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Safeguarding Attorney-Client Privilege in External Collaboration

A prominent law firm needed a robust solution to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive legal documents shared with external parties, preventing accidental disclosures and maintaining compliance with stringent regulations.

A prominent law firm needed a robust solution to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive legal documents shared with external parties, preventing accidental disclosures and maintaining compliance with stringent regulations.

Challenges

The legal industry operates with highly sensitive information, including confidential client communications, intellectual property filings, and critical litigation documents. A major concern for the law firm was the potential breach of attorney-client privilege and non-compliance with federal regulations, such as HIPAA, GLBA, and FRCP Rule 5.2, when sharing these documents externally with co-counsel, expert witnesses, or clients. The challenges included:

  • Risk of Accidental Disclosure: Attorneys and legal staff frequently share documents via email and cloud services. The risk of inadvertently attaching the wrong document or sending it to an unauthorized recipient posed a significant threat to client confidentiality and could lead to severe legal and reputational damage.
  • Maintaining Privilege Beyond Firm Boundaries: Once a document left the firm’s secure internal network, there was limited control over its access, use, and further distribution. This lack of persistent protection made it difficult to guarantee that privileged information remained confidential.
  • Ensuring Regulatory Compliance: The firm needed to adhere to strict federal regulations concerning the protection of sensitive data. A failure to adequately safeguard client information could result in hefty fines and legal repercussions.

Solutions

The law firm implemented Fasoo Enterprise DRM for External (FED-E) to secure and control sensitive legal documents shared outside the organization. FED-E’s capabilities addressed the firm’s challenges through:

  • Persistent Encryption and Granular Permissions: All confidential documents were automatically encrypted before being shared externally. The firm’s attorneys could define granular permissions, such as restricting recipients to view only, preventing printing, copying, and disabling screen capture. This ensured that recipients could only interact with the document in the intended manner.
  • Email-Based User Authentication: Access to protected documents required recipients to authenticate using their email ID, validating their identity and device. This added a layer of security, ensuring that only authorized individuals could open and view the shared information.
  • Remote Access Revocation: Even after a document was distributed, the sender retained the ability to revoke access at any time. If a document was sent to the wrong recipient or if the need for external access expired, the firm could immediately prevent further viewing, mitigating the risk of unauthorized disclosure.
  • Seamless Integration: FED-E seamlessly integrated with the firm’s existing Microsoft Outlook environment through a plug-in, allowing attorneys to easily apply protection policies directly from their email client without disrupting their workflow.
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Benefits

By implementing Fasoo Enterprise DRM for External (FED-E), the law firm realized significant benefits:

  • Enhanced Security and Protection of Attorney-Client Privilege: FED-E effectively mitigated the risk of accidental data leaks and ensured that sensitive legal documents remained protected even after being shared externally, safeguarding attorney-client privilege.
  • Improved Regulatory Compliance: The firm gained greater control over how sensitive information was accessed and used, strengthening its ability to comply with regulations concerning data protection and confidentiality.
  • Secure and Efficient External Collaboration: Attorneys could confidently collaborate with external parties, knowing that their sensitive documents were protected. This facilitated efficient communication and streamlined legal processes without compromising security.
  • Reduced Risk of Reputational Damage and Legal Liabilities: By preventing unauthorized access and disclosure of confidential information, the firm minimized the potential for costly legal battles, financial penalties, and damage to its professional reputation.
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