Future-Proofing Your Law Firm:
Key IT Investments for 2025

Cybersecurity Improvements

With the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks, investing in the right cybersecurity products and providers is paramount. Good cybersecurity products and providers should include:

Real-time vulnerability scanning

– It is no longer enough to scan your network once a month. Your cybersecurity provider should be scanning your internal network 24/7 and your external network weekly.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

– monitoring network traffic moving in and out and across your network as well as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) product that your security provider manages (MDR).

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

– aggregating and analyzing security logs not just from the obvious firewalls and Windows systems, but also security logs from business systems like your Document Management System (DMS).

Security Posture Review

– A good cybersecurity provider will meet with you regularly to review the security posture of your network’s different components.

Incident Response Contract and Incident Warranty

A reliable cybersecurity provider will offer an on-call SLA contract for incident response in case of a breach. Additionally, they will provide a warranty to cover some of the breach-related costs. Note that incident response contracts are increasingly becoming a requirement for cybersecurity insurance policies.

Important Note: Your Managed Services Provider (MSP) should NOT be your cybersecurity provider. The team responsible for patching and remediating your vulnerabilities should be different from the team that identifies them. This is like an accounting department, where the person who writes a check should not be the same person who signs it. Your MSP and cybersecurity provider should be different people.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation

It will be interesting to see how AI and automation enhance productivity and reduce operational costs in 2025.

According to the “2024 ILTA Technology Survey”, most firms are currently in the “investigating” phase of using AI tools. The top three anticipated uses of generative AI tools in the next 12 months are research, summarizing complex documents, and creating initial drafts of documents. Note: This article was started with an initial Copilot query.

Not surprisingly, Copilot for Office 365 and ChatGPT are the most frequently used AI tools today, with leading legal research and document management system (DMS) vendors making significant AI advancements. Firms should examine their current core business applications to identify new AI capabilities being integrated. For example, the leading DMSs are now adding AI features to generate documents based on the firm’s existing document store and to automatically file and categorize large volumes of unstructured documents and emails.

Security Compliance (ISO & NIST)

More law firms are being asked to demonstrate they follow security regulations and standards like ISO 27001 and NIST CSF. The process of getting these certifications can take 9 to 18 months, so the sooner you get started, the better.

• The “2024 ILTA Technology Survey” shows that more than 50% of law firms are audited against or certified for security standards or frameworks.
• 29% follow ISO 27001 certification, up from 26% in 2023
• 20% follow NIST CSF compliance, up from 14% in 2023

This trend will continue across the range of small to large firms. While these standards can take some time to implement, they help IT departments implement security policies, best practices, and respond more efficiently to client security audits, and cyber insurance applications.

Here is a good interactive tool to help your firm identify and assess their current gaps in preparation for ISO certification or NIST compliance.

Arctic Wolf® Cyber JumpStart – Arctic Wolf

Note: Law firms should ask their IT service providers to demonstrate they are ISO certified or NIST compliant.

Managed IT Services

Most law firms lack the IT staff to monitor their computer systems around the clock and do not have experts for all the technologies they use. A Managed Services Provider (MSP) specializing in the legal industry and committed to cybersecurity (ISO 27001 compliant) can help a law firm keep its IT systems up to date and running smoothly 24/7.

Look for an MSP that provides:

• A Service Desk (Help Desk) with legal experience that offers 24/7 live phone support, access to a comprehensive FAQ knowledgebase, and a ticketing system with monthly reporting and recommendations.
• Managed Desktop Services with Intune experience to help your IT staff stay on top of application updates and security patches for the firm’s laptops, desktops, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (Citrix, AVD, W365).
• 24/7 monitoring of critical systems including on-premises network infrastructure, connectivity to cloud services, and ability to remediate issues after hours.
• Cybersecurity Patching and Remediation: Your MSP should be capable of performing after-hours security patching and be on-call to support your staff during a cybersecurity incident. Additionally, your MSP should collaborate closely with your cybersecurity provider.
• On-site Support as needed: Your MSP should be able to provide “remote hands” in your regional offices.
• Subscription Management: Helps manage and reduce the cost of support renewals and subscriptions like Microsoft Azure and M365 licenses as well as prepare annual budget estimates.
• Quarterly Strategic Planning: Your MSP should meet with the CIO or COO quarterly to review the status of the previous quarter’s goals and prepare for next quarter and next year’s goals.