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OK at Work, hosted by Offit Kurman attorneys Russell Berger and Sarah Sawyer, is a weekly podcast that discusses current events and legal issues impacting business owners. From updates on the ever-changing employment law landscape to the risks and benefits of integrating AI into your workplace, subscribe to stay up-to-date on issues and events that may impact you and your business.
Sarah Sawyer: Welcome to this
week's OK at Work with myself,
Sarah Sawyer, my colleague Russell
Berger, attorneys at Offit Kurman.
And today we are talking about
information governance, which in plain
English um, typically means what you
do with your data and information as
a business with an eye to compliance
and, future needs that might arise.
So obviously, every business
is creating data every day.
That's emails, it's teams chats.
It's things you create for
your clients and deliverables.
It's your CRM.
It's, fill in the blank.
There's a million different things
that every single day, every minute
are being created, and they're
being created for business purposes.
They're not just being
created to be created.
Right.
Every business has this, every business
has a lot of information, a lot of data,
and obviously with modern technology
a lot of that data gets stored and,
held for a certain period of time.
And instead of having physical
files in a big file room and all was
paper, we have it all digitally now.
And.
So it's important to say, all
right, well, what information do
I have and what do I do with it?
And so what are some things that
companies should be thinking about
Russell when they're, overwhelmed
thinking about the, tons of data and
information that they're creating and
collecting at any given moment of the day?
Russell Berger: Yeah.
I Would add to your list of questions.
A third question, which
is how long do I keep it?
Sarah Sawyer: Yep.
Russell Berger: And the fourth
question is, how do I get rid of it?
Safely.
Yeah I think that's it.
We create, as businesses, we create
a footprint and we create records.
And, like so many things that we talk
about, the appropriate thing to do
is to have a plan and to lay it out.
And this isn't rocket science.
There's best practices out there
and there's guidelines for how
to, what type of information?
It depends on your business, obviously
like for us as a law firm, we're holding
client files, it's a different set
of rules and it's already governed,
but just for any business, what's
your baseline for saving emails?
You're gonna save them forever.
Like it seems like one, not
a great practice practically,
and two like expensive.
So where do you draw the line?
And then of course, when there are
disputes, do you have a litigation
hold protocol to stop auto deletes and
preserve certain types of information.
So I think just having a playbook in
place is a really important starting
point for information goverance.
And then you can deal with the
specifics and the nuances from there.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah, and there's some
really specific black and white guidance
on some things, like things in employee
files or certain types of tax documents.
There's state and federal
regulations around that.
But then there's a whole
host of things in between.
Emails is a good one.
Different types of information that
you're creating and I think we wanna think
Russell Berger: Like marketing plans.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah.
Russell Berger: Just normal every, not
the official rec employment factors
or what have you, but or accounting
records, like really just nuts and
bolts of the business type stuff.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah and what your
analysis is of what you're gonna keep
and what you're gonna do with the
information is gonna depend on the
type of information and whether you're
thinking about compliance or future
litigation or risk management, or just
practical business reasons, so what
is the utility of me keeping this?
What am I gonna use it later?
'Cause as you mentioned, Russell,
data storage obviously is expensive.
We used to pay for, big rooms to store
paper in, and now we pay for, electronic
storage and there is a cost to that.
Yeah, I think a good starting
point is have a plan.
Think about like, all right, which
category does this fall into?
Is this a legal compliance
or a risk management function
that I'm trying to solve for?
Is this a practical business sense
that I'm trying to, solve for it
because I'm gonna need this later?
Or is it both or somewhere in between?
And knowing what you have, I've had
clients who they don't realize they're
collecting certain types of data through
apps or certain programs, and so that's
another thing I would just highlight as
part of this episode is make sure you know
what you have, what you're collecting.
So
... Russell Berger: Well, and to add to
that, who has access to it because,
like that file room filled with
paper, a handful of people have keys,
easy enough to manage access to it.
Digital records, people internally, people
externally knowing who has access to your
information and what they can do with it.
That's an important control to
put in place as well when you're
talking about information governance.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah.
Not always the most fun topic to talk
about because it's, record keeping,
but it's important and it's especially
a court and when we get involved.
Russell Berger: Yeah, right.
Figure out a good blueprint for
your industry, for your type of
business and get something in
place that everyone can follow.
It doesn't have to be a whole big
deal and, spend a whole lot of time
thinking about how to draft it.
Find one that works for your
industry, in your space.
And then most importantly,
get it implemented.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah.
Well thanks Russell.
I'll see you next time.
Russell Berger: Thanks, Sarah.