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Lara K. Forde

Director of Cybersecurity Services
Business Unit Director

Lara K. Forde serves as Director of the firm’s Cybersecurity, Data Protection and Privacy and Healthcare business units. In this capacity, Lara is responsible for strategic planning and business development activities that allow the groups to achieve their objectives and deliver innovative, cost-effective solutions for clients.

Lara brings more than 20 years of experience in the legal, consulting, and risk management fields. Prior to joining Clark Hill, Lara held roles as Vice President and Cyber Practice Manager for a consulting firm that delivered pre-breach services to insurance policyholders throughout the United States. Lara has also managed a data breach response team which helped Fortune 500 organizations, governmental entities, healthcare providers, and educational institutions successfully respond to high-profile data breaches including many of the largest breaches at the time.

Lara is passionate about helping organizations minimize their cyber risks and enjoys designing and facilitating cyber “war games” to prepare response teams to respond efficiently and effectively to a data security incident. Lara is a frequent speaker on data breach preparedness to in-house privacy professionals, risk managers, and cyber insurers at leading industry events.

Education

LL.M., Dean's List, University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas, 1998
J.D., Baylor Law School, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, 1996, Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity
B.B.A., magna cum laude, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, 1994, Hankamer School of Business Academic Scholarship; Alpha Chi, Alpha Lambda Delta, Beta Gamma Sigma, Gamma Beta Phi, and Golden Key Honor Societies; Sigma Iota Epsilon Honorary Management Fraternity; Phi Beta Lambda Business Fraternity
CIPP/US Certification

Memberships

International Association of Privacy Professionals

Member of InfraGard

State Bar of Texas’ Minority Counsel Program (Steering Committee 2010 – 2011)

State Bar Licenses

Texas

Articles

  • Author, “21st Century Crisis: Preparing of and Responding to the Inevitable Data Breach,” marketed by Advisen, Ltd. (2015)
  • Author, “Survey of Texas Insurance Law,” SMU Law Review (2002)

Presentations

  • Presenter, “Cyber Threat Update – Spotlight on Ransomware,” (2019)
  • Panelist, “Cyber Regulatory Update,” Advisen Cyber Conference, San Francisco (2018)
  • Panelist, “Cyber Panel: Are You Ready for an Attack?” MPL Leadership Conference (2017)
  • Presented on Cyber Risk to over 300 public agency officials, California Joint Powers Insurance Authority’s Annual Educational Forum (2016)
  • Presenter, “Preparing for and Responding to the Inevitable Breach”
  • Presenter, “Preparing and Responding to a Data Breach,” PILOTLEGIS Legal Conference (2016)
  • Presenter, “Privacy and Data Breach for Lawyers,” (2015)
  • Presenter, “Data Breach Incident Response Planning: How to Approach and Plan for the Inevitable,” RIMS National Conference (2015)
  • Presenter, “Exercising Your Incident Response Plan,” RIMS National Conference (2015)
  • Presented on best practices for data breach response to over 150 in-house attorneys and executives for F1000 companies (2014)
  • Presented two-hour workshop on data breach preparedness and response best practices for RIMS Silicon Valley Chapter (2014)
  • Panelist for mock data breach tabletop, Advisen Cyber Risk Conference (2014)
  • Presented on best practices for health care data breaches to over 100 attendees consisting primarily of Chief Privacy Officers and General Counsel (2014)
  • Presented on best practices for higher education data breaches to in-house attorneys and C-suite executives (2014)
  • Presented on trends in e-discovery, early case assessment, and recent case law, American Bar Association’s Annual Litigation Summit (2011)
  • Presented on legal ethics and compliance challenges, DFW Metroplex Association of Corporate Paralegals and the Dallas, Paralegal Excellence CLE Summit (2007)

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