Legal services
Penetration Testing for Law Firms
Law firms hold privileged client data, deal information, and escrow funds, and clients ask how it is protected before sending the first file. Invadel tests the document management system, client portals, email, and the office network at a fixed price, with reports written for client and insurer questionnaires.
The stakes
Why law firms get tested differently
Attackers come to law firms for what the clients trust them with: merger terms, litigation strategy, intellectual property, and the wire instructions in a closing. The paths in are familiar. A phished partner account that opens the mailbox to a fraudster, or a document management system reachable from a compromised laptop. A remote access gateway that never got multi-factor authentication. Once inside, a flat office network makes every matter reachable.
Corporate clients treat outside counsel as part of their own supply chain. Banks, insurers, and public companies send security questionnaires that ask for a recent independent penetration test. General counsel increasingly decline to engage firms that cannot produce one. Cyber insurers ask the same question at renewal. Firms with New York clients also hold private information covered by the SHIELD Act, which requires reasonable safeguards to protect it.
A generic external scan tells a firm its perimeter looks fine and says nothing about the systems that matter. Legal exposure runs through the document management system, the email tenant, the client extranet, and the practice management platform, most of which sit behind a login. Testing has to reach them the way an attacker would, from a phished account inward, and report in language a client’s security team will accept.
What we test
The systems attackers go after first
Document management system
The repository of every matter, tested from a standard user account. Permission gaps between practice groups, ethical wall failures, and paths from one compromised login to the full archive.
Email and Microsoft 365
The tenant that carries privileged communication and wire instructions. Tested for phishing resistance, MFA gaps, mailbox rule abuse, and the conditional access policies that should stop a stolen session.
Client portals and extranets
Deal rooms and case portals where clients upload and review documents. Tested for authorization flaws between clients, weak invitation flows, and exposure of matter data through search or export.
Office and remote access network
The internal network and the VPN or virtual desktop gateway in front of it. Tested from an assumed foothold for lateral movement, Active Directory escalation, and reach into finance and escrow systems.
Practice and billing platforms
Time, billing, and trust accounting systems. Tested for access control gaps that expose client financials and for the integrations that pass data to and from the document system.
Partners and staff
Phishing, voice, and help desk pretexting campaigns built around real firm workflows. A closing date or a payment instruction change, used to measure how the human layer holds.
Compliance
The frameworks that usually apply
- ISO 27001
The certification corporate clients increasingly ask outside counsel for, with penetration testing as the Annex A 8.8 evidence auditors expect.
- SOC 2
For firms and legal service providers that host client data on their own platforms and are asked for a SOC 2 report alongside the test.
- Cyber Essentials Plus
Readiness testing for firms serving UK government and enterprise clients that require the certification from their legal suppliers.
Services
What law firms usually buy
- From $6,000
Internal Network Penetration Testing
Testing from an assumed foothold inside your network: Active Directory, lateral movement, and segmentation, from $6,000.
- From $3,600
Phishing Simulation & Social Engineering Testing
Phishing and social engineering campaigns that measure real-world human risk, from $3,600.
- From $4,200
External Network Penetration Testing
Testing of your internet-facing perimeter: exposed services, remote access, mail, and cloud edges, from $4,200.
- From $5,200
Web Application Penetration Testing
Manual testing of your web app across the OWASP Top 10, business logic, and every user role, from $5,200.
- From $12,500
Red Teaming Services
Objective-based attacks that prove the full chain and test whether your team detects and stops them, from $12,500.
How it runs
Typical engagements
Illustrative scopes for this industry, written to show what a test covers and what you walk away with. They are not client stories; our anonymized engagements are on the case studies page.
Typical engagement
Midtown litigation firm answering a bank client’s questionnaire
A Midtown litigation firm receives a security questionnaire from a bank client that asks for a penetration test within the last twelve months. We run an external test of the remote access gateway and public services. An internal test follows, from a standard associate account through the document management system and Active Directory. The findings are fixed and retested, and the firm returns the questionnaire with an attestation letter and an executive summary the client’s security team accepts.
Typical engagement
Regional firm after a wire fraud near miss
A regional real estate practice nearly sends closing funds to a fraudster after a partner’s mailbox is compromised. Once the incident is contained, we run a phishing campaign across the firm and test the Microsoft 365 tenant’s MFA and conditional access controls. An internal test shows what else that mailbox could have reached. The firm receives a prioritized plan covering email authentication, phishing-resistant MFA, and the payment verification workflow.
Typical engagement
Boutique firm preparing for ISO 27001 certification
A boutique intellectual property firm pursuing ISO 27001 to satisfy technology clients needs penetration testing evidence for its Stage 2 audit. We test the client extranet, the external perimeter, and the internal network within the ISMS scope. Every finding is mapped to the Annex A control it evidences. The retest is completed a month before the audit, and the attestation letter and executive summary go into the evidence file.
FAQ
What law firms ask
01Do law firms actually need penetration testing?
Not by statute in most cases, but by contract almost always. Corporate clients, especially banks and insurers, require it in outside counsel guidelines and security questionnaires, and cyber insurers ask at renewal. Our law firm penetration testing guide explains what clients ask for and how to scope the first test.
02Which test should a law firm run first?
For most firms, an external test of the perimeter paired with an internal test from a standard user account. That is the path a phished associate gives an attacker. Firms with client portals add a web application test. A phishing campaign is often the cheapest place to start when the budget is limited.
03Can you test without accessing privileged client material?
Yes. The test proves what an attacker could reach without reading it. We agree in writing which systems and repositories are in scope, stop at proof of access rather than content, and handle everything under NDA. Findings describe the path and the permission gap, not the matters behind it.
04How much does a law firm penetration test cost?
External network testing starts at $4,200, internal network testing at $6,000, and a phishing campaign at $3,600, each fixed in writing before work starts. The external and internal tests include a free retest of remediated findings. A typical first engagement for a mid-sized firm combines the external and internal tests, quoted as one number.
05Do you come on-site in Manhattan?
Yes. Our office is at 1178 Broadway, so scoping meetings, internal testing that needs a tester in the building, and partner readouts happen in your conference room. Most internal tests can also run remotely through a small appliance, and firms outside the New York area are served the same way.
Get a fixed price for your firm's scope
Tell us what needs testing. You get a written fixed price within one business day, with the compliance mapping your auditors and customers expect.
Prefer the full scoping questionnaire?Get a Fixed-Scope Quote
Tell us what you need tested. We reply within one business day.
Thanks, we've received your message.
We'll be in touch shortly.