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Gather ye electronic rosebuds while ye may, from law firms

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Law departments seem reluctant to insist that their law firms deliver all work product electronically. The requirement may be a common request in outside counsel guidelines but there is little enthusiasm for enforcement. Maybe the ugly truth is that in-house lawyers don’t make use of the output from law firms. They don’t have effective means to store and retrieve the information so why bother to collect it. Or perhaps they sense that it is unlikely they will need the research or documents in the future.

Perhaps the lack of compliance can be partially remedied if law firms deliver each quarter a CD of the work product.

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One response to “Gather ye electronic rosebuds while ye may, from law firms”

  1. Steven B. Levy, Author of Legal Project Management says:
    October 25, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Or place it on an online shared space (likely hosted by the client).
    Either way, there’s a larger question hiding here: In practical terms, to what extent does the client “own” the work product? How many clients are willing and able to take the work Smith & Wollensky did on their behalf and ask Dewey Screwum to build on that work to solve new client issues? That’s efficient leverage… but outside of a few progressive clients, how often is it happening?