Burnaby-based legaltech Clio has appointed veteran security executive George Totev as Vice President of Security and Chief Information Security Officer.
In the newly created leadership role, Totev will oversee Clio’s global security, compliance, risk, and privacy functions as the company expands its AI capabilities and works with a growing volume of sensitive legal information.
The appointment comes as law firms and corporate legal departments increasingly adopt AI across research, drafting, document review, and other critical workflows. That shift introduces new questions around privileged information, data movement, regulatory compliance, and the governance of AI systems.
“Building security infrastructure for legal AI is fundamentally different from securing general-purpose systems,” said Jonathan Watson, Chief Technology Officer at Clio.
Totev brings more than two decades of experience building security and compliance programs in heavily regulated industries. His previous employers include Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, and Snowflake, where his work included security architecture, pre-IPO preparation, regulatory authorization, and the security integration of acquired companies.
Most recently, Totev served as CISO at AI security startup Trustero. He was responsible for AI security operations, compliance automation, enterprise risk management, privacy, and IT infrastructure.
His experience also spans zero-trust architecture, threat modelling, incident response, vulnerability management, application security, and compliance frameworks including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR.
At Clio, Totev will oversee areas including security governance, risk assessment, compliance audits, and vendor security management. His mandate will include developing controls and compliance frameworks that can scale alongside Clio’s AI products while meeting the requirements of regulated legal environments.
Totev said Clio’s expansion into AI at scale will require the company to adapt its security posture to new threat models, manage how information flows through AI systems, and address areas where established legal technology compliance frameworks may not yet exist.
His appointment reflects the growing importance of security leadership as legal AI moves from experimentation into everyday professional work. Clio says its platform is now used by more than 400,000 legal professionals across over 130 countries, making the secure handling of client and matter data an increasingly central part of its growth strategy.