About Tal Rappleyea
As a municipal lawyer, Tal Rappleyea gets asked this question all the time: What is a municipality?
A municipality is actually just a technical term for a county or city. Although municipalities are mainly responsible for creating their laws, they hire municipal lawyers that are responsible for enforcing those laws. Tal Rappleyea covers the following municipal law issues to reflect the needs of area residents:
- Education policies, which governs the safety and standards of education in public schools, accommodating students with disabilities, and job security for teachers.
- Property taxes, which outlines how taxed income from residents can be used to benefit the community.
- Police power, which oversees how police officers monitor resident behavior.
- Zoning, which determines how land in the municipality is used.
Some municipal lawyers work internally for one municipality, while others practice law individually for multiple municipalities. Tal practices law individually in his own private practice and serves several counties in the Albany metro area in New York state.
Tal Rappleyea was admitted to the New York State Bar Association in January 1989. This chapter of the bar association is actually the largest voluntary state bar organization in the nation with a membership of more than 74,000 lawyers. Tal is proud to be a member, considering former presidents Grover Cleveland and Chester A. Arthur were members of the New York State chapter as well.
With nearly three decades of experience and a Juris Doctorate from Hamline State University, Tal Rappleyea has explored municipal law in several roles as an attorney, ranging from positions as Attorney for the Town and Attorney for the Village of several municipalities. Currently, Tal is a solo practitioner in his own Law Offices of Tal G. Rappleyea in Valatie, New York and lists municipal law as one of his main concentrations.
Tal is a supporter the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials (NYCOM), which is an organization that trains municipal officials and operates as a general support group for municipal officials in each state. He is also very active in his community, as he is a member of the Capital District Trial Lawyers Association and holds a position in the County Bar Association of New York State.
Although Tal Rappleyea maintains an active lifestyle by volunteering in his community and maintaining memberships in his field of practice, he still makes time for one of his pastimes, golf, by on the range.
- “Deal of the Year” Award from the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)
- Named one of the three new inductees to the Ethics Committee of REBNY
- Named to the Executive Board of New York Residential Specialists (NYRS).
Law Firms Need Greater Cyber Security
Law firms should consider a greater blanket of security when it comes to protecting its cyber information. Clients are realizing the increased need for their online information to be protected. Financial institutes are exploring the same area by answering questionnaires which assess companies’ security measures. For law firms, they may consider having an outsourced IT firm conduct an audit on their cybersecurity.
A main threat for these types of establishments are Black Hat Hackers. If the cyber security isn’t secure, these intruders could steal business secrets and personal client information. These details may even be used for their own financial benefit. There would also be nothing stopping a hacker from sharing the discovered information with other groups or businesses.
Some concerns of corporate security auditors include making sure that corporate emails are encrypted, data isn’t lost or carried away via flash drive, that documents aren’t shared to unsecure cellular devices, and that online intrusions don’t occur. If an auditing company does not feel confident about a legal firm’s online security measures, they may be prevented from taking on more work or required to purchase Cybersecurity insurance. A cybersecurity firm known as FireEye believes that 95% of all establishments are open to be attacked. This is due to a large number of legal firms that have not yet done a risk assessment for information and physical security.
Law enforcement is particularly interested in the online security of law firms. They urge law firms with offices outside of the United States to be especially aggressive with cybersecurity. The combination of law enforcement, corporate clients, and examples from the media may be enough to encourage law firms to take cyber security seriously. In 2013, Target experienced over 40 million credit and debit card accounts being compromised. The SEC is also pushing financial institutes and law firms to boost the security of sensitive information.
To learn more, visit HG online here.