Seth P. Berman

Notable Experience and Client Impact

Privacy and Data Security Matters:

• Advised medical insurance company dealing with a cyberattack impacting its customers’ Personal Identifying Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI). Representation of this client included managing its response to the resulting United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) investigation and negotiating with numerous state Attorneys General regarding the incident.
• Represented large corporate client facing ransomware demand from foreign hackers. Worked with client to investigate attack and interface on its behalf with law enforcement.
• Represented client facing an SEC inquiry into the adequacy of its public disclosure regarding a cyber security incident.
• Led investigation for international pharmaceutical company that discovered key intellectual property had been stolen and was offered for sale. Investigation ultimately disproved the company’s initial theory that an insider had stolen the data and demonstrated that their systems had been penetrated by a state-sponsored hacker.
• Led investigation for health care provider whose email system was breached in a major phishing attack. Worked with the company to understand what data had been implicated, ultimately finding that no PII or PHI had been accessed or exfiltrated by the hackers.
• Worked with a company to determine the source of a theft of intellectual property, ultimately building a case against several former employees who had left the company to start a competitor.
• Advised audit committee of insurance company seeking to test the company’s preparedness for a cyber attack, including conducting extensive physical and network penetration testing, and drafted report detailing suggested improvements to their security.

White Collar Defense Matters:

• Represented individual in federal court charged with conspiracy and mail fraud as part of the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scheme.
• Represented individual in federal court charged with securities fraud and related crimes arising out of alleged false statements made during the offering of securities.
• Conducted internal investigation into alleged wrongdoing of organization’s CEO on behalf of the special investigations committee of the organization’s board.
• Led internal investigation for multinational corporation into alleged international fraud and bribery scheme by its employees in a foreign country.
• Advised international financial institution accused of assisting tax fraud and money laundering in Switzerland in navigating the conflicting demands of U.S. criminal law subpoenas and Swiss data protection and bank privacy regulations.
• Organized electronic discovery project for massive international litigation involving an international bank accused of conspiring to manipulate interest rates, potentially violating criminal and securities laws in dozens of countries.

Before joining Nutter, Seth led the Boston, New York, and Washington offices of a leading cybersecurity and digital forensics investigations consulting firm. He also spent six years in London as the head of the consulting firm’s international practice, where he regularly assisted clients with international criminal and digital forensic investigations. Earlier in his career, Seth was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Massachusetts, where he investigated and prosecuted economic crimes and was one of the leading computer crimes prosecutors in the Commonwealth. Seth previously served as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office and was a member of the New York Electronic Crimes Task Force and was a partner at an international law firm specializing in white collar criminal defense and civil litigation. Seth obtained his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and earned his J.D. from Cornell Law School, where he served as an editor of the Cornell Law Review.

Seth is a recognized thought leader in cybersecurity and criminal law. He has appeared on television in both the U.S. and the U.K. to comment on cybercrime issues and has written extensively on the subject. Seth teaches a Cyber Crime Law class at Harvard Law School.