FSA Consulting specializes in supporting law firms of all sizes. We understand the unique law firm technology challenges. The need for strong security is non-negotiable. FSA works with you to analyze, identify, and optimize your law firm technology workflow. Here’s a high-level overview of the needs of law firms and some things to consider when looking for a law firm technology partner.
What Makes Law Firm Technology Different?
Law firms use industry-specific platforms like Cleo, My Firm, and more. Beyond software, however, law firms are very concerned about personally identifiable information (PII). Overall, the key factor that makes a law firm different is compliance, and more specifically, compliance requirements for privacy. That’s where policies and procedures come into play, and FSA can help you with yours.
Communications
Business Phones
Law firms need to securely converse with their clients. Client confidentiality and privacy are paramount. There are security considerations with business phones when it comes to recording conversations and how those conversations are encrypted between servers and desk phones. FSA designs business phone systems that fit your needs (whether you are a law firm or in another industry).
Faxes
Many industries, including the legal industry, use faxes because you can send a fax without a paper trail. Email, conversely, has servers in the middle that keep records and documentation of each message. Law firms commonly use fax machines because there’s no server in the middle, which means there’s no record of it.
Emails
As we mentioned above, even when you hit the delete button, your email doesn’t really go away. How does this come into play in legal technology? Some compliance entities keep copies of emails. This is called journaling. It’s a way of archiving emails in a separate system. Journaling means every time you send a copy, that email goes to another server, for the record, on the record. It is currently more common in the financial world, but some law firms are starting to journal.
Archives
You likely want to keep active files in the cloud so you have access to them but then archive them when finished. But the cloud is a double-edged sword. Depending on your law firm’s policies and procedures, you may not want files to live in the cloud in perpetuity. You may want to pull them down into an archive. Servers on the premises are also a double-edged sword, and many organizations are decommissioning their servers and moving to the cloud. FSA Consulting is here to help you make those decisions.
Insurance
FSA consults on best practices. This includes interfacing with insurance companies to make sure that offices are complying with their insurance requirements. Examples of compliance include multi-factor authentication, password length complexity, how data is being backed up, data encryption and making sure that computers are logging out or locking after a certain amount of inactivity, and training employees. FSA designs and implements them so you don’t need to worry about your technology compliance, and you can spend your billable hours with clients.
Make Sure Your Technology Portfolio is an Asset
FSA’s primary job is to make sure that your technology portfolio is an asset that is always there for you and is available to use whenever you want to use it. You don’t want to spend billable hours repeatedly reacting to the latest error or technology issue.
Are you ready to discuss the technology needs of your law firm? Let FSA Consulting work with you through your friction points. We’ll handle the technology so you can get back to focusing on your clients. Contact us today, and we will create the customized connection you need.