Of course it differs from firm to firm and I'd say probably within a
firm from practice group to practice group.

Other aspects to think about;
Intellectual Property (IP) will have their rules and they differ within
that category (copyright & patent are nothing alike, or so I understand)

Trusts & Estates are an animal all their own. (generally keep everything
forever because the beneficiaries may have a property interest in aunt
marges painting bequeathed to them years ago...)

Financing matters; Keep documents for the term of the financing (20 - 50
years sometimes) because the firm that has those original documents has
a better shot at handling the re-financing years later. (or so I've been
told)

Litigation matters: keep the pleadings (as filed in court) but throw
away drafts of briefs as only the final brief is of value
compared to business agreements
"Keep all drafts because seeing the evolution of the agreement is
important should there ever be a disagreement about it"



Indeed Larry, this is anything but boring. The question of "case files"
can't be answered without a slew of follow up questions about what you
mean by case files.

Likewise, Peter's comment about whether these are the files of a
University as opposed to those of a law firm is relevant. Though
corporate legal departments may run very similarly to law firms in that
they are still lawyers and have the same feelings towards keeping or
disposing of material as other lawyers have.

More things to think about..

Dana

=============
 So, which records are we discussing here... what (I see) as Client
files or
what (I see) as Firm files? And am I all wet on the division of the two
and
what I've seen as a common practice of how these are separated and
handled?
Or does it differ from firm to firm?
 Inquiring minds want to know...
 Larry

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