One of the most exciting parts of my job as head of Software Solutions at HBR Consulting is that daily, I get to speak to successful law firm and corporate legal leaders about trends and topics influencing their industry.
One common theme that is top of mind for all organizations that I speak to (regardless of the law firm’s size or law department’s industry) and something that keeps me up at night is security. It is one of the biggest investment areas for us at HBR and it continues to take up a larger share of my daily responsibilities than ever before. I will also never forget the first 1,000+ question security audit that I received at HBR. I remember wondering how small to mid-size organizations could afford the cost of developing new business and maintaining compliance these days. It was in this audit that I also recall reaching out to our IT director and asking what on earth “DLP” meant. Over the coming months and now almost years (time flies in this ever-changing market), it has become ingrained in my mind – data loss prevention. DLP is all about ensuring end users do not send sensitive or critical information outside the company network.
At HBR, we get to listen to and collaborate with our clients’ every day, which allows us to identify the challenges facing the legal supply chain quicker than most organizations. This is exactly what happened when our Law Firm Advisory consultants received a specific client request related to compliance with one of their banking clients. The law firm needed the ability to tag certain client (and matter) documents that were being emailed from the document management system so that their DLP product could accurately alert the user and prevent documents from being sent externally.
Fast forward several months later and the need for a solution like our new product, DLP Tagger, has never been greater. DLP Tagger is a sophisticated utility that continuously applies and updates file properties (tags) on documents in iManage (additional DMS platforms coming soon). By applying tags like client, matter or security classification to DMS documents, law firms can finally leverage DLP solutions to comply with outside counsel guidelines and other client-driven data security requirements.
With cyber threats like email phishing schemes on the rise, email security is more paramount than ever. Whether it be as part of a law firm evaluation, periodic audit or revisions to outside counsel guidelines, security is the common thread included in all aspects of a law department’s relationship with their outside counsel.
We believe our industry-leading product will effectively round out law firms’ security compliance programs and satisfy increasing corporate client requirements. To find out more about the product, please contact me at sspringer@hbrconsulting.com.