State Bar of Texas
Annual Meeting Special Events
Friday, June 11, 2010
11:00 - 11:30 AM
.5 Hours
(.25 Hours Ethics)
"Establishing the Best Record Retention Policy
for Your Law Practice"
Below are excellent books/sites/articles addressing many aspects of "Document Management and Retention". Most are free some will cost you but all are good sources. There are also some examples of the mechanics for document management and retention.
David J. Ferrell
THIS IS A LINK----->
FYI: Records Management/Document Retention
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-Links
ABA 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
American Association of Law Libraries
| Records Retention in the Private Legal Environment: Annotated Bibliography and Program Implementation Tools (PDF) |
ARMA International (Association of Records Managers and Administrators)
Sedona Conference
IRS Statute of Limitations
Document Retention when the IRS is involved!!!
DOCUMENT IMAGING AND ARCHIVING, Mechanics - HOW TO DO IT!
Click on the LINKS BELOW
Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 SMALL and powered by USB2 Port
NEW ScanSnap S1300 Portable Scanner
VuPoint Magic Wand Portable Photo and Document Scanner
Adobe Acrobat 8 & 9 Professional Article by David J. Ferrell & Roy Greenberg
The appendices files that follow are referenced in the above paper written by David J. Ferrell and Roy Greenberg for the the Texas Bar "Perfecting Your Practice" seminar, February 2009 (ADOBE ACROBAT 8 and 9 PROFESSIONAL A MAJOR UPGRADE FOR LAWYERS) and are to be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0; download it at the above link. Be patient for the files to download to your computer.
Mexican Constitution (Short excerpt)
Dynamic Demand Letter for Civil Damages
Example of Multimedia CLE Paper submitted for Texas Bar CLE in November 2009
Download Link for article above at "You Send It" 50 megabytes. Try this download to see how "You Send It" works and for an example of a Multimedia PDF Portfolio, REMEMBER, you need Adobe Acrobat 9 Reader which is free.
TechnoLawyer - Document-Management-Systems.pdf
MORE concerning document retention.
Seven Deadly Sins of Records Retention July 2006
Startup Kit for a Small Law Practice CLICK BELOW
Law Practice Management Handout