BOSTON- LawFuel.com – Best Law Firm Newswire –July 29, 2013–
Law firm information managers now have a blueprint written by their peers to create policies and processes for securing information and making it available to clients and lawyers alike. Written by information management professionals from top U.S. law firms, two new reports — “Building Law Firm Information Governance: Prime Your Processes” and “Emerging Trends in Law Firm Information Governance” — focus on how their industry manages, secures and accesses client and firm information.
Published by Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), the reports are products of a three-day symposium held in March. They deliver practical advice on making information governance a stronger part of day-to-day law firm operations and provide valuable insight into three key trends affecting governance at law firms: Big Data, the 24/7 law firm and predictive coding. The reports are now available at programs.ironmountain.com/forms/LawFirmIGSymposiumReport (registration required).
The reports focus on three main areas:
— Building IG: The Information Governance Advisory Board. This first
section of the “Building Law Firm Information Governance” report
recommends steps for creating an advisory board of operational, executive
and practice-level leaders who develop information governance principles
and educate the firm on their benefits.
— How to Build Information Governance into Key Processes. The second
section of the “Building Law Firm Information Governance” report examines
14 everyday processes key to achieving governance, providing definitions,
advice and real-world examples for weaving information governance into a
firm’s daily operations.
— Emerging Trends in Law Firm Information Governance. This report
identifies three of the biggest trends impacting information management
in law firms today — Big Data, the 24/7 law firm and predictive coding
on processes beyond eDiscovery.
“In the legal environment, information governance is becoming more of a requirement than an option, especially as more clients want to know how their information is being protected,” said Brianne Aul, senior manager, Firmwide Records, Reed Smith LLP and a member of the symposium steering committee. “Clients have very valid expectations that their outside counsel will have policies and protocols for keeping information secure, whether the information is in paper or electronic. That said, those policies and protocols become even more critical as attorneys and clients become increasingly mobile. Our hope is that this report will provide firms a guide for building those policies and processes to make sure information can be readily available while staying secure, a key hallmark of information governance.”
Why Information Governance?
Information governance has emerged as a major focus in law firms, with clients increasingly demanding higher standards for how their law firms secure their information and manage access to it. And they’re auditing them to ensure firms measure up to regulatory and security requirements. Additionally, law firms view information governance as a path to gain operational efficiencies and control their information management costs, while mitigating the risks of security breaches and non-compliance.
A Steering Committee of information governance thought leaders from Reed Smith LLP; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Morrison & Foerster LLP; Morgan, Lewis Bockius LLP; and Greenheart Consulting Partners LLC collaborated with Iron Mountain to plan the symposium and led participants in work groups examining topics across information governance. These work groups then synthesized those discussions into the reports.
“We wanted to give law firms a practical blueprint for incorporating information governance into their day-to-day world,” said Carolyn Casey, Esq., senior manager, legal vertical for Iron Mountain. “Last year’s report defined information governance; this year’s makes it actionable. We’re hopeful this report will provide law firm information managers with strategies and tools to bring information governance into their everyday operations, building out their processes and being prepared for what comes next.”
Copies of the Law Firm Information Governance reports are available at programs.ironmountain.com/forms/LawFirmIGSymposiumReport (registration required), accompanied by videos from the steering committee discussing the three-day symposium and why information governance is important for law firms now. And to learn more about Iron Mountain’s solutions for Law Firms, visit www.ironmountain.com/Solutions/Law-Firms.aspx.
About Iron Mountain Incorporated
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a leading provider of storage and information management services. The company’s real estate network of over 64 million square feet across more than 1,000 facilities in 35 countries allows it to serve customers with speed and accuracy. And its solutions for records management, data backup and recovery, document management, and secure shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information for business advantage. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of information assets, including business documents, backup tapes, electronic files and medical data. Visit www.ironmountain.com for more information.
