Extract from Justin Reynolds, Akshita Singhal & Lianna Vaughan’s article “Reduce Legal Risk With Data Disposition”
Legal firms today are storing more data than ever before. But as it turns out, most legal firms don’t use most of the data they take in. Instead, the vast majority of data winds up idling and going to waste, not moving into production.
Because of this, data is often more of a liability than an asset for legal firms. Unfortunately, this puts organizations and clients at risk for costly data breaches and privacy violations.
For this reason, law firms need comprehensive data disposition strategies to reduce data volumes and limit exposure. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at what legal data disposition entails and why it’s something that all firms should consider—including yours.
What Is Data Disposition?
As the name suggests, data disposition is a process of destroying or migrating electronically stored information that you no longer need. Common examples include old emails, client records, and documents with personally identifiable information.
Legal firms sometimes destroy data so nobody can discover or access it. However, they may also choose to move data into a secure storage location so they can access it later.
Most organizations tend to have strategies and policies regarding how they handle data disposition. In most cases, data disposition aligns with broader information governance strategies.
