Specialist law firm JFK Law is on a mission to help indigenous communities protect their property and way of life. To reduce time spent manually filing thousands of documents, the firm needed a next-generation document management system that aligned with their cloud strategy. Today, with iManage Work 10 in the Cloud, JFK Law staff are more productive than ever and can offer clients more cost-effective services by reducing time spent on administrative tasks.
The challenge
Simplifying management of thousands of documents
Working on complex matters can span decades and involve huge volumes of documents. JFK Law had an on-premises document management solution, but its manual procedures were time consuming, causing low adoption and poor compliance.
“Inefficient processes were impacting our productivity and we were losing billable time,” explains Monique Cotton, Manager, Legal Support Services and Firm Operations, JFK Law.
The incumbent document management solution lacked advanced security features, as well, so lawyers had to password-protect individual files and set up ethical firewalls manually to protect client data. And with clients in every jurisdiction in Canada, the firm needed the ability to support a hybrid workplace, making documents available anytime, anywhere.
The solution
Modern document management makes life easier for lawyers
The firm implemented iManage Work 10 in the Cloud with Microsoft Office and Adobe Pro integrations.
“We use it across the whole organization, from lawyers to the finance team, and from support staff to higher management," Cotton said.
Implementing with iManage Threat Manager to monitor and ensure company-wide compliance with document management policies, the firm also added iManage Security Policy Manager to activate protections like need-to-know security and ethical walls quickly — which helps them meet clients’ ethical requirements.
JFK Law also rolled out the iManage Mobility app to give the team fast access to information on their smartphones. The firm provides 2.5 hours of training to new starters, all they need to hit the ground running.
The benefits
More cost-effective client services
iManage Work 10 offers a rich feature set that includes powerful search capability that empowers lawyers to find relevant documents quickly and accurately, and enables eDiscovery to find trends across multiple documents. Lawyers personalize their workspace with fast access to the documents and matters that they’re currently working on and have the ability to perform drag-and-drop saves in Microsoft Outlook.
The efficiency gains realized with iManage Work 10 dramatically improve work life for JFK Law’s employees. “iManage makes our services more cost effective for clients and means we can spend more time focusing on higher-value tasks," says Cotton.
Looking ahead
“Our long-term goal is to give employees a seamless cloud-based experience, and — as our most-used platform — iManage was instrumental in paving the way for the rest of the migration,” said Cotton. “Change management can be the most difficult part of any project, but now our employees have seen how transformative great technology can be, and they’re excited for what’s to come.”
