Contract Attorneys

According to legal industry analyst Hildebrant International, law firms are increasingly relying on contract attorneys as a strategy to increase overall profit-per-partner and the organization's bottom line.

In these scenarios, both parties understand that the relationship is temporary. However, to make contractors productive, firms need to treat them much like permanent employees. This means assimilating them into a team or practice group and providing access to appropriate resources.

The Problem

By default, most law firms provide attorneys with open access to key information repositories such as their document management system (DMS) in order to leverage past experience and work product. However, multiple risks compel firms to control and track the information temporary workers can see. While outright abuse may be uncommon, clients are likely to be concerned that their sensitive information is accessible to non-employees not even assigned to their matters.

Unfortunately, there's no straightforward technical way to restrict contract attorneys' access to just the matters they're working on. Instead, firms face two equally unpleasant options:

• They can either try complicated workarounds, such as having staff members act as intermediaries between contractors and the firm's DMS and other resources.
• Or, they can lock down their entire DMS and restrict all users throughout the firm to just the matters they're working on.

Regrettably, both options represent a fundamental change to the way attorneys and staff are accustomed to working. In the end, many firms avoid the issue and accept the risks.

The IntApp Solution -- Wall Builder

Wall Builder provides a straightforward way for firms to vigorously enforce controls over contractor access while preserving open access for full-time employees. It can be used to restrict contractors to particular clients or matters within multiple information repositories. More importantly, it also slashes staff maintenance burdens and guards against human error -- should an individual mistakenly grant a contractor access to restricted resources, the system can intercede to immediately correct the error and notify relevant parties.

ITAR Compliance