Law firms depend on technology to manage confidential client information, financial transactions, matter files and everyday communications. A security weakness can therefore become much more than an IT issue, potentially affecting confidentiality, client service, business continuity and the firm’s wider risk exposure.
Legal practices can also have complex technology environments. Microsoft 365, case-management systems, cloud applications, laptops, remote working and third-party suppliers can all form part of the same security picture.
Cyber Essentials for law firms provides a recognised framework for strengthening some of the fundamental technical controls within that environment. But obtaining a certificate should not be the starting point. Firms first need to understand whether certification is required, which level is appropriate and whether their existing IT environment is ready.
For some practices, certification is a choice. For others, contractual requirements can make it necessary.
Do Law Firms Need Cyber Essentials?
There is no blanket requirement for every law firm to hold Cyber Essentials certification.
However, certification can provide a structured baseline for reviewing how devices, software, accounts and security settings are managed. It can also provide additional assurance where clients, procurement teams or organisations within a supply chain expect suppliers to demonstrate an established level of cyber security.
The UK Government recommends Cyber Essentials as a minimum cyber-security standard for organisations, and the National Cyber Security Centre notes that certification can also be required by organisations as part of their supplier requirements.
For legal practices, Cyber Essentials for law firms may therefore become relevant where the firm:
- needs to demonstrate security controls to clients
- encounters certification requirements through tenders or contracts
- works within a supply chain where Cyber Essentials is expected
- wants a structured baseline for improving technical security
- undertakes work subject to specific certification requirements
One important example applies to criminal legal aid.
Cyber Essentials and Criminal Legal Aid
For practices undertaking criminal legal aid work, Cyber Essentials has additional significance.
Under the 2025 Standard Crime Contract application process, applicants need to provide a valid Cyber Essentials certificate as part of the Legal Aid Agency’s verification requirements.
The 2025 Standard Crime Contract governs publicly funded criminal defence services in England and Wales and originally came into effect on 1 October 2025.
In practical terms, firms applying for this work should consider certification early rather than treating it as an administrative task towards the end of the process.
If a readiness review uncovers unsupported operating systems, unmanaged devices or access-control issues, resolving them may take time. This can be particularly relevant where older technology supports critical case-management or practice-management systems.
It also demonstrates a wider point: whether Cyber Essentials is optional depends not only on regulation, but also on the work, clients and contracts of an individual practice.
What Does Cyber Essentials Cover?
Cyber Essentials concentrates on five areas of technical security:
- Firewalls
- Secure configuration
- Security update management
- User access control
- Malware protection
For a law firm, the useful question is what those controls mean in practice.
Are laptops and desktops configured securely? Are operating systems and business applications still supported? Are important security updates deployed consistently? Do employees only have the permissions they require? Are controls applied consistently across office and remote-working devices?
These are fundamental questions, but weaknesses can accumulate as a practice grows, introduces new applications or changes working practices.
Preparing for certification can therefore help identify security issues that might otherwise remain within the IT environment.
Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus for Law Firms?
Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus address the same technical control areas. The main difference is how those controls are assessed.
Cyber Essentials involves a self-assessment that is independently reviewed by a Certification Body. Cyber Essentials Plus adds technical testing to provide independent verification of the controls.
For law firms, Plus should not automatically be treated as the better option. The right level depends on why certification is being pursued.
Cyber Essentials Plus may be appropriate where:
- a client specifically asks for it
- a contract or tender requires it
- supply-chain requirements specify independent verification
- the practice wants a higher level of technical assurance
A firm seeking to improve its baseline security may have different requirements from one pursuing certification to meet a client’s procurement criteria. Establishing the objective first reduces the risk of obtaining a certification level that either exceeds or falls short of what is actually needed.
How Does Cyber Essentials Relate to SRA Responsibilities?
Cyber Essentials should not be interpreted as an SRA compliance certificate.
The scheme focuses on a defined set of technical controls. Those controls can help protect confidential information and reduce exposure to common security weaknesses, but a firm’s responsibilities extend further.
Technology risk also involves areas such as:
- data protection
- business continuity
- incident response
- backup and recovery
- employee security awareness
- supplier management
- technology governance
- ongoing risk assessment
Certification should therefore sit within a wider approach to managing technology risk.
Firms should consider how Cyber Essentials fits alongside their broader IT compliance responsibilities, including appropriate controls around access, client information, operational resilience and technology governance.
Cyber threats also extend beyond the scope of any single certification. Ransomware, email compromise, attacks involving suppliers and attempts to access confidential client information may require additional controls. Managing cyber security across the legal environment therefore requires a broader view of risk.
The distinction is important: Cyber Essentials can strengthen a firm’s security foundations without demonstrating that every regulatory or cyber-security requirement has been addressed.
Where Does Lexcel Fit?
Lexcel and Cyber Essentials fulfil different purposes.
Lexcel is the Law Society’s quality mark for legal practice management, covering areas including client care, compliance, risk management, information management and file and case management. The Law Society states that practices need either Lexcel or the Specialist Quality Mark to hold a legal aid contract with the Legal Aid Agency.
Cyber Essentials, by comparison, has a specific technical cyber-security focus.
Firms should therefore consider each requirement separately rather than assuming that one accreditation or certification demonstrates compliance with another.
Is Your Law Firm Ready for Cyber Essentials?
For many practices, completing the certification exercise is not necessarily the difficult part. Preparing the underlying technology environment can require more work.
Know What Technology You Have
A firm needs an accurate picture of the technology it is responsible for, including devices, operating systems, cloud services and specialist legal applications.
This becomes more complicated where staff work across offices and home environments or personally owned devices are used to access business resources.
Without accurate records, maintaining consistent security controls becomes considerably harder.
Identify Unsupported Technology
Legacy technology can be a particular challenge for law firms.
An older case-management or practice-management system may depend on an ageing server, operating system or software component. Remediation may therefore require more than simply installing an update.
Technology that continues working is not necessarily technology that remains secure or appropriate.
Review Security Updates
Firms need visibility of which operating systems and applications require updates, which versions are currently in use and whether required security updates are being deployed consistently.
This becomes particularly important where technology is distributed across multiple locations or managed by several suppliers.
Review User Access
Permissions tend to accumulate over time.
Employees can change roles without old access being removed, while accounts given administrative privileges for a temporary purpose can retain them indefinitely.
A readiness review provides an opportunity to bring permissions back into line with what users genuinely require.
Check Device Security
Security controls should remain consistent wherever a device is used.
Remote-working laptops should not effectively become less secure when they leave the office. Configuration, protection and management therefore need to operate across the firm’s normal working environment.
Common Barriers to Cyber Essentials for Law Firms
Preparing for Cyber Essentials certification for law firms frequently exposes technology issues that have accumulated over several years.
Common examples include:
Legacy legal applications: Older case-management, practice-management and document-management systems can create dependencies on technology that would otherwise have been replaced.
Unsupported devices: Laptops, desktops, servers and network equipment can remain operational beyond the point at which they can be securely maintained.
Personally owned devices: Where personal equipment accesses business resources, firms need to understand whether those devices fall within scope and how appropriate controls can be applied.
Hybrid working: Remote-working arrangements can develop inconsistently, creating differences in how devices are configured, managed and secured.
Excessive permissions: Users may retain access or administrative privileges that are no longer needed.
Incomplete asset records: If the practice cannot confidently identify its devices and software, it becomes difficult to show that security controls are being applied consistently.
Identifying these issues before beginning formal certification gives firms time to address them properly rather than treating remediation as a last-minute exercise.
Cyber Essentials Is Only Part of the Security Picture
Achieving Cyber Essentials for law firms can establish a useful technical baseline, but it should not define the boundary of the firm’s security strategy.
Several wider areas remain important.
Identity security: Strong authentication, MFA and appropriate permissions can help reduce the risks associated with compromised accounts.
Backup and recovery: Backups need to be protected and tested. Firms should have confidence that critical information and systems can be recovered following ransomware, system failure or another serious incident.
Incident response: Responsibilities for escalation, containment, investigation, communication and recovery should be established before an incident occurs.
Supplier security: Law firms increasingly depend on cloud applications, legal software and technology partners. Understanding access, security responsibilities and third-party cyber risk should form part of ongoing supplier management.
Employee awareness: Technical controls alone cannot eliminate phishing and social-engineering risks. Employees need to know how to identify and report suspicious activity.
These are not additional Cyber Essentials controls. They are part of the broader security environment surrounding the certification.
How to Prepare for Cyber Essentials Certification
A structured approach can make certification easier to achieve and maintain.
1. Establish Your Starting Position
Identify the technology that needs to be considered and assess the existing environment against the Cyber Essentials requirements.
The National Cyber Security Centre provides a Cyber Essentials Readiness Tool to help organisations identify areas requiring attention.
2. Remediate the Gaps
Required changes might include:
- replacing unsupported devices
- updating or removing obsolete software
- tightening permissions
- improving patch management
- correcting insecure configurations
- strengthening endpoint protection
Where legacy legal applications are involved, remediation may require additional planning to avoid creating compatibility or operational problems.
3. Complete Certification
Once the required controls are in place, the firm can proceed with the appropriate certification.
Where Cyber Essentials Plus is required, firms should also allow for the independent technical assessment involved.
4. Maintain the Controls
Certification represents the environment at a point in time, but that environment will continue to change.
Employees join and leave, devices are replaced, applications are introduced and permissions change. Asset management, patching, access reviews and secure configuration therefore need to remain part of normal IT management.
The objective should be to maintain certification readiness rather than recreate it each time renewal approaches.
Maintaining Cyber Essentials with Managed IT Support
For practices with limited internal IT resources, maintaining those controls consistently can be challenging.
Effective IT support for law firms can support areas including:
- device and endpoint management
- security patching
- Microsoft 365 and identity management
- MFA
- user and administrative access
- endpoint security
- hardware and software inventories
- security monitoring
- backup management and recovery testing
This moves the emphasis away from preparing for certification once a year and towards maintaining a secure, well-managed technology environment throughout the year.
For law firms, that is arguably the more valuable outcome. Good patching, access control, asset management and monitoring matter regardless of whether an assessment is approaching.
Making Cyber Essentials Part of a Wider Security Strategy
Cyber Essentials for law firms can provide a recognised certification and a practical framework for strengthening fundamental technical security.
For criminal legal aid providers, certification also has a clear contractual significance under the 2025 Standard Crime Contract application requirements. For other firms, the motivation may come from clients, tenders, supply-chain requirements or a desire to strengthen their own security baseline.
Whatever the reason, the certificate should not be the end goal.
The greater value comes from understanding the firm’s technology environment, addressing avoidable weaknesses and maintaining effective controls as systems, people and working practices change.
Need help assessing your firm’s Cyber Essentials readiness? Speak to Akita’s legal cyber-security team.
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