Cyber Law Firm Launches
Gabriel Vincent Tese ’09 and Star Kashman ’23 launched Cyber Law Firm over the summer. Photo by Sam Goldin
A Tipping Point Prompts Cofounders to Start Tech Law Boutique Firm
Two tech-savvy alumni—one a longtime litigator who worked in military intelligence, the other a recent graduate who has conducted in-depth research on “Google dorking” to address malicious actors—launched Cyber Law Firm over the summer, with a mission to help clients ranging from businesses concerned about cybersecurity and regulatory compliance to cyberbullying victims.
One cofounding partner is experienced civil litigator Gabriel Vincent Tese ’09, previously a partner in Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott’s commercial litigation and AI autonomous robot practice groups. He has a long history of technology-related work, which includes designing databases for an insurance company while in law school, serving in the U.S. Army as a military intelligence officer, and working as e-discovery counsel at Deloitte.
The other partner is Star Kashman ’23, who was involved in the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic (BLIP) as a student and became, after graduation, of counsel for C.A. Goldberg, a law firm known nationally for representing victims of cyberstalking and sexual assault and as a leader in landmark cases challenging Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
In line with their experiences, Cyber Law Firm has adopted some of the tech industry’s unique practices. Its cofounders and their expanding team work remotely: Kashman is based in New York City, and Tese is outside of Philadelphia. They also rely on technology to keep operations lean.
“It’s Cyber Law Firm because the areas of practice that we want to focus on are related to what would be considered cyber tech law,” Tese said. “But we are also called Cyber Law Firm because we’re totally virtual, and we see the future as being how well you can market yourself online, how well you can utilize technology to cut costs, and how well you can leverage technology in order to get the best results for your clients.”
They expect their work to be a mix of litigation representing victims of cyber harassment, cyber stalking, defamation, and other online offenses, and transactional work on behalf of government agencies, businesses, or decentralized autonomous organizations seeking smart contracts, advice on cyber-attacks and artificial intelligence (AI), or a road map for compliance with international, state, and national data privacy laws.
Getting the Jump on Technology
Tese has always hoped to follow the family tradition, started by his aunt and grandfather, of operating his own law firm. With an eye out for like-minded lawyers interested in emerging technology, Tese came across an excerpt on Brooklyn Law School’s website of an article Kashman wrote as a law student for the Washington Journal of Law Technology & Arts on “Google dorking.”
Dorking refers to how hackers use the Google search engine to access private information from websites with security holes. Tese reached out to Kashman about her findings, and they connected on LinkedIn. For several years they stayed in touch, and in November 2023 discussed eventually working together in the field, and ultimately deciding to team up to start a boutique law firm. The launch of Cyber Law Firm was covered in Law360 in July, and the cofounders discussed the complementary types of experience they bring to the table. Cyber Law Firm has now been featured in various additional publications, including Law.com, and the ABA Journal as well.
Both have said that technology is changing so fast, lawyers at all levels of experience can feel like novices. Tese says he particularly values Kashman as a digital native who knows how to utilize media platforms for marketing purposes.
“I was extremely impressed by the number of accolades and connections Star was able to generate in a short period of time,” Tese said. “I saw her as somebody who was going to be extremely successful in this field. Experience is something that can be gained, but you cannot gain that innate ability to bring in business and network, and I identified that ability with Star.”
Indeed, Kashman has been featured on podcasts and in national media outlets discussing technology law, and her passion for it is personal.
“As a woman growing up in the digital age, I was a victim of cyber stalking, cyber harassment, online cyber bullying and hacking,” Kashman said. While her experience was typical, she said, her response was not. She learned how to use Google dorking to “unmask anonymous offenders,” to defend herself and her friends.
After starting at Brooklyn Law, she took classes in cybersecurity and national security and realized her tech savvy could become a legal specialty.
“Even when conducting legal research, I found that having more advanced search techniques or extra tech knowledge made a huge difference,” Kashman said. “For example, if a company wants to hide that their app is being used for child sexual exploitation, I might be able to uncover material that is still publicly available but would require digging and some tech skills. With that material, though, you have a case that the company should have known what was going on.”
Kashman says figuring out how to apply existing laws to new technology often requires a creative approach. Her Law School experience and work at C.A. Goldberg gave her valuable insight into not only high-profile tech cases, but the real dangers of technology.
“I saw how much how much of a demand there is within this field. So many people are being impacted by various forms of cybercrimes or the new harms that are coming from emerging technologies and there are limited resources for them,” Kashman said.
At Eckert Seamans, Tese had been test-driving various AI tools with the chief information officer, and believes the technology holds promise for law firms both as a source of new business and as an internal tool. He notes that over the past year and a half, almost every major law firm has appointed someone to lead an AI department.
“In the past 10 years alone, there has been maybe $100 billion worth of investment into legal tech,” Tese said. “The industry is growing at an incredibly crazy, dynamic rate right now that the traditional legal industry can’t keep up with.”