Why data protection is everyone’s responsibility
The Data Protection Act, somebody else’s problem? The marketing people have it well under control don’t they?
Even if you are complying with the Data Protection Act in accordance with the letter of the Act have you considered how you handle your files and the information in them in accordance with your professional and ethical obligations to your clients? Can anyone in your practice see anything at any time?
In legal practices everywhere, every matter file (physical or electronic) will hold confidential information about the client it relates to. Probate and Trust files almost certainly have detailed information around assets and dependencies. Files created when writing wills have private and confidential financial information. House conveyancing files may contain information around mortgage applications and income. Personal Injury files detailed medical information. What if the information in these files were to be disclosed unintentionally or worse still, fall into the wrong hands?
And then there’s the question of how you keep the information. Is it in physical files? Is it in partners’ notebooks? Is it in electronic files or is it in all three? What about Microsoft Outlook, does your practice regard this as a storage system? Most practices I know will have lots of confidential information contained in emails. Which begs the question how do you make sure that only the people who need to see it can see it when they need to?
When you think about it, your law firm has vast silos of data about your clients, your employees and your prospects and it’s spread across all sorts of mediums. These silos may be your greatest asset if maintained and mined in the right way but they could become your biggest issue if they contain multiple versions of the truth.
A question worth asking yourself if you are unsure about how you hold client information is, if I was obliged to disclose case information could I be sure that all the information in the file was complete, accurate and appropriate? If you’re not sure then you need to think about developing a strategy for managing and archiving all of your data, not just the information marketing holds. You need to make it as easy as possible for the partners and staff to maintain that data.
A matter and case management system, like Lexis® Visualfiles™, can help you enormously. Such systems provide a single electronic file for all activities, documents and communications related to a matter, including emails. They not only make it easy to collect all the information in one place, so you have a single source of the truth, they also enable you to automatically police the data. You can restrict who can access the file. You can see when people have accessed it. You can set review points for archiving and deletion. You can also be sure that if you have to disclose case information it is complete, accurate and appropriate. Maybe data handling was my problem after all, but perhaps now it could be my opportunity?
About the Author: Simon Farthing
Simon leads the Go-To-Market (GTM) function at LexisNexis® Enterprise Solutions with overall responsibility for the Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Sales Operations & Client Engagement Teams. Simon is responsible for ensuring that we develop and enhance our customer relationships and grow our presence within our chosen markets, helping our valued clients gain greater value from their investment with us.
Experience
Simon has been with LexisNexis for six years. He has worked on a number of key strategic client growth programmes leading our Client Engagement Team across the Enterprise Solutions portfolio. He has also acted as Global Account Director for some of our largest international clients. He is a qualified Lawyer, Project Manager and Business Analyst. Simon has over twenty years’ experience in the legal services sector and spent many years of his career practicing law within a number of notable regional practices and subsequently headed IT, Development and Comms for a Top 100, 450 user Law Firm, in his time there implementing Lexis Visualfiles, Microsoft CRM, iManage, Bighand, Artiion and Aderant solutions, to name a few.
Other Hobbies/areas of interest
Simon is a competitive sailor, a technology addict, a motorsports enthusiast and enjoys spending time outdoors with his family.
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