Law Firm Chooses Critical Path

Communications technology and messaging solutions provider, Critical Path Inc. , today announced it will provide international business law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer with a hosted email service to protects employees from unsolicited junk email and email-borne viruses.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s decision to opt for the hosted email service is part of the firm’s initiative to separate personal and corporate email and to protect the firm against security breaches and any legal complications brought about by personal messages.

Having piloted the service for two months, the firm selected Critical Path’s hosted email service in the second quarter of 2001, for employees at its headquarters in the UK. The service is now offered to over 2,000 employees across the law firm’s 29 worldwide offices as a result of its success in stopping spam and viruses.

Through Critical Path’s service, employees are given a personal email account that can be accessed from any Web browser or through Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Intranet. “The service is an important part of our security initiative,” says David Enders, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s communications manager. “Rather than limit all personal communication we selected Critical Path to provide personal accounts for our employees because it reduces our exposure to security threats while at the same time providing a valuable service to our employees,” he says.

According to David Hayden, Critical Path’s founder and executive chairman, corporate email accounts are being buried in spam and viruses, which he says interferes with the recipients’ productivity and strains corporate IT departments. “Critical Path hosted email solution provides both the safe and accurate delivery of legitimate email,” he says.

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in San Francisco, Critical Path has offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Companies including; eBay, E*TRADE, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Network Solutions, ViaCode Royal Mail, US West and France Telecom are among its international customers.