ILTA Awards

Finalist / T R A N S F O R M A T I V E P R O J E C T O F T H E Y E A R B Steptoe & Johnson PLLC etween January and September 2024, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC undertook a comprehensive cloud transformation, migrating 90% of its on-premises infrastructure to a fully cloud-based model. This initiative supported the firm's rapid growth, enabling office expansion with minimal IT setup while enhancing security, compliance, and operational resilience. A pivotal aspect of this project involved moving the firm's VPN entry point to Azure, allowing attorneys and staff to access systems from anywhere securely, ensuring business continuity even during office disruptions. The transformation achieved several significant milestones. Azure became the firm's VPN entry point, eliminating reliance on physical offices. The firm migrated 144TB of SMB data to the cloud and saved $400K a n n u a l l y i n h a r d w a r e m a i n t e n a n c e costs. On-premises infrastructure was retired, including 71 virtual servers, 27 physical servers, 16 hypervisors, and seven storage arrays. Core legal applications like Intapp Time, Citrix, and viDesktop transitioned to SaaS, and the firm strengthened its security posture with Fortinet, CrowdStrike, and Azure. Steptoe & Johnson maintained 24/7 business continuity throughout the migration with zero downtime. This project fundamentally changed Steptoe & Johnson's IT operations, proving that a large, multi-office law firm can fully transition to a cloud- only environment while maintaining uninterrupted legal services. The firm demonstrated industry leadership by becoming one of the few Am Law 200 firms to fully migrate an existing large technology footprint to a 100% cloud environment. Operational efficiency and cost savings were realized by decommissioning servers and saving over $600K annually on hardware maintenance and licensing. The SaaS transition for core legal applications ensured scalability and business continuity, allowing attorneys and staff to operate without reliance on any specific office location. Steptoe & Johnson's dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion is underscored by its Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certification and active participation in managing partner conferences. Its commitment to ethics and professionalism is evident in its work with AI and creating an ethics committee. Firm members actively participate in industry events, share knowledge, and collaborate with peers throughout the legal sector. Project Scope & Technical Impact 144 TB of SMB (files server) Data Migrated 71 On-Prem Virtual Servers → 19 Migrated, 52 Decommissioned 27 Physical HP Servers Shut Down 16 HP Hypervisors Decommissioned 7 EMC Storage Arrays Retired Users Impacted: 800 total users, 350 attorneys across 18 offices Zero Downtime: 24/7 business continuity ensured Estimated Project Budget: $500K Fund the cost of the project in real-time using savings during the year PROJECT From On-Prem to 100% Cloud Firm-wide cloud transformation: 90% on-prem to 100% cloud-based ILTA AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE 2025 6 5

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