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59 I L T A N E T . O R G Alongside these, firms will also want to develop and nurture a data culture, recruiting everybody in the firm onto the "data team" – so everyone is taking ownership and caring about data. Meanwhile the performance of policies needs to be enforced and monitored. And there will also be a need for continuous improvement, and for policies, processes, procedures and controls to be revisited and updated to reflect the changing needs of the firm and changes in the external environment, including advancements in technology and also changes to regulation. Chris Giles believes that on the whole it's a tougher journey for smaller firms, who don't necessarily have the bandwidth, or the skill sets on hand with which to tackle all the elements of IG. "I think the smaller firms will look to the big firms for a sort of template and thought leadership and to help them understand some of the challenges." He adds: "They may well know they have problems, but don't have the skills or the time to deal with it." Chris Hockey agrees. From what he's seen, his former firm was relatively mature in IG practice for a firm of its size. "I think larger law firms have been doing this for a longer time, and they have the resource behind it," he says, "but for everyone else these conversations are going to be very different depending on the size of firm. It also depends on who in the firm is bringing up IG between the firm management saying 'we need it' and the CIO. If it's the latter, it sometimes takes a bit of a sales pitch to convince the lawyers to get on board." Hockey says, "We made tremendous strides in just four years, but we were nowhere near where other firms are that have had an IG director for longer. It comes back to when did the firm realize that this was something it needed, and who brought it to the table initially." Thereafter it's about building the teamwork that makes the IG dream work: building cooperation and Chris Giles is CEO and Founder at LegalRM, which creates market-leading software, services and solutions for records, risk and compliance management and serves some of the world largest law firms as well as blue chip organizations from other industry sectors. 1. ISO 24143:2022 Information and documentation – Information Governance – Concept and principles To find out more watch our ILTA Masterclass, on demand, for a discussion on the critical role of community in developing an effective information governance program and discuss best practices for fostering cross- functional collaboration and communication, such as creating a shared understanding of information governance goals and priorities, establishing clear roles and responsibilities, and leveraging technology solutions to streamline processes and promote transparency. click here to register » ILTA Masterclass synergy between all the parts of the firm to ensure that IG is inclusive, comprehensive and consistent throughout, leading to a more efficient, effective and resilient law firm. ILTA Christopher L Hockey is a subject matter expert in information governance, information management, and records management, and provides consulting on these topics to firms, product vendors, and consulting groups.

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