Suit Claims Ex-Partner Installed Software Allowing Continued Access to Law Firm Files
A Pennsylvania law firm has sued a former partner, claiming he installed software allowing remote access to its computer network before he jumped to a new firm.
The law firm, Elliott Greenleaf & Siedzikowski, filed a motion for an injunction to stop the alleged hacking on Thursday, the Legal Intelligencer reports. The federal suit claims the former managing partner of Elliott Greenleaf’s Harrisburg office, William Balaban, is accessing the files via Dropbox software installed before he abruptly left at the end of January.
Balaban and two Elliott Greenleaf associates left to join the law firm Stevens & Lee; it has also been named as a defendant along with two former clients, the story says.
The suit claims Balaban configured the software to ensure that 78,000 electronic files “were stolen and automatically transmitted to a distant ‘cloud.’ ” It also alleges that Balaban deleted 5 percent of the firm’s backup tapes for Harrisburg clients.
The information is being used to help Stevens & Lee obtain tax lien clients from Elliott Greenleaf, according to the suit. Stevens & Lee issued a statement calling the suit “devoid of merit.”
