Law firm reduces risk and increases space with Iron Mountain Clean Start

Kundreferenser

The firm had unsecured and unidentified information, including documents and IT equipment. With limited inhouse resources and expertise, it was unable to securely and effectively complete the project.

2 augusti 20238 minuter
Law firm reduces risk and increases space with Iron Mountain clean start

Industry

Legal

Challenge

Following years of routine operations, M&A activity, and employee turnover, this New York based regional law firm faced the challenge of cleaning up its office space and organising information assets. The firm had unsecured and unidentified information, including documents and IT equipment, located throughout the workplace. With limited inhouse resources and expertise, it was unable to securely and effectively complete the project.
Icon
Icon

Solution

Iron Mountain Clean Start®

 

Outcome

  • Inventoried, sorted, classified, organised, and tagged over 13,000 files
  • Elevated risk management
  • Eliminated potential employee wellness hazards
  • Boosted cross-functional productivity
  • Streamlined access to case files from any location
  • Enhanced space management

Law offices are in a league of their own when it comes to information management. Every piece of information has a part to play with specific regulatory and retention policies attached to each file and asset.

For this full-service New York-based regional law firm, keeping client and other organisational files in order is necessary to ensure productivity and compliance. Well established and closely followed processes for storing, tracking, and utilising physical and digital information would allow the firm to work seamlessly, efficiently, and productively across multiple teams and locations.

Years of normal operations creates disorganisation and clutter

Years of operations, M&A activity, and employee turnover resulted in the need for the firm to clean up, organise, and reconfigure its information, processes, and office space. Through everyday work activity, it was evident that there was limited tracking, protection, and organisation of information and no way to clearly identify files. All of this led to the risk of lost productivity, over-retention, and even a data breach.

Even more concerning, some records were located in an unsecure basement storage room where another tenant of the building had access. There were no locks on the doors, and all the files were stacked on shelves or piled on the floor. Anyone could walk through the storage room and sift through sensitive client information, which posed significant risk to the law firm.

Due to the basement location, some of the files had also suffered water damage. This resulted in piles of records on the floor damaged with inches of black mold.

To add another layer of complexity, many of the firm’s legacy files were commingled with new client records, which could lead to potential lawsuits for conflicts of interest.

In this office location, this firm couldn’t tell you which files they had, how many there were, and they couldn’t track anything. This led to major retention issues and added risks because the files hadn’t been touched in years. So, they needed to act quickly to get everything locked down and inventoried as soon as possible.
Clean Start programme managerIron Mountain

Complimentary assessment and definitive action

The law firm decided to call in the Iron Mountain Clean Start team for help. 

Starting with a complimentary onsite assessment of the firm’s information management procedures and space utilisation, the Clean Start team provided a report highlighting areas of risk as well as opportunities for improvement. For the first order of business, the team worked to clean up and recover the items that were damaged by water and mold. 

Following the clean up, the team worked to sort, classify, and tag the firm’s commingled and unorganised files. Any records that had met or exceeded their retention requirements were securely shredded and recycled. The team then helped inventory more than 13,000 files as well as decommission unnecessary racking and other office equipment.

We helped this law firm determine what to store, consolidate, and what to securely shred. From there, we were able to repurpose space for productive work by significantly reducing the amount of paper files and unnecessary storage racks.
Clean Start programme managerIron Mountain

Cross-functional productivity, streamlined document access

Through the inventory process, this law firm was able to clean up, organise, and, in some cases, defensibly destroy information assets. With its now updated file racking system, the firm also created more physical space and improved productivity so legal staff could focus on case work. 

This firm struggled with disorganisation, uncleanliness, and unsecured files but is now in a much better place thanks to Clean Start. By working with the Clean Start team, the law firm was able to identify and resolve security issues, clean up and recover moldy records, and drive organisation and productivity. 

Learn more about how Iron Mountain Clean Start elevates information and space management.