Law Technology News - Sample Issue

RISK ASSOCIATED WITH LEGAL DOCUMENTS
Legal documents pose risks that have often forced IT staff to
say “no” to requests that might easily be accommodated in
other disciplines.

Collaboration The risks begin in the document drafting phase. This is often a collaborative process and keeping track of revisions and versions to ensure that all changes are incorporated and that the released version is indeed the final version, can be challenging; this is especially true when there are multiple collaborators and no automated change tracking method. According to a survey by ALM Legal Intelligence 2, as many as 98% of law firms and legal departments still share some documents, for collaboration purposes, with clients and outside counsel via email, while over 50% use a courier to send paper versions. These collaboration methods defy information governance best practices.

Mobility As collaborators have become more mobile, and the assumption of access has become anytime / anywhere, the risks have increased. Many of the mobile devices used by attorneys are part of their firms’ bring your own device (BYOD) programs. The 2012 ILTA/InsideLegal Survey found that 54% of responding firms allow employees to purchase their own tablets. 3 This mixture of devices can cause challenges for the IT personnel and can have an unplanned impact on IT budgets, as technology departments attempt to make documents available to a variety of collaboration tools on multiple platforms.

Security Law firms are the repositories of the large institutions’ most sensitive information. Protecting that information can be problematic when data is stored across multiple networks in various cities. Thad Jampol, C TO of IntApp, a Box partner, noted that, “Risks aren’t always initiated from outside the network and aren’t always the result of nefarious activity.” They can be caused by a summer associate or consultant who attaches a flash drive to a workstation and inadvertently introduces a virus or by an attorney who is making a move to another firm and takes work product along. Security is a moving target, and requires diligent monitoring and adjustments to preserve its efficacy.

Volumes The growing volumes of data on an organization’s
network cause issues for storage, management and risk
management. The idea that “storage is cheap” is advanced
by people who have little understanding that the cost
of data storage goes well beyond the price of the disk or
chip on which the data is housed. The hard costs - square
footage, electricity and maintenance are obvious. The
costs to support legacy systems or migrate data to newer
systems, to maintain parallel redundant systems and the
costs of potential risks associated with holding that data are
less obvious. If they are to address these issues and reduce
eDiscovery and data loss or misuse costs, corporations and
law firms must have effective document retention programs
that are meticulously executed. They must also have the
means to suspend that execution when circumstances
dictate a legal hold.

Email

98% 98%

Courier

58% 53%

Fax Extranet

25%

37% 22%

32%

Cloud Other

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% 11% 13% 13% 13%

Legal Depts
Law Firms

Document transfer methods

Document Management For data that is retained, the next step must be document management. Without an effective document management system (DMS), data can become siloed. Each attorney files documents where she wants, as she wants; there is no firm-wide or department-wide plan for the organization of, access to and reuse of knowledge assets. However, knowledge re-use is imperative if legal teams are to prosper in today’s economic environment.

“Clients are increasingly demanding that firms take proactive steps to secure their content, then auditing firms and taking business away if they don’t comply with corporate Information Governance requirements.” Thad Jampol, IntApp