Peer to Peer Magazine

8 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SPRING 2018 BEST PRACTICES Meaningful IG: How to Implement Practical Solutions that Achieve Policy Goals Meaningful IG: How to Implement Practical Solutions that Achieve Policy Goals Incorporating complex local, regional and federal regulations along with accepted industry best practices pushed even reluctant organizations to initiate IG programs. Law firms were not among the early adopters of IG, but firms are realizing the need to make it a priority. Progressive firms are leading the way, some are being dragged along and the majority are somewhere in the middle. While most law firms have developed formal IG programs, achieving consistent follow-through and adherence to their policies remains elusive for many. The true value of an IG policy comes from compliance, and the cost of failing can be significant. Despite knowing this, firms continue to neglect execution of protocols and their retention and disposition policies. IT departments and their leaders play an important role in their firms' IG compliance. In addition to achieving measurable cost reduction, legal IT professionals can mitigate risk by implementing modern approaches that help automate IG compliance. Best Intentions Law firms begin their IG initiatives with noble objectives. They willingly invest time, effort and hard dollars enlisting qualified experts to advise them and provide guidance on craing policies. Consultants identify physical and electronic information that requires inclusion, distinguishing among firm documents, case work product and client product, and developing policies that address each. Some requirements for retention and destruction are established by state or federal regulations while internal documents such as financial records, employee files and even some sales and marketing materials have their own retention requirements that must be factored into IG policies. Teams of stakeholders and users work together to establish goals and come to agreement around policy details such as retention schedules. These could be based on any number of things, for instance document creation date, end of maer date, end of maer plus a certain number of years or employee term date plus a certain number of years. Life cycle content management, which factors in an event plus a specified number of years, may be more difficult to implement but is certainly doable with the right systems in place. Security issues are also a significant consideration in IG, and today information security is at the forefront of IT systems. In addition to measures such as firewalls and virus protectors, systems have access security built in to ensure that only those with appropriate credentials can reach records. Information governance (IG) is not a new concept. Corporations began looking beyond their basic records management policies years ago as they recognized the need for broader institutional direction to govern the ever-growing volume of both physical records and electronic documents. by Darrell Mervau

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