Peer to Peer Magazine

PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 12 BEST PRACTICES • Fixed names, such as "Deposition" or "Correspondence" • Fixed names with user- defined prefixes, such as "Smith Deposition" • Fixed names with user- defined suffixes, such as "Correspondence 2012" Meaningful naming standards allow people to come off and on matters without wasting time trying to figure out where data are located. Make Email Management Easy. Firms should automate the day- to-day management of filing email from Microsoft Exchange to their document management systems. Users should be able to send and file email messages easily and have tools such as mapped folders in the mailbox or additional commands in the inbox to make filing received email messages simple. The biggest challenge is that many lawyers currently file their email in a manner that is client-centric rather than matter-centric. Incorporate Your Time and Billing System. Firms should integrate their time and billing system with their document management system (DMS) so that information is updated automatically. Time and billing details can be easily missed in the DMS once work on a matter begins. Give Users Easy Access to Documents Through File-Sharing. Sharing files and documents with clients and colleagues is a regular part of doing business for law firms. However, processes must be in place that enable professionals to share documents within the firm securely, without accidentally breaching security policies for ethical walls or confidential matters. CONFIDENTIALITY MANAGEMENT To satisfy regulatory and client requirements for confidentiality management, firms must have exclusion processes in place to prevent a user from accessing a matter or to keep all or part of a matter confidential. Making information confidential can have a serious impact on operational workflows; asking someone to take on a single task in a matter (checking citations in a brief, editing a document, etc.) becomes more complex. Software can be deployed to maintain the required ethical walls for lateral hires and regulatory requirements while giving users the ability to make self-service requests for access to matters and documents. Most software in this category also allows you to authorize matter owners and their designees, such as the service desk, to grant or deny access on a need-to-know basis. Two basic elements are critical to an enterprise-class confidentiality management solution: • The ability to set policy • Processes for gaining access to documents are streamlined When these elements are in place, you improve productivity by reducing dependency on IT for managing access to matters. Be sure to allow the risk management team to create policy types applicable in different scenarios and to define what systems are affected by these policies. In addition, provide user-friendly interfaces for granting, denying and requesting permissions for access. Automate the process with self-service, taking IT out of the mix while preventing users from violating policy. ADOPT FOR BETTER SECURITY As the pressure increases from both clients and regulators to secure content more effectively, so does the need for electronic file best practices and confidentiality management. Adopting an integrated approach to these interconnected processes will lead to better security. Security Tops "Biggest Issue" List for Second Year In ILTA's 2015 Technology Survey results, "security/risk management" topped the list again at 42%, up from 39% in 2014. Change was a big concern, making three of the top five issues recorded. Training made the list as well. All of these issues can be tied to the need for improved security practices. See the full list at www.iltanet.org/surveys. SECURITY/RISK MANAGEMENT 42% CHANGE: MANAGING EXPECTATIONS 33% CHANGE: USERS' ACCEPTANCE OF CHANGE 32% EMAIL MANAGEMENT 28% CHANGE: KEEPING UP WITH NEW VERSIONS OF SOFTWARE 22% MEETING NEEDS FOR AND/OR GETTING PARTICIPATION IN TRAINING 19%

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