Lawyers are the new foot soldiers in the privacy wars

Law firms are moving to capitalize on the fallout of two game changers: Target's credit card fiasco and Edward Snowden's leak of government surveillance files.

Opportunities for lawyers suddenly seem almost limitless, amid the rise of social media and state-sponsored hacking; the perceived risks of cloud computing; and the promised “Internet of Things” connecting vehicles, appliances and other machines to the Web. Generally, lawyers say that the work covers a wide spectrum, from drafting disclosure policies to litigating when breaches occur to rendering advice on selling customer info to third parties, a common practice spotlighted two years ago by Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering. They're on consult when startups build “privacy by design” into their business plans and when established companies examine the backlogs of files they can -- and should -- purge.