Since 2008, legal teams have been forced to produce more
with fewer people, as staff numbers have been cut and
performance requirements have risen. At the same time,
clients are demanding transparency which requires better
communication and collaboration tools. And, in order to
retain clients, many attorneys are providing additional value
for clients by delivering relevant information via secure client
portals. With leaner IT departments, these new offerings can
be difficult to deploy and maintain.
THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
A cloud content and collaboration platform that will be
adopted by the legal industry must address all of the risks
and needs we have discussed above and must be able to
adjust as new risks and needs arise.
“Our Utilities Legislative Law Section
handles large projects and we use Box to
collaborate and eliminate version control
issues caused by email distribution.
Twenty people can touch a document,
one at a time. This gives us tight control
of chain-of-custody.” Dennis W. Donely
Jr., Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee
Secure Box, Inc. has developed a secure platform for the
content storage and collaboration tasks that attorneys face
daily. This platform is protected by security technology and
protocols designed to keep data safe and private. Its network
is constantly monitored and undergoes frequent threat
assessments; and all data is encrypted, not only in transit, but
also during storage.
Collaborate anywhere, anytime Aaron Silverstein, Partner,
Saunders & Silverstein LLP, explained that his three-person
law firm moved to the cloud to expedite collaboration. His
trademark practice must share large files and lots of data
with clients quickly and seamlessly. Granular permissions
on folders or documents give administrators and users
the ability to manage data access from both inside and
outside the firm. Box provides reporting capabilities and
comprehensive audit trails for nearly every action or activity
that occurs within Box, so those client audits become a
routine activity that is easily executed. The process must be
easy, or it will not work for either the firm or its clients.
The Box content collaboration platform is designed to
provide interoperability between multiple applications.
Box has focused on providing the cloud infrastructure with
connectors between applications and has invited software
developers to make their tools available on the Box platform
via open APIs. Third-party mobile device management tools
are an example. They provide attorneys access to critical
content anywhere, anytime; and that content is synced
across all their devices.
Information Governance One of Box’s key legal partners,
IntApp provides security and information governance
compliance software. Jampol of IntApp explains the
relationship clearly, “Box provides a next generation
disruptive user experience that makes lawyers want to use
it, and IntApp makes it OK for IT and Risk departments to
allow it. They know that IntApp will help make sure that the
firm’s Information Governance obligations are addressed
in Box.” Dennis W. Donely Jr. of Naman, Howell, Smith &
Lee understand the benefits provided by this attention
to Information Governance, “Our Utilities Legislative Law
Section handles large projects and we use Box to collaborate
and eliminate version control issues caused by email
distribution. Twenty people can touch a document, one at a
time. This gives us tight control of chain-of-custody.”
By collaborating with 3rd party application partners, Box
allows firms to continue using their familiar tools, like
Clio, while moving the associated content into the cloud,
where it can be accessed securely on just about any device
– Blackberry to iPad. Attorneys can also easily integrate
productivity apps like Notability and iAnotate to capture and
save information in a single secure folder on Box.
Maturity Box is a mature and secure cloud-based content
collaboration platform that provides law firms, large and
small, the freedom to manage strategy, not servers.
Discover why over 150,000 companies – including 92% of
Fortune 500 rely on Box to access, share and manage critical
content. Download the legal toolkit at www.box.com/law-firms.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nitin Gupta | www.box.com
Nitin Gupta is a Director of Industry Marketing at Box, and is leading its
professional services vertical. Prior to Box, Nitin was the founder of LawPivot,
the largest online marketplace for consumers and businesses to connect
with lawyers. LawPivot, which was recently acquired, was funded by Google
Ventures and has been featured in many industry leading publications
including Law.com, ABA Journal, and Daily Journal. Prior to LawPivot,
Nitin practiced law as an intellectual property lawyer at Townsend and
Townsend, a top national intellectual property law firm. Nitin has authored
many articles on legal technology related matters in leading publications
and is a frequent panelist on emerging legal technologies.
