Canadian Lawyer

38 N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m include electronic documents, social media, videos, voice mail, web sites, and the Internet. And in this era of BYOD, the number of sources continue to pro- liferate and can now include cellphones, smartphones, laptops, and tablets. The principles then behind records manage- ment, which are paper-based, simply cannot be applied to digital. Yet there are still many organizations that boast of having very well-defined paper-based records management rules but do not have any rules that apply to their elec- tronic records, says Felsky. That can lead to dire consequences, and transform what ought to be an asset into a liability. It can lead to the "very serious practical problem" of being unable to find records, or keeping records forever instead of destroying them when they should be destroyed, or destroying records when they should be kept, or mingling records that should be segregated, or segregating records that should be mingled. Keeping too much information, as far too many law firms do, can be decidedly impractical, expensive, and potentially embarrassing if there is information that can be harmful to a case. "It is a liability if it is not gov- erned, if it's not managed, and if it's not recognized as an asset and treated as such," says Felsky. Legal observers are nevertheless convinced that law firms — large, small, and solo practitioners — are at the very least starting to pay closer attention to information governance. Ironically, more and more law firms are advising clients over the merits of information governance. "Litigators within firms are very well versed with what can happen when client's records are a big mess," says Manning. "Whether or not that translates into law firms themselves having their records in good order is probably hit and miss." Some law firms, especially the bigger ones, no longer seem to have a choice. Requests for proposals that firms rely on for getting new work are taking into consideration whether law firms have in place infor- mation governance methodologies. Clients, like banks, that anticipate they will be handing especially sensitive information to law firms "want a higher degree of assurance that it will be han- dled the right way" and are coming to the lawyer relationship with their own set of terms around privacy, encryption standards, and technical safeguards, says a lawyer familiar with the informa- tion governance scene. "Increasingly, a law firm's information manage- ment and governance obligations are based on demands passed down by clients," says Sookman. "Clients now are becoming much more focused on ensuring that lawyers themselves live up to certain standards." Friedman put it even more bluntly: "Law firms have got to act first, or they are going to lose business as corporations get more sophisticated in what they need to pro- tect their own customer data and pro- prietary information." It remains clear though that some firms and partners are resisting, some because they are set in their ways and refuse to let go of paper while oth- ers simply do not want to invest the Our bite is even worse than our roar. We are accomplished trial lawyers with years of study in science and engineering and we have the courtroom successes to prove it. It's treacherous out there, so if your client's IP is threatened – talk to us. Editors of the Canadian Patent Reporter it all starts somewhere www.ridoutmaybee.com Client's IP at Risk? ntitled-3 1 13-12-09 7:10 PM

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