Your Ethical Duties: Protecting Client Confidences

Nicolette C. Vilmos is a partner in the Orlando, Fla., office of Nelson Mullins Broad and Cassel LLP and chairs the firm’s Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Practice Group. She concentrates her practice on complex business litigation, including bankruptcy, intellectual property, banking law, foreclosures, lender liability, shareholder and business disputes, noncompete litigation and landlord/ tenant matters across the state of Florida.

Ms. Vilmos’s bankruptcy and creditors’ right practice includes the representation of secured lenders, purchasers of assets from troubled companies, fiduciaries, creditors’ committees and other stakeholders in multi-party disputes and reorganizations. In the area of intellectual property, she has litigation experience in state and federal courts and has represented clients in cases relating to patent infringement, trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, copyright infringement, anti-cybersquatting, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, computer fraud and abuse act, deceptive and unfair trade practices, tortious interference, breach of contract and/or breach of restrictive covenants and other related claims.

Ms. Vilmos counsels clients on various privacy and data-security issues, from system-wide network intrusions and ransomware attacks to cyberextortion, fraudulent wire transfers, e-mail account compromises, stolen computer hardware and employee misconduct. She is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized in Chambers USA: A Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers, was named a “Florida Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics magazine, received a “Women of Achievement Award” from the Women’s Executive Council of Orlando, and was named to the Orlando Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list. She is also a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), an honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers.

Ms. Vilmos serves on the board of directors for the Central Florida Bankruptcy Law Association, is an active member of ABI and the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation, and is an adjunct professor at Valencia Community College, where she teaches real property law.

Ms. Vilmos received her B.A. cum laude in 1998 from Stetson University and her J.D. cum laude in 2000 from Stetson University College of Law.

Elizabeth B. Vandesteeg is a legal team leader and tactical advisor for business with Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Hammer LLP in Chicago, where her practice is focused on risk-identification and mitigation for her clients, primarily in the areas of business continuity and business tort, data security and privacy, and bankruptcy and restructuring. She counsels businesses in a wide variety of industries on issues such as contracting with third parties or partnership/ownership disputes and represents clients in state, federal and bankruptcy courts, in municipal and administrative proceedings, and using alternative dispute resolution processes.

Ms. Vandesteeg is experienced in nearly every facet of commercial bankruptcy and restructuring, having represented debtors, secured creditors, unsecured creditors and unsecured creditors’ committees. Within the bankruptcy arena, she has prosecuted complex adversary and contested litigation matters including, among others, actions to pierce the corporate veil, to undo fraudulent transfers and to avoid liens. She also assists clients in the development of reasonable and appropriate data security and privacy programs and policies related to use of technology, mobile devices or document retention.

She also advises clients on compliance with various regulatory and statutory requirements, including TCPA, CAN-SPAM, GLBA, and the newly effective New York State cybersecurity regulation applicable to financial and insurance institutions.

Ms. Vandesteeg received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Boston College.

Bennett B. Borden is a partner in the firm's Commercial Litigation Practice Group and Co-chair of the Information Governance and eDiscovery Group. He is also an executive managing director of the firm's ediscovery subsidiary, Tritura Information Governance LLC, which provides state of the art ediscovery technology and services to the firm's clients.

Bennett is a globally recognized authority on the legal, technology and policy implications of digital information. Bennett has focused his career on helping clients use the power of information governance to drive strategic litigation outcomes, reduce eDiscovery costs, and improve business operations.

Bennett is Chair of the Cloud Computing Committee and Vice Chair of the eDiscovery and Digital Evidence Committee of the Science and Technology Law Section of the ABA. He is also a founding member of the steering committee for the Electronic Discovery Section of the District of Columbia Bar, an Information Governance drafting group member of The Sedona Conference, an Advisory Committee Member for the Georgetown Paralegal Studies Program and a Board Member for the D.C. Chapter of ARMA. He is a frequent speaker and author and a guest lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Virginia Law School, Temple University Law School, and the University of Maryland College of Information Studies.

In addition to conducting both offensive and defensive electronic discovery in complex litigation, Bennett has extensive experience counseling clients on the establishment of information governance and records management policies. He regularly advises multinational clients regarding data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance.