This book will help any law firm create and maintain an effective and well-organized records management program, including administration and storage of client files and administrative records in all types of media. Firms will learn to implement an efficient information, document, and file retrieval system, thus reducing costs, avoiding ethics violations, and ensuring client satisfaction. In addition, the book covers legal and ethics compliance when it comes to management and retention of both paper and electronic files.

This report looks closely at legal records management, and provides information and analysis on staff size and training, attorney-records staff relations, outsourcing, negotiations with warehouse suppliers, use of digital imaging, use of RFID, retention policies, equipment purchasing plans, and other facets of legal records management. The study is based on detailed interviews with records and practice management professionals and partners at some of America's most prestigious law firms, courts and law schools. Among the organizations profiled: Thompson Hine, Dewey Ballantine, Kay Scholer, Fulbright & Jawarski, The National Archives & Records Administration, Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin, the U.S. Court System for the District Courts, Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Darby & Darby.

Written from a multimedia perspective and with a comprehensive system design orientation, this practical guide provides management strategies for developing, implementing, and operating a records management program. Unlike some other records management references, which show a predisposition toward dealing with inactive records, it provides a balanced treatment for all phases of the records life cycle, from creation or receipt through ultimate disposition. Among the changes in this revised edition are the addition of new chapters on record media, active record systems, and records disposition. Distributed by Ashgate. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR