At the recent fabulous annual Thomson Reuters Law Firm COO & CFO Forum for Big Law we held a roundtable discussion on aligning law firm records and information management with firm strategic operational objectives. The Chief Administrative Officers, Chief Financial Officers and Chief Operating Officers in attendance were very interested in chatting about organizational strategies for information lifecycle management and new economic and functional models for the records group.Accelerating the Foundation
We see firms accelerating refreshes of RIM policies and retention schedules like never before, along with documenting the workflows to implement them. The roundtable group agreed the risks of data breaches and storage costs (to some degree) were resurfacing the need for a rock solid RIM policy and retention schedule. Managing the lifecycle of information with a retention schedule is the foundation for this house. You'll want a strong, documented basis for cleaning out the clutter of files that have met the regulatory and lawyer professional conduct requirements. And you will want to automate as much of this process as possible, including considering the use of predictive coding.
Clinging to the Past?
We find that many firms have kept client files long past retention requirements. The group talked about how lawyers are taught to look backwards to precedent to solve current problems. And while this methodology is extremely important to the practice of law, it doesn't have to mean you keep everything from the dawn of the firm. The freshness and relevance of information has a shelf life - laws and client facts change. And after appeals process, statute of limitations and other concerns have been met it really is okay to destroy client files with a documented process. Chances are your clients have already destroyed the files you are clinging to under their retention schedule. They may not be happy to know your continued retention puts them at risk for producing those documents in litigation or investigations. Not to mention the increasing risk of private information being compromised the longer it hangs around. And who wants ROT (redundant, outdated and trivial information) clogging up the pipes? ROT gets in the way of lawyers quickly finding that prior document that just might unlock an insight for their hot new case or transaction.
Shrinking the File Room
Several firms in the roundtable agreed they had recently curtailed their onsite file room footprint to lower real estate costs. One firm talked about taking advantage of an office move to reassess how much space was really needed for files in the new building. One key strategy is limiting the number of file drawers attorneys get - we hear 10 drawers or less emerging as the new standard. Firms are also taking a hard look at their hard book library space and minimizing it as lawyers can find most of the content they need online. Online content subscriptions are the new library cards for firms going forward. Nowadays junior associates conduct research on their iPads rather than duck in and out of the long rows of book shelving in fancy downtown law offices.
RIM to IG Staff
The group also touched on the subject of re-engineering traditional records staff. Firms are adopting different approaches to evolving their staffing models. One firm in the group had outsourced the records staff functions to a service provider. We've seen this model taking on increasing popularity over the last few years firms seek to lower the costs of fully-loaded FTEs and to improve their lawyer-to-staff ratios. At the same time, some firms are retraining and rebranding records staff to lead electronic records management, compliance and destruction work flows and even internal legal hold processes, adding new hires with more technology and technical skills where needed. See A Profile of the Emerging Information Governance Professional for more information on the rise of this important new professional in law firms. The Law Firm Information Governance Symposium has also chartered a new Task Force to assess evolving RIM staffing roles and structures. The new task force is led by Beth Chiaiese, Director Professional Responsibility and Compliance at Foley and Lardner, LLP. Watch for the report that Iron Mountain will publish in Q3 2015.
Going Paper-lite Smart
Another popular topic was going paper-lite in a way that makes economic and practical sense in the law firm culture. All agreed their firms have senior partners who like working with paper, so a lot of paper remains in firm workflows today. While respecting and supporting the work habits of these leaders in the firm, we talked about strategies for stemming the amount of paper that is retained and used during matters. Scanning and scan capture technology have become part of the approach for going paper-lite in many firms. Some firms image documents at matter close, upon receipt of paper, or as lateral files come into a firm. Other firms plunge right in; eliminating onsite central file rooms to repurpose the area for billable hours. Those who want to move faster even move all of their active files offsite to our storage and imaging facility and have us scan active files. These projects are conducted with tight governance and security, and the documents are available to legal teams via hard copy delivery to office or image-on-demand if needed. Once done, the images can be ingested into the DMS using scan capture technology, making the files securely available to attorneys anytime, anywhere.
Paper-lite Keys
Write a plan for paper-to-digital transition
Be pragmatic with smart policy adoption best practices
Policy example - don't take client hard copy originals
Policy example - all engagement letters state the firms' retention policy and schedule. Tell them this ser
