Peer to Peer Magazine

www.iltanet.org 62 Peer to Peer who came to our firm with the lateral attorneys returned to rescue the onsite files. This certainly is not a recommended best practice, but desperation demands innovation. Since we only had two days to pack 1,600 boxes, we did not have the luxury of validating the client authorizations for each file packed. Knowing that this haste would no doubt result in the capture of files that did not belong to our firm, we established stringent procedures and followed them with rigor: Each time we retrieved a file from a box, we did not look • on the file tab at the client name, only the other firm's client and matter numbers; and then we searched for them on our authorized transfer list. if the numbers were in the scope of the transfer • authorization, we processed the file. if they were not, we would immediately sequester the • file from the other content and attempt to locate the authorization. if that failed, we shipped it back to the other firm. On the day after we took custody of the 1,600 boxes, we had a few things in our toolkit: a spreadsheet that contained the client and matter names that had cleared conflicts, a stack of client authorizations, a legal secretary and a few contacts at the other firm. Let's look at how we used these tools to complete an ethical transfer. The most valuable tool was the spreadsheet. It was the instrument through which we integrated all content, both physical and electronic. The weekend before the actual transfer, we used it to populate metadata in all our systems for timekeeping, billing, document management and records management. This enabled the attorneys to bill time on day one. At first it contained the conflict report's approved list of clients and matters. As we worked through the process, though, we adapted the columns to manage the entire process. These columns were essential: Responsible attorney • client name • Matter name • Prior firm • 's client and matter numbers our firm • 's client and matter numbers confirmation of client authorization • confirmation of engagement letter • confirmation of inventory from the prior firm • type of inventory (paper or electronic) • With the spreadsheet and the stack of client authorizations, the legal secretaries' first task was to match each client and matter on the spreadsheet with an accompanying client authorization. If the authorization could not be found, we did not process the files. We asked the responsible attorneys for a copy of the authorization, and, if they did not have it, we reached out to the records department at the other firm. As we verified batches of the authorizations, we contacted the one person who remained in IT at the dissolving firm and imported all the electronic documents for the authorized clients and matters directly to our DMS. E-mail is always the sticky issue, as it is often unstructured from a client and matter perspective. In our case, we confined the e-mail to local .pst files, not putting them into Exchange. We then instructed the attorneys to retrieve only what was needed for client communications. ethical walls Mean Business Across the Pond A s George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." Indeed, in the case of implementing ethical walls, or "information barriers" as they are called, law firms in the U.K. have different challenges than their American counterparts. Both have multi-jurisdictional challenges to face, whether they are fundamental differences between each U.S. state, or the U.K.'s need for compliance with European Union (E.U.) standards, regulations and laws. However, at a philosophical level, there are fundamental differences in the approach to data protection on each side of the pond. While the E.U. Data Protection Directive is just that –– very directive –– the U.S. lies at the other extreme, taking a more de-centralized approach, enacting local legislation and regulation as it is needed. For example, U.S. firms typically cannot take on new business if they already represent a competitor. This holds true regardless of their willingness to implement ethical walls. Also, since the "wall-friendliness" of each state varies in its leniency, American firms often walk on eggshells when they are presented with prospective new business opportunities in order to stay compliant with differing state regulations. by Yuri Frayman

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