Schaumburg, Illinois is home to hundreds of legal professionals ranging from solo attorneys to large law firms. Given that the legal industry is highly competitive, these attorneys must be operating at full capacity at all times. There is no room for downtime, especially if that downtime is the result of an IT challenge. Staying current on the most advanced technology is key to performance in a saturated industry.
If you are a Schaumburg IL Law Firm searching for an IT Support Company, here’s what you need to know and what you need to consider before placing your livelihood in the hands of a company who can make or break you.
What You Need to Know: IT Challenges for Schaumburg IL Law Firm
There are many IT challenges out that that law firms should be aware of, and knowing what they will help you understand how to address those challenges. Here are the top three problems you can expect, regardless if you are a solo attorney or a large law firm with clients in Chicago, Illinois, or throughout the U.S.
1. Security
Security is your top challenge. You deal with private matters all day long, some of those are high-stakes private matters while others may not be -- but they are private nonetheless. You have sensitive information also at your disposal. People want to access this information to use it for their own -- mostly illegal -- gain. As the harborer and/or owner of this information, you need to prevent unauthorized and unlawful access to this information -- not only will a security breach affect your clients, but it will have a detrimental impact on your firm.
Here are Law Technology Today’s four top cybersecurity concerns law firms face:
- Phishing / Hacked Email Accounts. These security risks materialize in different forms and hackers are by the day reinventing and improving their methods. They create phone but professional-looking emails or PDF files for you to open, and once you do, you are vulnerable to their attacks.
- Ransomware. Ransomware occurs when hackers lock your files and threaten to delete them or otherwise damage them unless the ransom is paid.
- Leaks of Sensitive Data. Many law firms fail to provide policies to employees about best practices regarding technology and security. For instance, poor password use or opening a message on social media at the office could expose them to serious vulnerabilities.
- Risk of Legal Malpractice Allegations due to Poor Cybersecurity. When a law firm does not take the proper measures to protect data, then a client can file a legal malpractice suit. That happened to Johnson & Bell, a law firm in Chicago, Illinois -- its former clients claimed that implicit in the attorney fees is “a promise by the firm to keep the clients’ confidential information confidential,” effectively meaning that the law firm must maintain best practices concerning cybersecurity.
2. Connectivity
Law firms must stay connected. This means your team must stay connected with each other for collaboration purposes and with clients as well as other relevant parties. It also means you must have a reliable, dependable, fast internet connection. No one wants to see the spinning wheel on the screen. This creates downtime that you cannot afford and prevents effective communication -- though there’s always the phone or the fax, it simply isn’t the most effective and efficient means of communication.
3. Storage
As a lawyer or other legal professional, you accumulate a lot of data, information, documents, etc. These things need to be stored. Storage today is mostly done in the paperless form: online via the cloud. There is endless capabilities of cloud storage, but at the same time, there are cybersecurity risks to storage in the cloud.
It’s a catch-22: you go the inefficient and time-consuming way and store paper documents, or you go the more efficient and productive way and risk hacking. There’s no solution to the old school way, but there is a solution to the new way: ensuring you have the technology and IT support to keep the data secure.
What You Need to Consider: IT Support Company
As hinted above, to address these challenges, you need a reliable, professional Schaumburg IL law firm IT support company to assist you. In fact, you need to let the IT support company handle all your technology needs and concerns so that you can handle your law practice. But how do you find the right IT managed services provider for you? Here are five things to consider.
- How much experience does the IT managed services provider have?
- How well with the IT support company monitor, identify, repair, and report back to you any security matters or problems with your IT infrastructure?
- Does the IT support company provide on-site and after-hours support?
- Does the IT support company provide IT consulting to align your technology with your law firm goals?
- Does the IT support company use the most advanced technologies available on the market so that all your IT challenges are addressed appropriately?
With regard to the last consideration, it is important to note that law firms do not only need but require advanced technology to maintain new lawyers who are accustomed to technology and know how to use it to their benefit (as well as to the benefit of clients). American Lawyer reported that young lawyers are more likely to leave law offices and firms that do not have tech upgrades. And that knowledge alone is enough to understand why -- for your law firm to flourish into the future -- you need IT, and you need an IT support company to handle it for you.
What to Do Now: Contact adNET for Your Schaumburg Law Firm’s IT Needs
Are you searching for an IT support company to handle your technology needs for your law firm? If so, contact adNET. As experienced, competent, and comprehensive tech professionals, adNET can secure your law firm’s technology needs.
