That is a common practice in the law firm world.  A law firm is the
custodian of records created/received on behalf of their clients.
The lawyer is ethically obligated to either return the client's property or
get client permission to destroy the property (or at least make a reasonable
attempt to return/get permission).

Traditionally the details of client file retention have been dealt with on
the back end (or never), however it is becoming increasingly common to find
a law firm including language in its engagement letters (the contract
between the firm and the client) that defines the law firm's intentions with
regard to management of the file produced during the engagement. [this is
the opposite of the original question where the client is defining
requirements since the law firm is the vendor in this case]
In instances where no agreement was established at the outset of the
engagement, some clients will contact outside counsel and require certain
matter files be destroyed pursuant to the client's retention schedule.  When
that occured when I was in-house, we would take their request, perform the
destruction and provide them with a certificate of destruction (if they
wanted it) or some other attestation that the destruction was carried out
per their request.

To the original question, "like to know if anyone requires the vendor to
return the records to your company, whereby the records are incorporated
into your RRS", that's up to you.  Personally, I would feel far more
confident that my records are managed according to my specifications if they
are under my direct control, so at the conclusion of a matter, I would
request the records from the vendor and manage them as I deem necessary.

Keep in mind, however, not all material created during an engagement with a
third party is necessarily the property of the client.  So, you can request
your records - which is typically at least the set of final deliverables,
however understand that the vendor may retain some material related to the
engagement for their records as well (invoices, internal communications,
notes, etc.).


-- 
Julie J. Colgan, CRM

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