Legal technology advisory and implementation
Independent help for small and mid-sized firms choosing and rolling out practice management, document management and matter systems, with security and confidentiality built into the selection rather than bolted on after.
Reviewed by the ITRS security team · Last updated
When firms outgrow their tools
Most firms do not choose their technology so much as accumulate it: a practice management system bought by a founding partner, documents in a mix of file shares and email, a separate accounting package, and a spreadsheet tracking limitation dates. It works until it doesn't.
- Nobody is sure which version of a document is final
- Conflict checks depend on someone's memory
- New lawyers take weeks to find their way around the file structure
- Billing and trust reconciliation involve re-keying between systems
- A departing lawyer's files are hard to identify and hand over
- Clients ask security questions the firm can't answer
Requirements and selection
We start with how the firm actually works, not with a vendor demo. Short interviews with lawyers, clerks and accounting staff identify the workflows that matter, the integrations needed, and the pain points worth paying to fix.
From that we build a written requirements list, ranked into must-have, should-have and nice-to-have, and use it to shortlist products, run structured demos with your own scenarios, and score the results. The comparison is driven by your written requirements and your own test scenarios, not by a vendor demo script.
Discovery
Interviews, current-system inventory and a map of where client data lives today.
Requirements
Functional, integration, security and budget requirements, agreed with the decision-makers.
Shortlist and demos
Two to four candidates, scripted demos using the firm's real scenarios.
Due diligence
Security, privacy and contract review of the preferred vendor.
Decision and plan
Recommendation, budget, migration approach and rollout timeline.
Security and confidentiality criteria
The Law Society of Ontario's commentary to rule 3.1-2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct says a lawyer should understand the benefits and risks of relevant technology, recognizing the duty to protect confidential information. The Law Society of British Columbia added commentary on technological competence to its Code and publishes a cloud computing checklist and due diligence guidelines for lawyers using third-party providers. Selection is where those obligations become concrete.
| Criterion | What we check |
|---|---|
Data location and access | Where data is stored and processed, and who at the vendor can access it |
Identity and MFA | Single sign-on with your Microsoft 365 or Google accounts, enforced MFA, role-based permissions |
Matter-level security | Ethical walls and restricted matters, not just firm-wide access |
Audit trail | Whether the system logs who viewed, edited, downloaded or shared a document |
Encryption and backups | Encryption at rest and in transit, backup frequency, and how you restore |
Exit and data return | Export formats and the process if you leave the vendor |
Incident notification | Contractual commitment to tell you about breaches affecting your data |
Data migration
Migration is where projects go wrong. Documents lose their metadata, matters are mapped to the wrong clients, and old systems are switched off before anyone checks. We plan the migration as a controlled project: a data inventory, a mapping of old structures to new, a test migration of a sample of matters, reconciliation of counts and key fields, and sign-off by the people who will use the data.
Where documents may be relevant to current or anticipated litigation, we preserve original metadata and keep a verified copy of the source data until the firm confirms it is no longer needed.
Rollout and training
- A pilot group of lawyers and staff before the full firm moves
- Role-based training: lawyers, clerks, assistants and accounting each learn what they use
- Short written guides for common tasks, specific to the firm's setup
- Clear cut-over dates, and a freeze on the old system to stop parallel filing
- Floor support in the first days after go-live
After go-live
Systems drift. Permissions get added and never removed, new matter templates appear, and features the firm paid for go unused. A review three to six months after go-live catches problems while they are still small: we check permissions and ethical walls, confirm backups and audit logging are working, and identify training gaps.
If you prefer, our Managed IT team can support the platform day to day alongside the vendor's own support.
FAQ
We recommend the product that best fits your requirements after a structured comparison, and the scoring is documented so you can see how the recommendation was reached.
Yes. Many engagements start after purchase, with configuration, migration or a security review of an existing setup.
The process scales down. For a two or three lawyer firm, requirements and due diligence can be a short exercise, but they still prevent expensive mistakes.
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Acting on a matter that turns on electronic evidence?
Tell us who you act for and what is at issue. We are staffed 24/7. Active incident? Call (289) 582-9930, 24/7.