© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(Dec. 12) – Stroz Freidberg, a national corporate consulting firm, announced Monday that it has hired Dallas lawyer John Ansbach as its vice president of engagement management in Dallas.
Ansbach, a former general counsel at Dallas-based General Datatech and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is known throughout Texas for his expertise in cybersecurity and data privacy.
A 1996 University of Texas School of Law graduate, Ansbach said he will have no legal duties at Stroz, but his new position allows him to pursue his deep interest in cyber-related issues.
“I’ve known about Stroz for years, as I have been on panels with some of their folks regarding cybersecurity,” he told The Texas Lawbook. “Stroz has an excellent reputation and it was an obvious next step in the direction my interest had been going.”
Stroz Freidberg said that Ansbach will oversee the delivery of its cybersecurity, risk assessment and e-discovery services for clients. The company has 25 professionals in its Dallas office.
Ansbach, who is also a past chair of the Texas General Counsel Forum, said his interest in cyber issues started a few years ago about the time that Home Depot and Target experienced their significant data breaches.
“As a general counsel, I connected the dots from what I was seeing nationally and the risks that my company faced,” he said. “Basically, I spent the last four to five years as an evangelist preaching cybersecurity risks for companies.”
Ansbach said that most companies still do not take cyber threats seriously enough.
“I think there is general awareness that this is an important subject that they should be paying attention to,” he said. “But I don’t think most business leaders or general counsel understand that this is a full-time and on-going risk for them. Information security belongs at the top of their risk concerns every single day.
“Law firms hold a tremendous amount of sensitive data and the bad guys know it,” he said. “That means lawyers and firms are going to be targeted by hackers.”
© 2017 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.