Don’t Let “Shadow IT” Take Hold in the Legal Department

Employees are becoming empowered to take workplace technology adoption into their own hands, and that’s become a challenge for IT departments and companies. A 2016 Cisco research report found that “Shadow IT” – the use of unauthorized software by employees – has increased nearly 70 percent in less than a year.

Shadow IT in law departments is almost never about intentionally risky behavior or uninformed staff. Rather it’s the byproduct of a deeper issue: ineffective partnerships between IT teams and the law department end users. For example, in legal teams that aren’t using enterprise or document management software, associates who need to store or share critical information and files may be left to fend for themselves. When IT leaders and law departments don’t consult before software or a cloud app is rolled out, there is increased chance of a botched implementation.

Another issue is that marketing, operations and sales departments may value the ability to customize a program like SharePoint for cross-company collaboration, but that same accessibility might not suit lawyers, who must maintain confidentiality and/or privilege. This perceived lack of security can cause legal professionals to limit what they store to non-sensitive items.

Change management is required and it doesn’t stop at implementation. Law department leaders should collaborate with IT and the C-suite to foster ongoing employee awareness of sanctioned technologies, reward staff for its adoption, and create processes to identify gaps between what employees need and the tools provided.