Finding and retaining documents doesn’t have to be difficult
Updated: July 28, 2006
Kansas City-based Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP, one of the nation’s largest law firms, used to manage their documents the hard way.
Each of the firm’s 340 attorneys would create legal briefs, memos, spreadsheets, and other documents in an electronic document-processing program, then save them on a central server. There, they’d join thousands of like documents created by their fellow attorneys. When it came time to sort through these files to apply Stinson Morrison’s rules on document retention, some simply couldn’t be found. It was a system that led to document disarray.
But that has changed. Today, Stinson Morrison attorneys create and manage documents, e-mail messages, and other work-related projects using a program developed by Microsoft partner Interwoven. Each new matter is assigned a folder system that tracks all documents for that particular matter. Says Athelene Gieseman, chief information officer for Stinson Morrison: “Now, when a matter is closed and we apply our retention rules based on the type of law and the jurisdiction, we have everything right there – documents, e-mails, everything. Before, we had matter-related material all over the place.”
Not surprisingly, like most professional services firms, Stinson Morrison has found that good document-management practices greatly simplify applying document retention rules. That’s a big deal today with the ever-increasing emphasis on trust and accountability.
Firms of all sorts today are awash in a tidal wave of documents, some of which – e-mail messages, for instance – didn’t even exist when many of those firms set up their first document-retention policies. The switch to electronic document creation, meanwhile, has also made document proliferation more likely. And new rules that govern the way many professional services firms operate, such as Sarbanes-Oxley guidelines for the clients of accounting firms, mean that determining which documents a firm keeps and which it purges is more important than ever.
Here is a quick look at the benefits of Stinson Morrison’s Microsoft-based system.
1. | You can quickly find and access essential documents.
Developing effective tools for handling document-retention policies begins with sound document management. Stinson Morrison’s Interwoven-developed system, called WorkSite, offers a document-management system that works effectively all the way from a document’s creation, through storage for reference and reuse, to its deletion. WorkSite tightly integrates with Microsoft Office Word, Outlook, and other Microsoft Office programs, and creates folders that attorneys, accountants, or consultants can use for storing documents of any type – whether created using Microsoft Word, in an e-mail, or scanned from a paper document or fax. Once saved in a folder for a particular business matter, WorkSite “tags” the document with information tying it to that specific job or client. That document then becomes much easier to manage. Employees called in to work on the same task now can easily find all documents that relate to that job, making them more efficient. Documents are no longer lost or misfiled, so key information does not need to be re-created. |
2. | Document retention rules can easily be applied.
At Stinson Morrison, folders are customized to reflect the firm’s rules regarding document retention, including how documents should be handled if the attorney working on them leaves the firm but continues working with the same client. And when a case or business task is completed, a firm can easily find all relevant documents, and either store them for reuse, delete some documents, or delete all. “Part of our escrow responsibility is to delete everything we should, and nothing that we shouldn’t,” Gieseman says. “The folders help us make that decision.” By gaining full control over documents and their contents, a firm now can extend special services to clients. Stinson Morrison, for example, sometimes offers clients documents relating to a case once that case is closed. But it doesn’t want to include billing or administrative documents. The folder system in WorkSite, by segregating working documents from those relating to administrative details, makes it much easier to ensure that only the correct documents leave the office. Document rules also can be defined in many ways. So any rules, whether they are state and regional bar association rules, Sarbanes-Oxley rules, or in-house rules governing how long documents are kept (or which documents are kept), can be applied to documents using WorkSite or other partner-developed tools based on Microsoft technologies. Role-based guidelines for who can view, manipulate, or delete documents also are easily created. |
3. | You can reduce overhead through faster training and better productivity.
Because document-management tools created by Microsoft partners such as Interwoven are based on familiar Microsoft Office programs, training professionals to use the tools is quick and painless. “Everyone already uses Word and Outlook,” Gieseman says of the attorneys at Stinson Morrison. “Now they work just the same, except there is a row of folders down the left side where they drag and drop documents. And everybody knows how to drag and drop.” Other benefits include lower costs because documents now are more consistent in appearance and format – right down to font size dictated by some court jurisdictions. Administrative costs are lowered because end-to-end document management is integrated into the system, not handled late in a document’s life cycle. And firms can be assured that all document rules are applied consistently. Good document management and retention decreases risk and liability while boosting productivity and efficiency. Microsoft tools such as Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and SQL Server help give professional services firms the software they need to ensure that their document guidelines are always consistent and are applied in the appropriate manner. |
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