Remember when document management systems were implemented as a way to maintain versions of a document?  With the advent of PCs, WordPerfect, and a server to store documents on – version control was something that law firms could quickly lose control of.   Document management systems became the way to manage the authoring process – and a big upside was the ease of sharing documents.

Of course, along with the sharing of documents came the issue of over-sharing, or managing ethical walls between clients and attorneys.  This fostered the invention of ethical wall solutions which helped automate managing document sharing and access.

Today, document management systems are responsible for much more than ethical wall security.  Evolving legal requirements surrounding client confidentiality and data privacy concerns are among the risks forcing law firms to re-evaluate their technology infrastructure and policies for securing client matter information subject to an ethical wall.[1]…

This is why the document management system is the technology of choice for 98% of all law firms to protect and govern sensitive client information.

When scanned mail items are trafficked outside of the DMS, a firm cannot secure or govern information nor place it behind proper ethical walls to avoid conflicts. So how could we go wrong?

 Don’t Forget the Daily Mail

The notion of scanning paper and securing the scan within the DMS seems to have been forgotten regarding daily mail, but the concerns of conflicts and need for ethical walls reside here as well.  Legal mail items contain sensitive client information. At the onset of the pandemic, most law firms cobbled together a quick fix in scan-to-email, but this method involves a variety of security risks that put law firms – and their client’s sensitive information — at risk.

Scan-to-email solutions mean vital documents are left drifting through cyber-space, often left in email inboxes or perhaps an email folder – without the security of the DMS. The solution: a best practice Digital Mailroom operation.

A best practice digital mailroom operation is the answer because it delivers documents not as email attachments but directly into the firm’s DMS where sensitive client information can be properly secured and governed — completely negating the risks created through scan-to-email. A digital mailroom utilizes intelligent, asynchronous processes to enable clerical operators to work efficiently and securely.

Not only can a best practice Digital Mailroom be created, but they already have been. DocSolid’s Airmail2 Digital Mailroom completely transforms the law firm’s paper centric mail into a secure and efficient digital operation that enables the hybrid work environment.

With Airmail2, skilled mailroom staff (those that can accurately determine appropriate client-matter-folder) can profile scanned mail items directly to the DMS.  This is accomplished without the need to provide direct access to the DMS (which should be reserved only for qualified legal staff and attorneys).  The benefit of this approach is the shift of the profiling step from legal staff or attorneys to the mailroom team.  Airmail2 also supports profiling scanned mail items by recipient (easily determined by addressing information on the mail item)  – a method that is deployed to mailroom staff who are less skilled.

The scan-to-email solutions firms conjured as a response to the pandemic were only designed as a stop gap and never intended for long-term use. The hybrid legal workplace is here to say. Airmail2 Digital Mailroom enables productive, secure delivery of daily mail directly into the DMS. Learn more about the Airmail2 and how to transform your law firm’s mailroom and institute best practice principles for security and governance in our latest white paper here.

[1] https://inoutsource.com/ethical-walls-and-confidentiality-screens-not-just-for-conflicts/ )

The article originally appeared in Legaltech News: Here

Security is a funny thing.  For it to work, you have to do it all of the time.  Wearing a seatbelt half the time isn’t a good strategy.  Wearing the seatbelt every time is.

Sending scanned images of inbound, daily mail via email attachments is a ‘scan-to-email’ method that was never intended to be a secure, permanent operation. This was only a temporary solution conjured in response to the pandemic crisis. So why are law firms still doing it this way? The only answer is that nothing bad has happened- yet.

But something bad will happen because it’s not secure.  We don’t have our seatbelts on. Sending scanned images of paper mail as email attachments creates these risks:

• Lack of governance. When documents are sent as email attachments, the exchange occurs outside of the document management system (DMS), the technology intended to secure and govern them, multiplying risk exposure across the firm.
• Cybersecurity risk. Along with the rise of remote work, cybersecurity threats have increased by 3x. Email attachments expose the firm to these risks.
• Conflicts, PII and more. When an email message goes to the wrong recipient or an attachment contains personally identifiable information (PII), firms are exposed to conflicts or significant regulatory fines resulting from lack of compliance with GDPR, CCPA and other regulations.

Security and governance of their information is the number one issue keeping clients awake at night. Firms must take the right steps to secure client information from the moment it arrives. Firms that do not secure client information from the moment of arrival are at risk of an event no one wants. In short, we need to wear our seatbelts all the time.

Lack of Governance

At the most basic level, when a law firm mailroom delivers a confidential file via email attachment, the firm has no control over the document and cannot govern or secure it. Scanned mail delivered as a PDF email attachment often goes to more than one person, so the exposure is multiplied, then subject to the behavior of all receiving parties. Recipients can open attachments on their desktop, circumventing conflicts, or confidentiality, share the file with other attorneys, staff, or external entities outside the confines of the firm’s information governance policies.

And during this process, sending a document by email attachment means the file exists on the Exchange Server, not the DMS. It may then be stored in multiple locations on multiple devices including local computers, network folders, other recipients’ mobile or desktop inboxes, other mail servers and more.

 Cybersecurity Risk

Email is the #1 attack vector for cyber criminals. Users are attacked at the inbox, and the organization is attacked at the email server. Building a permanent daily mail scanning operation on top of this exposure zone is unwise, and unnecessary.

Another risk factor is wrong recipient error. Organizations with over 1,000 employees send approximately 800 misdirected emails every year. That is a rate of more than two emails per day, making it the most common type of error to cause a breach.

The System of Record is the DMS

Wrong recipient occurs most often as a result of an erroneous auto-fill in the send field – but wrong recipient is not the only risk caused by an unintended auto-fill in the send field.

The other negative consequence is unintended conflicts risk.  Email is not a technology that can check for conflicts nor build ethical walls to ensure that only the intended parties of a communication have access to that communication.

The technology for this is the document management system (DMS).

Client information arriving by postal mail needs to be scanned directly to the firm’s document management system (DMS) and be available to users only by a link to the DMS. Simply put, the DMS is the technology of choice for 98% of all law firms to protect and govern sensitive client information and why it is regarded the firm’s “system of record.”

For instance, a wrong recipient “may” occur when receiving an email with a link to the DMS, but the recipient wouldn’t be able to open the link if they were not assigned access.  That’s security.

Not only does DMS secure and govern client information but it is also the technology that helps firms comply with regulations such as The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) at scale. These regulations mandate, among other requirements, that firms be able to classify, track and, if requested, delete personal data held anywhere by the firm. This is effectively impossible with scan-to-email.

This is what it means to build a best practice solution and not an expedient solution.

 Ethical Obligations

Direct-to-DMS delivery of digital mail is not just a good idea, but potentially an ethical duty of a law firm. Several of the ABA Model Rules are particularly related to safeguarding client data, including competence (Model Rule 1.1), communication (Model Rule 1.4), confidentiality of information (Model Rule 1.6), and supervision (Model Rules 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3).

What do these duties require? When using technology, they require that we employ reasonable measures to safeguard the confidentiality of client information, that we communicate with clients about our use of technology and get informed consent from clients where appropriate, and that we supervise subordinate attorneys, law firm personnel, and service providers to ensure compliance with these duties. In comparison to the capabilities of how a DMS protects client information, email is not a reasonable measure.

Conclusion

Security of client information isn’t a part time job.  We’ve got to wear the seatbelt at all times and, unfortunately, the way many digital mailrooms now operate expose the firm to a multitude of risks.  We don’t need to wait for the unfortunate event to happen – firms can act on this today and install the right technology that integrates digital mail with the DMS.

Every day, new paper arrives in law firms in the form of documents delivered by UPS, USPS, or FedEx. Before the pandemic, it was custom to sort and deliver this new paper to the desks of folks responsible for its disposition. That all changed when the pandemic sent us home.  Suddenly, the daily mail was in the office, and we were at home.

Mail There and I’m Here

Firms innovated various workflows to bridge the gap. Email was a popular solution, although fraught with risks and efficiencies. Another solution was to continue delivering paper mail items to vacant desks.  Folks would then commute to the office on occasion to review the mail and send it to the appropriate “storage location” for safe keeping or disposal (the shred bin, the working file at home, or perhaps the file room).  Each “location” represented a separate workflow. Of course, another popular solution was to simply scan the inbound mail and send as an attachment to its recipients.

DocSolid took this as an opportunity to innovate.  We developed a Digital Mailroom solution which delivers daily mail directly to the DMS with email simply used to notify recipients of new mail. These notifications were sort of like hearing the rattle of the mail slot at the front door.

But the problem of the mail and the recipient being in different places still needed to be solved along with the concurrent problem of routing the paper version of the mail items to their appropriate “storage locations.”

The Hub Bub

The team at DocSolid went to work on how to “bridge the gap” between the location of the mail – which still arrives at the office – and the recipient who is working at home who needs to get the mail to the appropriate storage location, whether that is the file room or the document management system.

Bridging the gap meant giving the recipient a way to control the workflow of the paper mail even after it was digitized. The answer: the Hub.

The email “notification” sent by the DocSolid Daily Mail system includes access to a “Hub” which allows the mail recipient to communicate with the mailroom team back in the office where the physical mail resides.

The recipient can send messages to the office team that offer instructions on how to handle the paper mail items. Choices like “discard” or “hold for filing” guide the mailroom team on handling the paper mail. It’s simple and intuitive and helps resolve these 3 common user questions quickly and seamlessly:

#1 – When do I know I have mail to look at?  The Airmail2 system uses email but only when it’s efficient to do so.  It is very efficient to send an email (a notification) to a mail recipient letting them know they have mail (yes, “you’ve got mail”).  The recipient doesn’t need to check for new mail – they’re notified when it arrives.

#2 – How does the recipient “route” the physical paper?  The mailroom back in the office is busy scanning paper mail. The recipient is at home and is notified of new mail – and can examine it in the DMS.  But how does the recipient let the mail room know where to dispose of the mail?  It could be a request to “place on desk” or “forward to records” or “shred” (yes – shred … for the intrepid). The ability to provide this disposition instruction is built into the Airmail2 Hub.

#3 – How does my colleague know about new mail?  The Airmail2 solution supports “pairings” – matching other folks with the mail recipient so that all appropriate folks are notified of new incoming mail. This is managed by the Airmail2 system which can update pairings as they change (for reassignments, vacations, etc.).

The data from Cushman & Wakefield’s latest report, “Office of the Future Revisited: Three New Realities Shaping Hybrid Workplace Strategies,” suggests that almost half (40%) of the workforce will choose to remain in remote positions for the foreseeable future. If this is true, then law firms need a digital mailroom and digital records room operation that is secure, efficient, and reflects the needs for this new way of life.

Cushman & Wakefield’s report analyzes three new realities:

• Office Space is Still in Demand
• Hybrid is Here to Stay
• Role of the Office has Changed

The data behind of each of these realities has drastic implications for law firms and organizations creating their office workplace strategies moving forward.

As firms begin to create their return to office strategies, it is important to factor in how the data of these realities will impact law firm security, efficiency, and attorney productivity.

Reality One: Office Space is Still in Demand

Demand for office space is finally returning for much of the world—and it is being driven by job creation. The world is seeing employment return to the levels it was before the onset of the pandemic. This accelerated growth is pushing more companies to feel the need to return to office or offer their employees the option to return to pre-pandemic office life.

Reality Two: Hybrid is Here to Stay

As organizations and firms create their return to office strategy, one thing is becoming clear: It is time to embrace hybrid. Instead of forcing attorneys and staff back into the office, firm and office leaders must cultivate a common understanding that will optimize employee experience for the limited time that staff is working in-house.

Reality 3: The Role of the Office has Changed

As the office becomes a less permanent staple in the lives of employees, the role of the physical office continues to evolve. Most organizations believe the office is now a place that can cultivate and build culture which can be used to inspire creativity and innovation. With that being said, this shift in mind set, coupled with the realization that hybrid is here to stay, is deemphasizing individuals and their dedicated desks. Instead, offices are focusing more on collaborative spaces and desk sharing.

The Normal Now^TM

While these three realities are distinct, they are not all exclusive of one another. All three affirm that the workforce will dictate the next steps for law firms and organizations. While the workforce retains the leverage, hybrid is here to stay according to the data in Cushman and Wakefield’s report.

At the time of the report’s release, there are over 11 million job openings coupled with a 3.6% unemployment rate. The demand to fill roles has provided workers with the leverage to demand workplace flexibility like a hybrid schedule or work from home.

As of the last quarter of 2021 nearly half (40%) of the workforce indicated that they would prefer to never work full-time in office. One fifth of the workforce indicated that they would be open to a hybrid option. With 40% of the workforce stating that they would prefer to never work in office full-time. It is imperative for firms and organizations to create a hybrid workplace strategy that works well for employees and operationally.

A Best Practice Digital Mailroom and Records Room for a Hybrid Workforce

As attorneys and staff change the way they work, the delivery of client mail and requests for physical matter files must change as well. Scan-to-email work arounds that were put in place when the workforce first went remote were only tolerable as stop-gap emergency measures because they present real security risks.

Daily mail is mission critical because it contains client information that is confidential and time sensitive. Attorneys and staff working from home need a reliable, secure method for digital delivery. A daily mail process that relies on the conventional scan-to-email approach is not secure because it was never designed for this purpose.

A best practice digital mailroom operation delivers mail directly into the document management system (DMS) where sensitive client information is kept secure and governed according to firm policy. A best practice digital records room is similar, building a digitization project for scanning large volumes of paper records and storing them in the DMS.

Security is just one of many reasons why law firms need to design a digital mailroom. It is also essential to keep attorneys and staff productive, no matter where they choose to work.

Airmail2 Digital Mailroom and Digital Records Room are direct-to-DMS solutions with certified integrations for iManage and NetDocuments. Transform your firm’s paper-based mailroom and records room functions into streamlined, digital operations with a flexible design that supports work-from-home, hybrid, and return-to-office strategies.

Read the full report by Cushman & Wakefield Here