What could this look like at your firm?

OPPORTUNITY
McCormick Barstow, a 140-attorney law firm with six offices and a member of PilotLegis, engaged Mattern to expand their IG strategy and help develop and implement a comprehensive Electronic Records Management Policy.

At the time, the firm did not have an approved Records and Information Management policy. As a result, expectations for handling electronic and paper records were not clearly defined, records existed across multiple locations and formats, and the firm lacked a consistent way to identify official records, reduce duplication, or apply retention standards.

The firm needed a practical governance framework that would improve compliance, reduce risk, and create a more disciplined approach to records across the full document lifecycle. Mattern’s Information Governance services focus on helping law firms develop IG policies and retention schedules to mitigate risk, improve compliance, and reduce costs.

PROCESS
Mattern began with a current-state assessment of McCormick Barstow’s records and information practices. This included stakeholder interviews, workflow observation, policy review, technology analysis, and a data map showing where documents resided across both physical and electronic repositories.

The review covered the full records lifecycle, including:
- New file openings
- Document tracking and file maintenance
- DMS and RMS usage
- Docketing and conflicts processes
- File closing procedures
- Off-site storage practices
- Existing policies, procedures, and technology use

In Mattern’s experience, firms often have more records-related risk in the gaps between systems than inside any single system. The issue is rarely just “paper” or “electronic records.” The real challenge is creating a defensible process that tells attorneys and staff what to do, when to do it, and where the official record belongs.

Following the assessment, Mattern benchmarked the firm’s service levels and costs against industry standards and peer operations. We then delivered recommendations designed to improve workflow, reduce physical records, standardize electronic file maintenance, increase records transaction efficiency, and support a stronger long-term governance model.

Mattern also helped draft a policy tailored to the firm’s operations, including retention schedules customized by practice area and document type. The policy established user expectations, training procedures, naming conventions, document classification standards, and a complete procedural lifecycle for records from creation or receipt through disposition.

RESULT
McCormick Barstow moved from an informal, inconsistent records environment to a structured Information Governance program capable of supporting both electronic and paper records in a defensible manner.
With the official electronic record tracked in the DMS and remaining official paper records tracked in the RMS, the firm is now positioned to apply retention policy consistently across formats. The program also created the foundation for reducing off-site storage and limiting the creation of unnecessary new paper records.

Key outcomes included:
- Approved Records and Information Management policy
- Customized retention schedules by practice area and document type
- Clearer expectations for attorneys and staff
- Standardized file naming and document classification
- Improved ability to locate electronic documents
- Reduced creation of paper record sets
- Near elimination of new paper sent to off-site storage, except where policy requires paper retention
- Stronger positioning for client engagements where document handling and governance practices are increasingly scrutinized

The firm also began aligning its off-site storage contract with the broader IG program, with a focus on permanent withdrawal, destruction allowances, and long-term reduction of its storage footprint.

Mattern has found that the most effective Information Governance programs are not built around policy alone. They work when policy, technology, process, training, and vendor contracts all point in the same direction. For this firm, Mattern helped create that alignment—and gave the firm a practical framework for managing client information with greater consistency, efficiency, and defensibility.

Mattern was honored to be included in the firm’s annual retreat and present the IG report with project recommendations and detailing next steps. It was a productive discussion with the firm’s attorneys on the importance of a comprehensive IG policy and the steps to implement and enforce a defensible plan. As Rob Mattern remarked after the presentation, “Being able to present and discuss the plan and recommendations to the attorneys was great. Getting that buy-in is critical to ensure everyone understands the path forward and their role in supporting it.”