Peer to Peer Magazine

Risk Management Keeps Evolving. Is Your Firm Ready for the Next Threat? 42 C yber Threats, Malware, Ransomware, Viruses, Human Error. The list of threats facing law firms and the legal IT professionals who manage risk is daunting. It seems that for every technological tool that makes law firm operations more efficient, there are new threats to be addressed. Underlying this all is the persistent threat of malpractice. It can seem overwhelming, but legal IT professionals are up to the challenge. In what has become an annual tradition, American LegalNet conducted its fourth Risk Management Survey at ILTACON 2018. We asked a host of questions covering risk management and technolo to get to the bottom of how prepared they and their firms are to address risk today. Responses to the 2018 Survey As might be expected, the respondents were heavily IT-focused. In fact, 61% of those polled were directly involved in IT management at their firms (CIO, Director, or Manager). An additional 6% were System Analysts/DBAs, adding up to 67% IT professionals. At the job title level, the biggest increase was in the Director-IT classification, which increased from 22% of the total to 38% of respondents in 2018. "Other" job titles outside of IT were also represented, and nearly a quarter of the respondents chose this category. Law firms of all sizes were represented, but the largest share of the respondents came from firms with 500+ attorneys (26%) slightly smaller than the 29% seen in the 2017 survey. The next biggest category was in the 101-250 segment, which accounted for 23% of the total. The largest increases came in the 101-250 (23% up from 19% in 2017) and the 251-500 (17% up from 12% in 2017) segments. These midsize firms totaled 40% of respondents this year. Still, smaller firms were well-represented (50 attorneys and below). This segment accounted for 21% of the total, unchanged from last year. Risk Management Responsibility in the Firm Managing risk requires clear accountability. In a dramatic improvement from last year's survey, only 9% of respondents did not know I N S I G H T S F R O M T H E 2 0 1 8 A M E R I C A N L E G A L N E T R I S K M A N A G E M E N T S U R V E Y B Y E R E Z B U S TA N

• Cover