The Data Steward Program is a better approach for law firms and their clients to assess and share information about the firm’s information security and governance status because it is a standards-based approach, focused specifically on the needs of the legal practice, driving collaborative improvement to information security.
The controls in the framework have been selected from the most relevant examples in leading information security frameworks in the market (e.g. NIST, ISO). You can be confident that the benchmarks cover the information security issues you care about most.
Compliance with industry standards offers ACC members, law firms and legal service providers a degree of defensible due diligence
Collection, storage and disclosure of profiles and scores are protected by strong security and access control. Law firms and legal service providers control the disclosure of their information, both to assure both security and accurate messaging when presenting to clients.
A working group of representatives from both in-house counsel and law firms (as well as legal service providers) developed and maintain the Data Steward process, assuring that each group’s perspective of the requirements is considered. This guarantees that all industry participants can “come to the middle” on context sensitive standards, benchmarking, and continuous improvement. This process has been developed to easily extend and embrace similar initiatives underway by other industry groups.
The Program has been built using an open standard-setting process, resulting in context- sensitive standards and benchmarks which enable each firm to be compared consistently against its competitors.
As the representative for corporate counsel around the globe, ACC responds to (and influences) the choices of our members. ACC’s leadership with this Program assures that in-house client requirements are addressed, encouraging the widest possible adoption of the framework.
Controls in the framework have been specifically selected and optimized for their use and application in a legal services environment. The response alternatives in the assessment are optimized for relevance to the law firm.
The Program’s transparency and open scoring methodology make the results trustworthy and meaningful. The Program gives participating law firms and their clients a shared view and mechanism to drive better conversations – and a tighter working relationship in ensuring client data security.
A participant can complete the assessment once, then share some or all of the profile (and the score) with as many clients as desired – at varying levels of detail (under the participant’s control).
The Framework and Scoring system – specific to law firms – enables participants to transition from simply collecting and organizing data about the firm’s practices to prioritizing its investments – and honing its approach.
The cloud-based assessment framework expedites the assessment process, collecting structured and accurate information about your data security risks, while saving time, cost, and effort.
Participating firms can update their profiles at any time – as many times as desired. As a firm improves its information security posture, the score is automatically updated, and the firm can easily inform its clients. This process can help to justify continuous security improvement – enabling the most secure environment for both clients and law firms.
Quotes from Charter Members
