Protection for solicitors against targeted attacks

We are the professional body for all legal professionals across England and Wales, and aim to support the profession in any way we can.

This tool gives advice to legal professionals in all areas of the profession concerned about their safety at work from targeted attacks or threats from third parties.

The information on this page should be treated as general guidance.

The steps you may need to take to protect yourself and your firm will depend on the context in which you work and the nature of the threat.

If you have specific concerns, you should consider seeking further advice from security professionals or local police.

If you have received a credible threat

If you have received a threat to either yourself or your firm, there are some immediate steps you should take:

1. report the threat to the local police or call 999 if there is immediate danger
2. notify your security team or building manager

You may also need to consider:

• temporarily working from home, if possible
• if you cannot work from home and are planning on travelling into the office, take extra care when entering and leaving the building
• if attending the office, make sure you are not working alone and that you are aware of all points of entry and exit, including fire escapes
• if possible, do not work close to a window and make sure all office windows are closed and doors are locked
• temporarily only taking pre-booked appointments and meetings, online appointments, or rearranging face-to-face meetings to a later date or safe location
• when visiting clients or attending court, make sure others are aware of where you will be

Precautionary measures for firms

There are several preventative steps that law firm leaders can take to help protect their firm and colleagues:

• review the security measures you have in place for the office building and individual staff
• you may want to make sure staff know any security protocol and security measures they can take, as well as who to contact in the event of a security threat
• consider consulting a security firm for advice
• if the firm has security personnel, make sure they are aware of any threatening behaviour and attacks on staff
• hold training for staff detailing what to do in the event of threatening behaviour or attacks
• have open conversations with staff who are worried about threatening behaviour or attacks or have been a victim of threatening behaviour or attacks
• consider finding an employee or department who can be a point of contact for these concerns
• consider providing psychological support for staff, or make them aware of where they can access it through our resources on mental health
• draft a policy to deal with any threatening behaviour and attacks, either in person or online. This policy could set out when to contact the police and appropriate next steps
• keep a record of any threats or assaults
• if there is CCTV for the office building, make sure it is functioning and, where there are CCTV issues, raise these with the CCTV company

Online safety

As well as considering physical safety, it is important to consider proportionate steps to ensuring safety online:

• consider if it is necessary to minimise or remove personal details of staff members online. This may include removing photographs and contact details of staff members, including email addresses and phone numbers
• consider if it is necessary to remove your office address(es) from your website
• check what information is publicly available online. If personal details such as home addresses are easily accessible online, consider taking steps to limit the information available if possible
• consider the extent to which you share information about your location and movements on social media