Fraud-Proofing the Closing Office: Prevention Procedures and the First Hours After the Wire

Herbert J. Stapleton III, Partner | Dinsmore & Shohl LLP

Herbert J. Stapleton, III is a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP in Cincinnati, where his practice covers proactive cybersecurity and data breach management, incident response, privacy and data protection, government investigations, and white collar defense. He came to private practice after more than twenty years in federal law enforcement and cyber operations, most recently as Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office. He has helped victims work through some of the most significant cyber breaches in the United States, and his firm’s cybersecurity team recovered nearly $300,000 for a nonprofit client following an email fraud incident.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Stapleton earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2000 and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Religion from Centre College in 1997. In 2020 he completed a Chief Information Security Officer certificate at Carnegie Mellon University. He is admitted to practice in West Virginia and Ohio.

• Recognition & Leadership

He is a NetDiligence Authorized Breach Coach and holds the GIAC Information Security Professional (GISP) designation. Before joining Dinsmore he led the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office as Special Agent in Charge, and previously held several senior leadership positions at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., where his responsibilities included oversight of national programs directed at cyber threats and management of multidisciplinary teams handling the country’s most sensitive and high-profile investigations.

• Professional Involvement

His recent publications include a January 2026 analysis of a new countermeasure used by the cyber threat actor group Nitrogen in ransom negotiations, an August 2025 piece on making a business cyber secure, and a July 2025 discussion of recent OCR settlements and the need for thorough HIPAA risk analysis. He has spoken on cyber risk at the 2023 RSA Conference and at the 2021 Merchant Risk Council Annual Conference.

• Experience

Across his FBI career he directed high-impact investigations spanning cybercrime, national security, and public corruption, and his operational understanding of threat actors ranges from hostile nation-states to sophisticated criminal enterprises. That work now supports client guidance on cybersecurity strategy, data privacy compliance, and critical incident response. He began his legal career at Huddleston Bolen LLP, one of the oldest law firms in Huntington, West Virginia, which merged with Dinsmore in 2015.

Jonathan W. Biggs, VP & Director of Risk Management & Education | Investors Title

Jonathan W. Biggs is Vice President and Director of Risk Management and Education at Investors Title, where he oversees risk management functions related to the company’s approved provider system. With more than 20 years of prior experience practicing residential and commercial real estate law, Jonathan brings a practical understanding of the legal and risk-management issues that arise in real estate transactions and ownership structures.

In his current role, Jonathan manages the provider approval process and develops educational seminars and communications initiatives for Investors Title’s approved providers and agents. He also oversees provider data and analysis that supports the company’s risk management efforts, giving him a broad perspective on identifying, evaluating, and communicating legal and operational risks within the real estate industry.

• Education & Credentials

Jonathan earned his bachelor’s degree from Duke University and his Juris Doctor from Wake Forest University School of Law.

• Recognition & Leadership

Jonathan serves as Vice President and Director of Risk Management and Education at Investors Title and is part of the company’s management team. His responsibilities include overseeing the approval process for the company’s approved providers and supporting the organization’s broader risk management initiatives.

• Professional Involvement

Jonathan develops and delivers educational programs and communications for Investors Title’s approved providers and agents. His work focuses on providing real estate professionals with practical information relevant to legal, transactional, and risk-management considerations.

• Experience

Before joining Investors Title in 2012, Jonathan was a partner at a Durham, North Carolina law firm, where he practiced residential and commercial real estate law for more than 20 years. His legal background provides substantial experience with the transactional and legal issues affecting real estate owners, buyers, sellers, and other industry participants.

At Investors Title, Jonathan has expanded that experience into a broader risk-management and education role, overseeing provider data and analysis, provider approval, and educational initiatives. His combination of extensive real estate practice and current responsibility for risk management and professional education makes him well suited to address the practical considerations attorneys should evaluate when advising clients on new real estate ownership and liability structures, including the documentation, operational safeguards, and risk-management practices necessary to support the intended structure.

SESSION 1 – Building the Fraud-Resistant Closing Workflow from Intake to Disbursement | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session builds a procedural framework for closing attorneys and title professionals to prevent wire fraud from the moment a file is opened through final disbursement. Attorneys will learn how to implement intake-stage identity verification, callback protocols, communication security controls, and disbursement safeguards aligned with ALTA Best Practices 4.2 (August 2025). Attendees leave with specific, practice-ready procedures — not general awareness — that address both traditional BEC attacks and AI-assisted impersonation schemes.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – When the Wire Fraud Happens: Incident Response, Investigation, and Fund Recovery | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session takes attorneys from the moment a fraudulent wire is discovered through the critical first hours of response and recovery. Drawing on extensive FBI cybercrime and incident-response experience, the session will examine how business email compromise schemes unfold, how to distinguish and investigate a compromised communication, and what attorneys should do immediately to preserve evidence, engage financial institutions and law enforcement, and pursue recovery of transferred funds. Attendees will learn how to structure a coordinated response, avoid common delays that can jeopardize recovery, and navigate the legal and investigative considerations that arise after a closing-office fraud.