Fitch Law Partners LLP
Boston-based law firm, Fitch Law Partners LLP, is making its litigators more productive and focused on their principal roles by taking away the burden of document and email management.
The firm – which has used Apple Mac computers for more than 20 years – has now installed DocMoto to help manage more than three million files.
While adopting Macs within the firm has been valuable for general ease of use, flexibility and security, managing documents has presented various issues such as:
- Staff creating documents without sufficient consistency in naming, therefore making documents difficult to find and retrieve
- Open access to the file server has allowed creation of new folders, sometimes duplicating existing folder names
- Inconsistent storage of files
- Risk of files being deleted without the ability to recover them from trash
- Over-regular use of the IT team to retrieve documents from back-up disks
Installing DocMoto
To address the document management challenges, Fitch Law Partners LLP has selected DocMoto – a complete document and email management system for Mac.
The firm’s “Technical Wizard”, Jonathan Duke, said: “By the end of August 2016, everyone in the firm will be using DocMoto. And, although we’re using only about 20% of its features right now, it’s already making a difference”.
Security
Jonathan Duke
Technology Wizard
“Our new security model with DocMoto means that individuals have access only to the client information they need, and not everything on the system. Meanwhile, our firm management team can exchange documents in a safe and secure way. DocMoto gives us better management of permissions for people to access folders and files and makes it far better and easier to manage security from an access perspective”.
“And the secure connection to DocMoto via the internet is important as we are transferring financial records and other sensitive documents”.
Performance
“With the millions of files we’re holding, the previous performance of the file server system was ‘click and wait’, often many minutes for a folder or file to open. And with remote working, it was an even greater loss of time and risk of data loss if a connection went down. But folders and files saved in DocMoto don’t suffer from that problem”.
Creating and storing documents
“Using template documents in the DocMoto system means people can open, name and save a document in the proper location. This is automated so the user can work with the data without worrying about how or where the file will be saved. And this avoids the duplication of documents as it’s easy to identify if a document is already checked out, being used and by whom. So, there are no longer misfiled documents and, because of DocMoto’s security capability, folders and files remain in the same place they’re created”.
Version control
“Counsel on both sides of a case can exchange documents and version control in DocMoto gives the ability to compare the documents and see what changes are made. This is more accurate, saves time and ensures you know which is the most current version of the document”.
Document retrieval
“If a document is accidentally deleted, it is immediately retrievable without needing to consult the IT department. Even when lawyers are working evenings and weekends, any accidentally deleted folders or files can be found easily”.
Jonathan added: “Having documents well-managed means lawyers can focus on their job and be attorneys without having to think about being filing clerks! They can find what they need when they need it, it makes them more productive and, in fact, keeps them sane!”