A guide to managing metadata in today’s law firms

Cleaning metadata from word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDF files and other documents is critical for any organisation, but especially so for law firms. As law firms have a duty to protect their own confidential information and that of their clients, particularly with regard to information covered by attorney-client privilege, they must ensure that metadata is cleaned from outgoing documents, particularly those documents sent to opposing counsel.

Law firms must be able to ensure that violations of legal, regulatory or corporate policy are monitored. Additionally, they must be able to manage all of these capabilities efficiently and with a minimum impact on administrative staff, lawyers and the legal IT team. Choosing the right solution is very important to ensure that metadata protection is maximised and exposure to data breaches are kept to a minimum.