I've been a records manager in laws firms for 26 years.  My current firm has a 30 day email retention policy.  User involvement is essential to storing "records" and not just everything. There is no need, in a law firm , to store every email.  Email is stored based on content, in other words based on whether it is a record or not, as defined in the firm's written email retention policy. Of course, the 30 day retention cam be suspended for users involved in a matter under a legal hold.  It works for them.  

By keeping retention short it forces the users to declare an email as a record and move it to our DMS or lose it.  Thirty days worth of email, is a lot of email, but it's not so unwieldy that you can't go back to it more than once to declare something an email.  However, a with a 30 day retention, it encourages you to declare it right away, or possibly forget it and lose it. Declaring it right away is the best and most efficient behavior.  Once it is in the DMS it becomes part of the client/matter and subject to our records retention schedule for client/matters by type of law.

A six month retention might work for some,  I'd question if that isn't too great a burden on the users to manage effectively.  I'm sure others would argue that 30 days is too short.  You have to look at all the issues, firm culture, budget restraints, risk assessment, etc.

Bill Creamer
Records & Conflicts Manager
212.728.3448
[log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of alex campbell
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 2:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Email Management in Law Firms

Bill- I actually agree with you in theory. For purposes of full disclosure, I am a consultant with significant exposure to law firm systems (although not a CRM yet) and I have worked in Records Management for a period of six years, all within law firms. While you are right that there is no one "one size fits all" when it comes to email management, from my experience, a six month email retention policy works best. That is just what I have found.

Best,

Alex


***********************************************************************

IMPORTANT NOTICE:  This email message is intended to be received only by persons entitled to receive the confidential information it may contain.  Email messages to clients of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP presumptively contain information that is confidential and legally privileged; email messages to non-clients are normally confidential and may also be legally privileged.  Please do not read, copy, forward or store this message unless you are an intended recipient of it.  If you have received this message in error, please forward it back.  Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is a limited liability partnership organized in the United States under the laws of the State of Delaware, which laws limit the personal liability of partners.
***********************************************************************

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]