Peer to Peer Magazine

P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | F A L L 2 0 1 8 25 D ocuments are the lifeblood of the legal profession, and there's no getting away from the fact that creating these legal documents is a collaborative process. This collaborative input may simply involve checking a document for spelling, grammar and typos. More often, there are several co-authors, each with different subject specializations and each responsible for writing different sections of the document. It's not uncommon for a document to require input from many - even dozens - of individuals. This can make the document co-authoring process complex, and is why it has developed a reputation as an unwelcome drain on time, ener and resources. There is also growing concern in the legal profession over data security. Sharing data has always been an intrinsically risky business. Even back in the old days of Rolodexes and fax machines, hard copies of documents could get intercepted in the mail or from someone's desk. Email and other new forms of online sharing bring additional risks from hackers and other cyber criminals. And law firms really do make a delectable target for hackers. After all, law firms - by the very nature of their work - gather, store and use highly sensitive client information. They also tend to keep this valuable information in a more concentrated and succinct form than the client firm itself stores its data. Furthermore, data security is not naturally part of a law firm's expertise and it's data security procedures tend to be added on in a haphazard manner. This means law firm's data security tends to be woefully inferior to that of the corporations it represents. Add this all together, and you will see that it is not only easier for a cyber-criminal to access a law firm's computer system than that of its client, but the hacker is rewarded for its efforts with a concentrated, highly valuable bundle of data that it can then go on to exploit or resell. Many law firms operate under an unrealistically optimistic belief that they don't need to put rigorous data security procedures in place because a cyber attack will never happen to their firm. This false optimism is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. According to a recent PriceWaterhouse Coopers risk survey, the majority of law firms have reported that they suffered some form of online security incident in the past year. The American Bar Association (ABA) states that about 22 percent of US law firms experienced a security breach in 2016 . Similarly, in the UK, twenty percent of London law firms were hacked last year. As the ABA makes clear on its web site , 'It's when, not if' a law firm will suffer a breach. Traditional ways of co-authoring documents So how can law firms co-author legal documents online without opening themselves up to the threat of a data security breach? Traditionally, law firms have collaborated on documents by email, or by meeting to discuss the document. Most legal professionals still feel most comfortable batting drafts back and forth by email. After all, almost everyone has Word on their computer, and there's no limit on number to collaborators you can send an email to. Emails can also be sent out to everyone at the same time. How To Be a Winner In The Document Co-Authoring Arena C A S E S T U D I E S B Y A N G U S B R A D L E Y Most legal professionals still feel most comfortable batting drafts back and forth by email.

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