For everyone who remembers t he 1960's SciFi series Lost in Space, the events that recently hit Crosby Higgins LLP would be the point in the show where the robot says Danger, Will Robinson, danger.. Every lawyer should read One Very Small Law Firm; One Extremely Large Computer Virus found at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. In his post, author Ashby Jones details how this latest scam impacted this firm and the stress placed on it's staff.

If you have received the following email, DON"T OPEN ANY ATTACHMENTS AND DELETE IMMEDIATELY The attachment most likely contains a virus and you will be its next victim!:

March 12, 2010
Crosby & Higgins
350 Broadway, Suite 300
New York, NY 10013

To Whom It May Concern:

Enclosed is a copy of the lawsuit that I filed against you in court on March 11, 2010. Currently the Pretrail Conference is scheduled for April 10th, 2010 at 9:30 A.M. in courtroom #33. The case number is 3485934. The reason the lawsuit was filed was due to a completely inadequate response from your company for copyright infrigement that our client Lumberton Trading Company is a victim of. Lumberton Trading Company has proof of multiple Copyright Law violations that they wish to present in court on April 10th, 2010.

Sincerely,

Mark R. Crosby

With this simple missive, a deluge of angry calls and emails inundated Crosby Higgins LLP and the firm had to suddenly deal with a crisis of monumental proportions. Jones post contains an an interesting and insightful interview with Todd Higgins about how something like this can rapidly unfold and its results. Click here to for further information from a post on Salon.com which is also worth reading. This story shows how easy it is to become the target of a scam and to be thrust into a crisis with very little control over events.

Danger, Will Robinson, danger.