Posts

Oh, the Horror!  Don’t Be Left without a Data Backup System

Image
You know what’s really scary?  Losing your law firm data.  Even so, many law firms don’t utilize effective data backups.   Every business needs to backup its electronic data; but, the imperative is even more important for law firms, which have ethical and fiduciary duties tied to their client relationships.  And, although it’s now 2018, many law firms subsist on remarkably thin data backup systems.  This is true even though law firm data loss is not an extremely rare or impossible occurrence.  Fires, floods, natural and manmade disasters  -- those all  still wipe out law firm data.  So, if you’re concentrating on securing your law firm data backup, there’s no time like the present to get a handle on it.   This is a three-step method to making sure your data is recoverable:     (1) S et up a physical data backup.  It doesn’t really matter what it is (some firms still use backup tapes) -- just have  something  in place.  (If you’re picky, check out an  ioSafe  harddrive;  these things ar
Post a Comment
Read more

High Volume: A Basic Encryption Strategy for Law Firms

Image
Most lawyers have a general understanding of what encryption does.  (If you don’t,  let me introduce you to Wikipedia .)   Nevertheless, most attorneys don’t feel like they have a comprehensive plan for managing encryption in their law firms , when it comes to sending secure files to clients and colleagues .  That leaves a lot of law firms feeling a little insecure.  But, there’s a simple strategy for managing encryption in law firms, that’s entirely based on the volume of files you need to encrypt.     If you don’t send out a lot of documents that need to be encrypted , you can use the built-in tools in  Microsoft Word  or  Adobe Acrobat  to encrypt those documents.  Apply passwords, and then call the recipient with the password -- don’t email it along with the document.     If  you  do send out a lot of documents that need to be encrypted , use an email encryption system that will allow you to manually encrypt certain emails and their contents ,  or  to  automate the process.  With a
Post a Comment
Read more

Paper Tiger: The Best Way to Start Scanning Your Documents

Image
If you ever want to stop practicing law, and become a business management consultant, here’s how you do it: When lawyers ask you about going paperless, recommend the  Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 .  It is, hands-down,  the best scanner for law firms on the market; and, in over a decade of consulting work, I’ve never had a single complaint about it.  It’s fast, it’s wireless, it works on both PCs and Macs, it’s portable and it comes with PDF conversion software.   This version of the ScanSnap is under $500, and you can usually find discounts online, at sites like  New Egg .   If you want to go paperless, but have been stymied by figuring out what hardware you need to get started, now you’ v e got your answer.     This is not a product pitch, and I’ve never received a penny from Fujistu  --   i t’s just my opinion, backed by long experience.  However, if you find that the ScanSnap ix500 does not suit your needs,  there are other versions of the ScanSnap available ,  including some smaller ones
Post a Comment
Read more