A technology-based approach to future-proofing your legal department
Legal departments are always looking for ways to limit risk for their organizations. When a legal department itself is not prepared for changes in economic or regulatory circumstances, it could be courting real disaster. Members of the general counsel’s team who fail to implement effective compliance, collaboration, and case management technologies and procedures are insufficiently prepared to reduce organizational risk.
Compliance
GCs and their staff must stay abreast of applicable rules and regulations, as the risks associated with noncompliance are significant. Proper planning can mitigate the threat of statutory fines and legal sanctions, along with the resulting loss of shareholder value.
Advanced information governance, risk, and compliance technologies enable users to:
- Avoid hefty fines by ensuring compliance with the latest data protection regulations and other applicable data privacy laws;
- Mitigate data risk in the event of a breach; and
- Conduct early data assessment for litigation-based needs.
Collaboration
Data governance practices and policies affect teams across multiple disciplines within an organization. Each department should be involved in a collaborative planning process to evaluate and discuss enterprise-level solutions.
Secure file sharing and collaboration solutions:
- Expedite and ensure the safety of documents exchanged both internally and with third parties;
- Increase the speed of project completion through improved information retrieval; and
- Function more effectively than a standard document management system (DMS) in terms of search capability and smart workflow.
Case Management
The tracking of project-specific communications, assignments, and tasks provides for more efficient resource planning and increased quality control throughout the life cycle of a matter.
Powerful project and case management platforms:
- Optimize resources assigned in a matter or case, allowing users to commence new cases without needing to hire additional resources;
- Empower decision-makers to evaluate processes and devise strategy via real-time monitoring dashboards; and
- Enable hassle-free litigation hold management.
When properly employed, compliance, collaboration, and case management technologies can do wonders to increase productivity, efficiency, and turnaround time. Regardless of the economic climate, legal professionals must also always be prepared to help the organizations they work for or represent as counsel, mitigate risk.
With some financial experts warning of a looming recession, it is critical for organizations to seek the most cost-effective, efficient, and readily customizable solutions that integrate with currently existing technologies. Legal obligations will continue to apply to corporate organizations, regardless of whether the economy is weak or strong. Therefore, organizations must strive to ensure they have the proper level of resources devoted to their legal teams.
The increased importance of managing risk as a legal professional will continue to rise in the future, as new forms of technology and communication platforms create new threats. People, process, and technology all must work in concert to maintain the health of any organization. It is vital that corporate organizations and outside counsel firms take steps to address these concerns and outline strategies that will assure they have the resources needed to effectively address compliance, collaboration, and case management.
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