Partner Article

A Quick Analysis of the Law Society’s practice note

Key Facts To Know About the Practice Note

It was published on 7th April 2014, it is addressed at solicitors, practice managers and all law firm IT staff that are using or will be using cloud services. It presents the Law Society’s recommendations concerning data protection and the procurement and management of cloud services. It aims to help readers comply with the current legal and regulatory obligations on the matter.

What is cloud computing, according to the Law Society?

It is Computing as a Service- a model in which your hardware and software are being run by an external supplier who will charge you a fee for the service.

The ‘cloud’ transforms technology from a good you own to a good you ‘rent’’ as and when needed.

What the Practice Note does not mention is that…

This is not a new model: the concept of cloud computing find its roots in ‘hosted IT’- a technology that has been around for more than a decade.

The solution is gaining in popularity as legal businesses are striving to streamline operations, improve efficiency and embrace remote working. ‘’Legal practices are increasingly using cloud computing as an alternative to ’traditional’ IT provision’’ the Law Society acknowledges while also presenting the potential dangers involved by this model.

The system can put your firm at risk if you fail to exercise due diligence when selecting the solution and cloud service provider. According to the Law Society, the areas of your business that will be affected by the choice and use of an inappropriate IT solution are:

- security, data confidentiality and location of data - service reliability and stability - lack of control over customisation and integration - service response time, and enforcing SLAs - speed and bandwidth - danger of supplier lock-in - difficulty of achieving executive buy-in

So how can you avoid the potential risks and only enjoy the benefits of this solution? Here are a few ideas:

Do not opt for a public cloud

Why? Because many a times you don’t know where your data is located (which could very well be outside the UK) thus breaching the UK legislation on the matter. A private cloud, on the other side, offers greater security as it will be yours and yours only and nobody else besides your firm and the IT provider managing the server will have access to the data. This also means that you will know where your data is hosted and this will be inside the UK.

Do not select a provider you know very little about

Do your homework before selecting a supplier and check:

- how many years they’ve been in business

- how long they have been providing cloud services for

- what their current clients say about them and how many these are

- if they’ve got experience working with legal business and if they’re acquainted with the particular requirements of this sector

Pay attention to the contract regulating the relationship between you and the cloud provider and include clauses that protect the confidentiality of your data and clarify the downtime and uptime that you should be expecting during the course of a year (99% uptime is a reasonable guarantee).

Moving your law firm to the cloud is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Despite the popularity of the cloud, there are certain risks associated with this model that should be mitigated and/or eliminated right from the start, between you and the chosen supplier.

Useful resources

Webinar: Why Move to the Cloud- A Cost Analysis—> http://info.dpssoftware.co.uk/cloud-computing-for-legal-businesses

White paper: An Analysis of the Law Society’s Practice Note on Cloud Computing which expands on the topics presented above—> http://info.dpssoftware.co.uk/-law-society-practice-note-on-cloud-computing

White Paper: Capitalising on the Cloud- an explanation of the model and its key benefits—> http://info.dpssoftware.co.uk/cloud-computing-for-law-firms

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by DPS Software .