InsideCounsel » April 2008
Paperless Progress
Technology helps legal departments reduce paper output.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: To read more about how technology can reduce paper waste, click here.
Many lawyers believe the nature of their profession necessitates the hoarding of paper—a lot of paper—a misconception that through time has made them the enemy of tree
Matt Den Ouden used to belong to this school of thought. A national director of CT Tymetrix, a provider of matter management technologies, Den Ouden has worked side-by-side with legal departments and law firms for about 15 years and was shocked at the sheer volume of paper lawyers forced their companies to keep on file.
“I remember once working on a discovery project, and I had to gather records from corporate counsel and their company’s manufacturing plants,” Den Ouden says. “When we requested the documents, they took us outside to these sheds where there were boxes—literally hundreds of square feet—of paper.”
Thanks to the advent of certain technologies, in-house counsel don’t have to be paper packrats anymore. Document imaging, e-billing software and matter-management systems have become much more commonplace in the corporate environment, and all help lawyers reduce their carbon footprint. This helps save the environment and also save on costs.
“What I find most striking is that the most expensive course a law department can take is printing everything and being paper-centric,” says Ross Kodner, president of MicroLaw, a legal technology consultancy. “Focusing on building electronic case and matter files actually yields the least expensive operating approach, not to mention the inherent greenness. It just makes sense from all perspectives.”
Paper Packrats
What doesn’t make sense is why in-house counsel are so reluctant to relinquish their grip on paper, especially because they’re constantly told to reduce their spending.
“Law is about precedent—being able to come up with the correct documents and resources at will,” Den Ouden says.
With modern technology, however, lawyers can not only find that specific letter without having to waste paper, they also can find it much faster. By imaging documents and hosting them on a matter- or document-management system, in-house counsel can share an endless array of materials across the network without ever having to use additional paper.
“E-mail threads are notoriously some of the most wasteful documents,” says Mitch Taube, CEO of Digiscribe International, a document imaging provider. “Even if you only need one page, you often end up printing the whole thread. If you imaged that document and put it into a document-management system, not only would you save on printing, but it’d be full-text searchable, shareable and preserved.”
