social communities. Baby boomers were raised on face- to-face contact, telephone calls, letters and postcards as the ways to build relationships. The X, Y and Z generations make “friends” online and maintain contact through IM, SMS, and Facebook. This is a profound shift. They will expect these tools to be part of their working environment when they enter the workplace, and they will expect to communicate with their legal-services provider using these tools. The merging and blurring of the multiple information channels in a business environment is inevitable — if it hasn’t happened already in your business and workplace, you’ll find your clients soon pushing you in that direction.
THE “CLIENT PRIVILEGE” BUBBLE But, if content becomes increasingly difficult to separate
and encapsulate, if it comes in multiple formats, if it can be stored in the cloud and the perimeter of your “corporate network” is increasingly blurred, how do you manage all your business information? The fiduciary requirement of
client privilege demands that we control data and keep it within the invisible borders of the law firm’s client privilege bubble. Although we can deploy certain technical strategies to contain information within our security perimeter (e.g., using virtualized information technology to provide remote access on desktop, PDA, iPad), we also need to modernize our business communication applications to be more aligned with consumer-focused social networking tools. The IT leader of today and the future is moving well beyond the data center, diving deep into the think tank. Come on in, the water’s fine. ILTA
Peter Westerveld heads up the Technology, Know How and Project Services teams at Australasian law firm Minter Ellison. Minter Ellison’s work on the development of technology platforms was acknowledged when the firm won the Innovative Use of Technology Award at the 2009 ALB Australasian Law Awards. Peter can be reached at peter. westerveld@minterellison.com.
Peer to Peer
the quarterly magazine of ILTA
19
