalader hacked by Silent Ransom Group; re-attacked after they wouldn’t pay” —

• “When New York City’s oldest law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, merged with Hogan Lovells in 2022, it combined two powerhouse firms. Yet despite their resources and knowledge of cyberattacks, and despite repeated government alerts and reporting by this site about the risk to law firms, they fell prey to Silent Ransom Group (SRG).”
• “SRG provided details of the incident to DataBreaches through a spokesperson. According to that spokesperson, SRG first gained access to Hogan Lovells’ legacy infrastructure on August 12, 2026, using a new set of tools, and exfiltrated information from several machines on the network. They did not specify the tools used, but noted that Hogan Lovells’ legacy infrastructure had a separate firewall, separate file system, and other security protocols and authorization mechanisms.”
• “They reportedly remained in Hogan Lovells’ network for 24 hours, and left on their own ‘after gathering enough data.'”
• “‘What’s important about this incident is that it is an attack carried out on two of the most top notch security systems among law firms,’ their spokesperson stated, adding, ‘and more importantly, a very active law firm in cyber security field especially after their merger.'”
• “Part of negotiations chat log. Provided with redaction by Silent Ransom Group to DataBreaches.net.”
• “According to SRG, they obtained over 50 GB of data, which they estimated included approximately 500 passports, driver’s licenses, and Social Security numbers. SRG has published all the data they exfiltrated from the first attack on their leak site.”
• “SRG provided DataBreaches with data from the second attack so we could preview it. They reportedly will upload that data to their leak site this week.”
• “Inspection of the second data set revealed mostly internal and business documents and emails. We also found passports that were still valid, personal and credit information on a human trafficking survivor, and detailed personal financial and investment records of one of HLC’s senior counsels. As we saw with the Greenberg Traurig incident, it appears a senior counsel for HLC uploaded their personal files to their office computer, and SRG exfiltrated them all.”