The core asset of every law firm and legal organization is information. Lawyers sift through enormous amounts of information on a daily basis -- everything from client files to printed contracts to the emails they receive on their smartphone. Making sense of all this information and ensuring that it's sufficiently protected and accessible is a daunting, but absolutely necessary, task.

Records management, often abbreviated "RM," is the strategy organizations employ to manage such information. RM is the process of identifying, organizing, maintaining, and accessing all of the records created or received by an organization in its day-to-day operations. These records can be electronic or paper and include virtually everything that passes through an organization's doors. There are many reasons a firm or individual might employ a particular RM strategy, but the most important reasons are the most practical: improving productivity, cutting costs, and complying with legislative, regulatory, and internal policy requirements.

Below is a listing of some helpful informational resources regarding RM, as well as a listing of some of the major RM solutions currently available.

Resources

     Legal Technology Resource Center

• Herding Cats: Managing Electronic Data in a Law Firm (PDF)
  Electronic data - email, forms, documents, spreadsheets, and databases - must be effectively managed to both tap into its true potential and for retention and compliance. In this presentation for the Chicago Bar Association, strategies for using technology, planning, and training to effectively manage electronic data were reviewed.
  
• A Necessary Security Blanket: Document Retention Policies
  This article explores the creation of document retention policy best practices and provides solutions for retention of electronic documents.

     American Bar Association

• Law Firm Document Retention Policies
• Electronic Document Retention Policies (And Why Your Clients Need Them)
• Old Docs, New Tricks: Knowledge Databases Made Easy
• Record Retention And Destruction: Current Best Practices (PDF)
• Information Security for the Small and Medium-Sized Law Firm (Audio CD Package)
• The Lawyer's Guide to Records Management and Retention
• Records and Document Retention Policies for Attorney eCommunications (Online Course)

     American Association of Law Libraries

• Records Retention in the Private Legal Environment: Annotated Bibliography and Program Implementation Tools (PDF)

     ARMA International

• Records Management in the Legal Environment
• Records Management Responsibility in Litigation Support
• Electronic Records Retention: New Strategies for Data Life Cycle Management
• Retention Management for Records and Information
• Requirements for Managing Electronic Messages as Records
• Managing Electronic Records, 3rd Ed.

     CCH

• Guide to Record Retention Requirements

     Law.com Legal Technology

• Kirton & McConkie Faces E-Mail Pains
• E-Discovery: Client's Records Management

     Lexis Nexis Applied Discovery Law Library

• Elements of a Good Document Retention Policy (PDF)

     llrx.com

• Legal Obstacles to E-Mail Message Destruction (ARMA) (PDF)

     Network Alternatives

• “Is Your Firm’s E-mail Disappearing Into a Black Hole?” (PDF)

     Sedona Conference

• The Sedona Guidelines: Best Practice Guidelines & Commentary for Managing Information & Records in the Electronic Age (September 2005) (PDF)
• The Sedona Guidelines for Managing Information & Records in the Electronic Age (PDF)

Resource Management Solutions

• Accutrac
• Captaris® Alchemy®
• IBM Federated Records Management
• Iron Mountain Records Management
• Orchestria Records Management™
• OpenText Livelink ECM - eDOCS Records Management
• TAB