Law offices have dealt with paper since time immemorial and, as a result, most have developed systems for organizing and storing paper. Electronic documents, however, have not been around as long and present unique challenges in learning how to create and manage them effectively. Whether your office is already moving toward paperless or not, the tips and tricks provided here should prove useful.

Where to Begin?

One of the first steps—and in our view, an absolutely essential one—in developing an electronic document management system (DMS) is to secure the acceptance or “buy-in” of all team members, lawyers and support staff alike.

To get started, hold a brainstorming session with everyone in your office who creates, uses or stores electronic documents. At the session, identify how your office currently uses and manages its electronic documents. If yours is a small firm, those attending will likely include everyone working at the firm. For a larger law firm, consider starting with one practice group as an initial session.

During the brainstorming session or sessions, have the group identify problems with electronic documents. Consider these questions:

• Naming of documents. Is there a consistent process used by all staff members for naming electronic documents? Is it working? Is it possible to determine what a document contains just by looking at the name?
• Storage of documents. Is there a system for storing electronic documents? Is it easy for staff members to know where a document should be saved?
• Retrieval of documents. How easy is it to find a saved document? Are there any common problems?
• Storage of physical paper documents. What physical documents must continue to be stored? Is the current system working or does it need modification?
• Accessibility. Would remote access to the firm’s electronic files be beneficial to any team member(s)? If so, how could this be achieved?
• E-mails. How are e-mails currently archived and stored? Is there a system in place to save important messages and their attachments?

What Next?

From the initial brainstorming session, you will have developed a sense of what system, if any, your office currently has, what the problems are and where you would like to go. You can now begin developing a DMS tailored to the firm's needs.

Gather the relevant team members once again to brainstorm about what basic structure will work best for your office or practice group. Begin this process by setting some parameters as to what kinds of documents you are developing the DMS for.

At this point, the creation of your DMS may seem like a monumental task. Make it less intimidating by dividing the types of documents into smaller, more manageable chunks. For example, at our office we divided our documents into five major groups, with the first group being all new client matters from the implementation date forward. By developing a DMS for a selected group of documents and implementing it before moving to the next group, our team had time to adjust to the new way of naming and filing documents and we were able to fine-tune the DMS for each document group before tackling the next one.

As the areas of practice at our office are quite limited, our first group of documents included all client matters for all types of law. However, you could restrict the first group of documents to client matters in just one area of law.

The second group of documents we considered were those associated with firm (non-client) bookkeeping, followed by a third group that included all publicity-related documents. We found developing the DMS for subsequent groups was easier as a result of things we had learned along the way.

Once your DMS is up and running, it’s then time to make a decision about whether it is worthwhile to go back and convert old files to the new system. At our office, we decided it was not worth the time and effort required.

Here are a few specific tips and tricks to help you create your DMS:

• Within each group, work from the bottom up; in other words, begin by determining the individual folders for the document group that you are working on. Look at the physical paper files and current electronic files and determine what documents you are generally dealing with for that particular group.
• Are there logical groupings for the documents?
• Are certain documents going to be used or referenced frequently during development or editing of another document and, if so, should they be in the same folder for ease of editing?
• Are there any common themes among the documents that suggest an organizational structure?
• The electronic folder and subfolder structure for client matters may be very similar to how you would organize the papers within a physical file. However, the subfolders for various practice areas will most likely differ.
• A practical tip: When naming subfolders, pay attention to how they will be sorted. We begin all correspondence folders with "Corr" so that they remain grouped together when displayed in the document index, e.g., Corr – Cli, Corr – Other, etc.
• Once the folder structure is determined, create a “folder template,” a set of standard folders and subfolders for each type of matter handled by your firm. Use these folder templates to save time and ensure consistent naming. Simply copy the whole folder template including subfolders and paste it where it will reside in your overall structure, then immediately re-name if necessary. We name folder templates starting with a unique character such as “$” so that they are grouped together at the top of the index.
• Decide on an organizational structure for your client folders. At our office, all client matters are named and sorted by client surname. Surnames are further subdivided into alphabetic sub-groups. For example, clients with surnames beginning with the letter B are in two sub-groups: Ba-Bj and Bk-Bz. This reduces scrolling when trying to find a particular client matter and can help with creating logical divisions in the future as the practice grows and as backups increase in size. Some things to consider include: (1) the size of the firm; (2) how the practice areas operate and what logical groupings exist among them; (3) how many staff work on each file; and (4) how many staff work on each file.
• Once the folder structure is established, the next step is to define the document naming system. It is important that document naming be consistent and standardized and used by all team members. For example, we name our electronic documents starting with a date (the date upon which the document was scanned or created), a short description of the contents of the document, and the initials of the team member who created or scanned the document. For example, a letter to a client requesting asset information for an estate would be named as shown here: 2010 01 15 let request asset info ns.docx. There is no need to specify that it is a letter to the client as it is stored in a folder that is called “Corr – Cli” (meaning “Correspondence – Client”).

In addition, once your DMS is implemented, it will be necessary to monitor that compliance is occurring. It bears repeating: No DMS will be effective unless there is full participation by every staff member. To assist with ensuring compliance, consider these things:

• Ongoing meetings to discuss how things are going and to address problems
• Spot-checks to determine if documents are being scanned/saved appropriately
• In a small office, assigning all scanning and document naming to one person
• Having a “day box” where physical documents are stored for a time before they are eventually destroyed

Tools for Your DMS

If you are converting paper documents to electronic format, invest in a reliable scanner with a document feeder. If you are only dealing with documents created or received in electronic form, such as e-mails, a scanner may be of less importance. Although there are many scanners in the marketplace today, one to consider is the Fujitsu ScanSnap, which is currently bundled with Adobe Acrobat Standard software. This is an essential piece of software for dealing with electronic documents. Note that Adobe Acrobat has far more functionality than the free Adobe Reader.

If you are planning to go paperless in the near future, consider providing each team member with a personal scanner and have a centrally located, high-speed scanner for larger scanning jobs. At the very least, locate a scanner where most documents arrive, such as in the reception area. Also, if your office is moving toward more and more electronic documents and you plan to go paperless, consider providing each team member with a second monitor.

Conclusion

Since electronic documents are now a fact of life in every law office, developing a comprehensive DMS suited to your office's needs is well worth the time and effort. To learn more, attend ABA TECHSHOW^® 2010 in Chicago, March 25-27!