Law firms make massive use of technology - anyone still
under the quill-pen illusion should prepare themselves to be
disillusioned.
Imagine the press a law firm that inadvertently leaked the
take-over details of one of its clients would attract. Not only
would the firm lose the client, but the firm's reputation would be
badly damaged.
Few transactions can take place today without access to
electronic communications - be that simple e-mail or more secure
methods of communication.
Transactions often cross geographic and time-zone boundaries,
increasing the need not only for electronic communication, but also
for a comprehensive audit trail and security model behind these
communications.
Technological challenges
IT teams working for legal firms face many challenges. Two of
the biggest are keeping services available at all times and
ensuring that the security model is not breached. This requires
locked-down policies and considerable control of the user
workplace.
The union between lawyers and the technical professional has to
be absolute. Trust must pass in both directions. The technology
team must be sure that lawyers are working within the security
model and the lawyers must understand why they should do so.
Lawyers supporting international transactions may work anywhere
- airport lounges, hotel rooms or clients' offices. The technology
has to work, and work first time. This puts huge pressure on
handheld devices, secure virtual private networks and controlled
community access sites.
Most firms maintain control of their communications and
mobile-working strategies. Co-sourcing arrangements and outsourcing
of gross infrastructure aside, the strategy behind communications
is almost always kept inside the firm.
The modern legal kitbag
Much is done to make the travelling lawyer's life easy -
handheld devices, unified communications and secure access to
know-how are all a part of the normal kitbag. It is a symbiotic
union - technology sitting behind and underpinning the way the
modern transaction works.
Within BLP, the technology team evaluates, with the guidance of
third parties, best-of-breed technologies. As a result of this, our
employees are well placed to understand the threats to the business
and the remediation required. Having well-informed, knowledgeable
staff on tap ensures an efficient and effective service offering to
lawyers and in turn to clients.
The outside view may be that banks and other financial
institutions need high levels of security - but so do legal firms.
The possibility of leaking a client's corporate strategy or
price-sensitive information could have severe repercussions.
Security is a high priority - and rightly so - in law firms. It
continues to be managed internally, even when the external
manifestation may involve committed third parties. For the legal
profession, the need to manage and maintain our data is clear: our
data is our business.
l Janet Day is IT director at Berwin Leighton Paisner