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| | Law Firms get boost in business eyeing document shredding & retention rules
Law firms get boost in business from clients eyeing document-retention rulesThe Business Journal of Phoenix - by Mike Sunnucks The Business Journal
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Jim Poulin/The Business Journal
jim poulin/the business journal Ryley Carlock & Applewhite is helping businesses determine when to shred documents. From left: Partner Bill McManus; Lorrie Luellig, document retention and compliance specialist; and Matthew Clarke, an e-discovery and litigation support services specialist with the firm.
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To shred or not to shred: That's the focus of national practice areas being ramped up by a number of law firms in the post-Enron, Sarbanes-Oxley world.
Phoenix-based Ryley Carlock & Applewhite PA is expanding its legal services related to document retention, including research and technology applications. The firm helps national and multinational companies abide by the more than 40,000 document-retention and record-keeping rules in place in the U.S.
Document-related legal services also can help corporations avoid paperwork nightmares and legal pitfalls when they are sued and subsequently forced to produce information.
Bill McManus, a partner with Ryley, said many firms fail to stay abreast of record-retention rules. They often keep files longer than necessary, he said, which not only can increase storage costs, but also can expose them to legal problems if they are sued and incriminating corporate papers are found.
"We've got a document control group here, which really specializes in assisting corporations and in-house counsel in handling their documents from the time (they are) created to the time (they are) disposed of," said McManus, who heads that group along with fellow attorneys Matt Clarke and Lorrie Luellig.
Other major law firms -- including Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Greenberg Traurig LLP and Quarles & Brady LLP -- also offer document-control services and stress they are increasingly important.
Greenberg Partner John Lomax said the Miami-based firm has attorneys across the country dedicated to document retention and preservation.
"It allows organizations to preserve -- and when properly implemented -- to destroy records in an orderly fashion," Lomax said.
Ryley's document group has 40 full-time and 20 part-time lawyers who help with large-scale projects. The practice group is bringing in legal work from New York, California and the District of Columbia.
The part-time attorneys often are retired judges or lawyers who live in Arizona and are brought in for specific projects, Clarke said. Larger projects entail going through millions of pages of records and advising companies what they need to keep and what can go to the shredder. They can last for weeks at a time.
Ryley offers the services to large public and regulated companies (including financial institutions), as well as their in-house counsel and outside law firms.
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