Case Study: Law firm improves information accessibility and mobility

Implementing modern, efficient records management.

About Law Firm

Based in the Pacific Northwest, this law firm has offices in seven states and the District of Columbia. They offer numerous areas of expertise, including corporate, energy, litigation, real estate and technology law. Approximately 400 attorneys assist clients worldwide.

Topping the list of the law firm’s needs: Increased efficiency in records management and reducing storage costs.

Challenge

A huge stack of paper documents on a desk.

This prominent law firm found that their records were literally overflowing out of the records center — into closets, conference rooms and hallways. The records management function was overstaffed, and offsite storage costs seemed excessive. The firm wanted to revamp their records management processes, and the areas of new business intake and conflicts of interest were called out for special scrutiny.

The firm set five goals:

Improve employee productivity and efficiency.
Ensure compliance with industry best practices for document retention.
Reduce redundant workflows.
Streamline records storage procedures.
Reduce storage costs.

Solution

An onsite review, including an eye-opening visual site map of record storage locations, was the first step in analyzing the firm's records management practices and procedures.

Since we already supplied multifunction printers (MFPs) to the law firm, we were invited to analyze the situation and propose a solution. To do so, we conducted site visits, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, workflow observations and an online survey.

With those done, we created a set of recommendations and a roadmap that covered:

Processes and standards
Labor allocation
Training
Technology use in the records workflow

Based on industry best practices, this plan would help us position the law firm as a leader in records management.

Result

By implementing our recommendations, the law firm achieved excellent outcomes. The same amount of records management work can be completed with 3.5 fewer staff members, and the firm reduced their document storage costs by approximately 50%. Workers can access information more easily and quickly, and employee productivity and efficiency improved as a result of workflow changes:

Record destruction is outsourced, streamlining the processes and allowing a dedicated destruction specialist to change roles.
Redundant data entry points in the new business intake process are eliminated.
Screening workflows related to client intake and conflicts of interest now are the responsibility of dedicated staff members, instead of the records manager.

Next up? An audit of stored files based on the new retention policy. The firm estimates that they can reduce the number of boxes of information they store by as much as 45%.

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