Law firm Covington & Burling fired back at a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, arguing the agency overstepped by asking it to identify clients affected by a 2020 cyberattack on the firm.
Covington said an SEC subpoena for the names of nearly 300 publicly traded companies whose information was accessed or stolen during the hack threatened to expose confidential client information that the firm is required to protect.
“The SEC’s effort to compel Covington to help the agency investigate the firm’s clients, without any evidence whatsoever of wrongdoing by Covington or those clients, is an assault on the sanctity and confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship,” Covington told the Washington, D.C., federal court hearing the case.
Source: SEC demand for client names is an ‘assault,’ law firm Covington says | Reuters
