Can IG ments lead to a new source of law firm revenue? Find out at #ARMA04 by Carolyn Casey

As law firms come under increasing pressure in a fiercely competitive market and clients demand fixed-fee contracts, many are turning to information governance to mitigate risk, reduce costs, increase efficiency and tap into a new source of revenue by leveraging existing relationships and experience.

Leigh Isaacs, director of records and information governance for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, will present a session at this year's ARMA Live! conference, titled IG Assessment for Law Firms along with Martin Tuip, executive director of information governance products at ARMA International. In a recent conversation I had with Leigh, who is also on my Law Firm Information Governance Symposium Steering Committee and a great friend and colleague, she shared some insight into what attendees can expect from her upcoming presentation later this week. This is double fun for me as Martin and I worked closely together at Iron Mountain Digital a few years ago, touring the country doing email archiving and eDiscovery training.

Now, let's get a sneak peak at what Leigh and Martin will share with the ARMA community at the conference next week.

Organizations are Already Doing Information Governance

Leigh believes law firms are likely already doing some form of information governance if they have a law firm records management program in place. Records management is one of the core elements of information governance, and for some organizations, this realization can help them build on top of their existing efforts rather than needlessly starting from scratch.

The results of an assessment tool can be a call to action for an organization, helping them to identify the areas of information governance that can be leveraged with minimal effort to achieve some early wins. Unfortunately, according to Isaacs, some organizations' assessment tools can be costly, creating a need to justify the investment.

Justifying an Information Governance Assessment

Leigh suggests that numbers speak. While it may be different for each organization, qualifying any type of return on investment (ROI) is a no-brainer. If an organization has lots of legacy papers and offsite storage, there might be a strong opportunity to demonstrate ROI for getting an information governance program in place. For some organizations that are highly litigious, the rationale might stem from reducing exposure to risk. And for organizations that hold highly sensitive information, there are heightened security concerns that should be brought to the table.

In order to justify the need for an information governance assessment, one needs to have an understanding of an organization's culture, structure and goals to make the right argument and support the proper rationale.

Making the Business Case

Making the business case must include an emphasis on doing the analysis up front to avoid potential pitfalls later as new issues are uncovered, clearly justifying the expense. Is an assessment free? No; but what is it going to do for the organization? How will the investment cost be recouped? Can the tool help support IG efforts for clients and possibly build a business line to generate additional revenue for the firm? Information governance for law firms is vital in order to map out where the firm wants to go. An information governance assessment will give an organization some idea of what its strengths and weaknesses are and should be completed at the outset so the message is properly articulated and an overall plan is formed.

You can hear Leigh and Martin present IG Assessment for Law Firms from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26, at ARMA Live!.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/service-lines/records-management-an...
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