Clio Appoints George Totev to Vice President, Security and Chief Information Security Officer

Leading security executive from Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, and Snowflake appointed to strengthen Clio’s security posture as legal professionals adopt AI at scale

Clio, the global leader in legal AI, today announced the appointment of George Totev as Vice President, Security and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Totev will lead Clio’s global security, compliance, risk, and privacy functions as legal professionals bring more of their most sensitive work into AI-powered tools.

Totev brings more than 20 years of experience building and scaling security and compliance functions across heavily regulated industries. At Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, and Snowflake, he designed and implemented security architectures supporting billions of transactions, managed FedRAMP and Department of Defense authorization processes, led pre-IPO security readiness programs, and oversaw security integration during large-scale M&A transactions.

Most recently, Totev served as CISO at Trustero, where he managed AI security operations, compliance automation, enterprise risk management, IT infrastructure, and privacy programs. His background spans zero-trust architecture, threat modeling, vulnerability management, incident response, security engineering, application security code review programs, and compliance frameworks including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR.

Security and trust have been foundational to Clio since its earliest days, and the company’s investment has deepened as legal organizations adopt AI across their most critical workflows. Totev’s appointment reinforces that commitment, bringing seasoned leadership to a program built to meet the expectations of the world’s most demanding legal and regulatory environments and to scale with the company’s continued growth.

“Building security infrastructure for legal AI is fundamentally different from securing general-purpose systems,” said Jonathan Watson, Chief Technology Officer at Clio. “You need architects who understand both enterprise compliance at scale and the specific risks of AI handling privileged information. George has spent his career designing security programs that move fast through regulated environments without sacrificing rigor.”

Totev joins Clio from Trustero, an AI security startup, where he served as CISO and oversaw security, compliance, risk, IT, and privacy. Over more than 20 years, he has built and led security, application security (AppSec), and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) functions at global enterprises including Goldman Sachs, Visa, Atlassian, and Snowflake. His experience spans FedRAMP and U.S. Department of Defense authorization, IPO readiness, and mergers and acquisitions — a combination of regulatory depth rarely found in a single security leader.

“Clio has built something remarkable: a platform that’s earned trust across 400,000+ legal professionals while navigating continuous waves of innovation and regulation in more than 130+ countries,” said Totev. “Now we’re moving into AI at massive scale, which means rearchitecting our security posture for new threat models, managing data flows through AI systems, and building compliance frameworks that don’t exist yet in legal tech. I’m focused on establishing the security and governance framework that allows us to move deeper into this space while reducing risk. The foundation Clio has built makes this possible. We’re not starting from scratch,  we’re scaling from a position of strength.”

Totev will oversee security governance, risk assessment, compliance auditing, and vendor security management across Clio’s platform and infrastructure. His focus will be on building security controls and compliance frameworks that scale with Clio’s AI capabilities while maintaining the standards required in regulated legal environments. For 

To learn more about Clio’s industry-leading security program, visit clio.com/security.