Legal Technology Journal

Lawrence Graham’s groundbreaking use of LegalKEY Attorney Desktop

BPO company Williams Lea has provided records management services to Lawrence Graham (LG), the London-based law firm, since 2001. The service is managed by a team of on-site records management professionals managing central record collections comprising 80,000 boxes stored off-site, and a further 150,000 deeds and 9,000 wills on-site. More recently the team has been instrumental in the deployment of new technology and process improvements in this field, including the firm-wide introduction of LegalKEY Attorney Desktop.

In 1999 LG became the first UK law firm to select the Hummingbird LegalKEY records management product as the single repository for all its paper-based records. Williams Lea supported the firm through the initial installation and then worked in partnership with Hummingbird to upgrade the software to improve management information and reporting functionality. This was followed up with the installation of Integra to provide an interface with the practice management system, refreshing LegalKEY with all new matters on a real-time basis.

The challenge

The challenge was to improve the processes involved in creating new archives, and then make this information easier to access and retrieve at a later date. In the run-up to this project, the Williams Lea records team introduced a helpdesk which created a formal structure to process all records requests accompanied by specific SLAs and, at the same time, introduced intelligent scanners to capture unique barcodes on files and boxes. Each lawyer, secretary and records team member was given their own unique barcode, providing full traceability on files within LegalKEY at all times.

With an office move less than 12 months away, the firm saw the project as a great opportunity to improve the control of and reduce the risks associated with the processes connected to the creation, access and retrieval of its paper-based records.

The Williams Lea team was keen to share the benefits that it had seen from working with LegalKEY with the rest of the firm. The team believed that the process of declaring, searching and retrieving a record should sit within the desktop and become part of the daily working practices for the lawyers and their secretaries.

The project

Working with the LG IT team, Williams Lea developed and agreed the project plan. The roll-out was split into two phases for training purposes: phase one, ‘Archiving of Documents’; and phase two, ‘Search and Request’. Each classroom-style session was designed to last no longer than 20 minutes, all carried out by senior members of the records team. This created a comfortable environment for staff, with the added benefit of the team having excellent knowledge of the record collections, combined with advanced working knowledge of the LegalKEY product. A pilot group of eight secretaries was created to promote the internal selling of the project and to test the system.

The pilot was judged a success on two counts. First, the secretaries understood the benefits of introducing standard titles when declaring records, as this would ultimately save time in retrieving information at a later date. Secondly, through feedback, Williams Lea worked with Hummingbird to tweak the look and feel of the product to provide a perfect fit when rolled out.

This ‘leading by results’ approach continued throughout the roll-out. By working with internal trainers from the records team and testing with small groups, the model was replicated throughout the firm. Both phases were completed within seven months.

Results

Stephen Stephens, LG head of real estate, evaluates the project:

‘The Williams Lea team presented the desktop solution to me including a live demonstration of the product functionality. I carried out searches using various parameters and was very pleased at the accuracy and the ability to be able to retrieve key records from within a large set of files. In addition, I no longer need to have my secretary contact the records department whenever I need a file. The ability to have a desktop view of all my client and matter files not only promotes best practice for all our lawyers but also enables much faster retrieval of our archived documents.

‘As we approach our office move in 2007, I am confident Williams Lea and Hummingbird LegalKEY records management will continue to improve the organisation, access and retrieval processes associated with our physical files.’

Karen Hayns, senior account manager at Williams Lea, also commented on the results this project has delivered so far:

‘Williams Lea builds long-term solutions that reduce our clients’ risk and improve profitability by organising information in a way that is easy to search, store and retrieve, thereby improving the effectiveness of lawyers’ time. The creation of new files for archiving using standard titles means information is much easier to find and subsequently request. The desktop interface for the 350 lawyers and secretaries means there is an automatic view to all the record collections, be they on- or off-site.’