Whitepaper
Keeping on top of data management and being aware is key to ensuring firms run efficiently and compliantly with sensitive information kept for long periods of time.
In this whitepaper, Peter Lamb uses his decades of experience with legal firms and expert knowledge to detail how data discipline is invaluable to protecting sensitive data.
During my career when I was imbedded inside large Canadian law firms, security was always described in terms of firewalls, threat monitoring and penetration testing. These tools mattered, but they were not the whole story. As time went by and I spent more time close to the data, the clearer it became: the biggest risk was not what was coming in from the outside—it was what we were holding inside.
Most firms are sitting on decades of material that no one has looked at in years. Email archives, matter files, network drives, shared spaces, deal rooms, legacy systems and shadow IT repositories. Every file we keep becomes part of our risk landscape. Every redundant document is another potential breach exposure, every duplicate email increasing risk and cost.
That’s why data discipline—not just defense—is the real driver of risk reduction.
A clear eyed understanding of what you hold is the strongest security strategy. You can’t protect data you can’t see. You can’t apply retention rules to material scattered across unmanaged folders. And you can’t reduce risk if you continue to store old, unnecessary material because dealing with it feels inconvenient. Just because you can’t find something doesn’t mean someone else won’t.
Beginning the shift
The shift begins with visibility. Before any transformation project—whether cloud migration, DMS upgrade or AI initiative—firms need a clear picture of their data. That includes what’s active, what’s important, what’s risky and what’s simply outdated. In my CIO days, we found that once teams saw their data laid out in a structured way, decisions that felt impossible suddenly became straightforward. People stopped thinking in terms of “What if we need this someday?” and started asking, “Why have we kept this for 12 years when retention says five?”
Data discipline also requires lifecycle management. Classifying material at creation, reviewing it during the matter lifecycle and applying consistent retention at closure prevents data from piling up. It keeps systems cleaner and keeps security tighter. Firms often assume that cloud adoption solves this issue but moving data to the cloud without reviewing it first is like packing your entire basement into a moving truck—you’re only relocating the mess, and given increasing cloud storage costs, this mess can mean money.
Another overlooked benefit of disciplined data management is cost reduction. Storage costs, especially for unstructured collections, climb quickly. Legacy systems remain online simply to preserve historic documents no one wants to analyze. eDiscovery collections grow larger and more complex because no one has removed outdated files. All of this adds up.
Data discipline — not just defence — is the real driver of risk reduction.
When firms adopt a mindset of reducing unnecessary data, they reduce both direct costs and indirect security obligations. Less data means fewer decision points during breaches. Less data means faster eDiscovery turnaround. Less data means a smaller surface for attackers to exploit.
With the acceleration of AI adoption, this all becomes even more important. AI tools need clean, structured, compliant data. Messy repositories lead to poor results and increased risk, especially when sensitive information is mixed with unrelated material. Effective AI starts with disciplined data.
The firms that succeed over the next decade won’t be the ones with the most expensive security stack. They’ll be the ones that understand the real risk lies in unmanaged information and act accordingly. Defensive tools are necessary, but they’re only as strong as the data environment they protect.
Reducing what you hold, understanding what remains and managing it throughout its lifecycle is the foundation. Everything else builds on top.
Read Peter's other TLOMA articles at the following links.
About the author
Peter Lamb brings over three decades of experience in legal technology, having served as CIO for two of Canada’s largest law firms where he advanced the use of technology to improve practice management and operational efficiency.
He has also worked as a senior account manager helping firms navigate complex technology landscapes and deliver practical solutions to operational challenges. Throughout his career, Peter has successfully led large-scale change management initiatives and has been an active contributor to the legal technology community, including serving on ILTA’s Board of Directors and as Conference Co-Chair.
Originally published by The Law Office Management Association (TLOMA).