Legal Department Data Management: What You Need To Know
Data is huge. No one needs to tell anyone that. In fact, Forbes Africa calls data the new gold. As data becomes ever more valuable, legal department data management becomes absolutely paramount.
If data, and legal department data management is so important, then you need to also understand the basics of this big deal called data, like:
- What is data?
- Why is it SO valuable?
- What does legal department data management entail?
In this article, we unpack what data is, how to manage it, tools and best practices involved and why it is important for not only legal departments, but all organisations, to properly and legally manage their data.
What is Data?
Simply put data is a set of facts and statistics collected for reference or analysis. In the modern world, we are constantly collecting and sharing data whether intentionally or not.
Beyond anything, data is the new gold and an organisations’ ability to leverage this data effectively can either return them to the dark ages or catapult them into the future improving their business goals.
Legal Department Data Management Strategy
A good legal department data management strategy can:
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Create, access, and update data across a diverse data tier
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Store data securely across multiple clouds and on premises
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Provide high availability and disaster recovery
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Use data in a growing variety of apps, analytics, and algorithms
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Ensure data privacy and security
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Archive and destroy data in accordance with retention schedules and compliance requirements
One of the most effective ways to execute a good data management strategy is by using a data management platform or software. A great data management platform is basically a foundational system that collects and can analyse large volumes of data across an organisation. For example, Legal Interact’s Contract Manager(CM) which stores your contracts (and all the accompanying data) post signature in a highly secure cloud-based online repository and analyses the data, ensuring contractual compliance for both parties. CM allows your legal team to manage and track all your contractual obligations and benefits. It improves operational efficiency and decreases future contractual risks.
Data In The Legal Industry
There’s no disputing the fact that the legal industry is a treasure trove of data. From the information collected on clients, court documents, any form of legal documents (like contracts), to client lists, statutes and many more.
However, the biggest problem with legal department data is how it is managed in an organisation. The traditional way of creating, storing, and managing data is shockingly very insecure and open to manipulation.
With technological advancements, like Legal Interact’s Matter Manager (MM), there is no need to take unnecessary risks on how you manage data. MM keeps an up to data record for all types of sensitive data across all your matters on an organisational level, which enables innovative legal department data and matter management.
Final Thoughts On Legal Department Data
It has become even more invaluable for organisations to not only create, but to implement and monitor their legal department data management strategies. The world has changed with the increase in hybrid work arrangements, others still opting to work from home, to stringent privacy laws across the world, how we manage data and especially as legal professionals is not a nice-to-have, but a must and should centre around what we do and how we do it.
