Standards for the handling and retention of email traffic by legal services providers are very stringent, particularly regarding client privacy and the proper treatment of electronic evidence. Marshal provides award-winning products for email and Internet content security and endpoint security that help legal services firms comply with rigorous ethical standards and strict professional/regulatory requirements. Marshal solutions can help your organization take a proactive approach to compliance and control for legal services.
Marshal provides a range of solutions that provide specific benefits for legal service providers.
Critical to the legal profession is the need to maintain client confidentiality and safeguard private information. Wrongful or negligent release of key evidence or client data can result in considerable losses to professional reputation, as well as significant exposure for the legal services provider involved. There is also the potential for negligent dissemination of evidence, or loss of electronic evidence, to prejudice a client's case. Marshal solutions provide a range of methods that allow you to maintain privacy and assurance
With MailMarshal, you can set strict polices for handling client records that, for example, only allow a defined set of email users to send and receive records. You can also set up special groups of email users who are allowed to receive private information, and prevent other users from receiving this information
MailMarshal also provides a range of email encryption options, including encrypting messages so that only the intended recipient can read them. MailMarshal also supports digital signing of messages, so that you can be assured that the message is authentic and original (un-tampered).
MailMarshal can ensure that email records are maintained safely and are easily accessible. Several governments around the world have already enforced email retention policies for some industries. Typical requirements are for companies to retain copies of their emails for a period of “no less than three years”. Marshal solutions can assist in ensuring compliance with these requirements and are flexible and configurable enough to meet future procedural requirements too.
Legal services providers are all too aware of the potential for litigation over harassment, sexual discrimination, exposure to offensive content, racist jokes and the like. Marshal solutions provide the ideal platform for policy enforcement. They can prevent many issues from occurring in the first place, and can also demonstrate that you have taken all reasonable steps to try and prevent such incidents by utilizing Marshal technology hand-in-hand with communication, training and awareness programs.
Today, legal services providers are required to meet a number of compliance obligations. Common examples of these obligations include:
The U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 holds the management in charge of corporate disclosures personally accountable for its actions. The Act amends mail and wire fraud infractions with harsher punishments and imposes fines and prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who knowingly alters or destroys a record or document with the intent to obstruct an investigation. Email messages and attachments are treated by the courts as business records that must be retained to achieve regulatory compliance.
The U.K. Data Protection Act 1998 specifies that personal information held electronically must be secured, only transferred appropriately, and kept for limited times.
The details of your obligations will depend on your jurisdiction. Marshal solutions can address many of the requirements for modern legal compliance – namely retention of records, security of private information and monitoring of communications for compliance with laws and regulations.
Please feel free to contact us to discuss any specific aspect of legal requirements related to your jurisdiction or business. We will be happy to detail how Marshal can help you to meet them.
