Reduction in Critical System Downtime
Change Approval Documentation
Increase in Continuity Testing
Improvement in IT Satisfaction
- Mid-sized U.S. law firm
- ~250 attorneys, 3 offices
- Practice focus: Healthcare, Real Estate, and Commercial Litigation
- IT team of 12 supporting legal tech, compliance, and client-facing platforms
- Service Continuity & Resilience
- Incident & Problem Management
- Change & Deployment Governance
Background and Challenge
In early 2023, Firm A experienced a four-hour outage of its document management system (DMS) during a time-sensitive client filing. The issue stemmed from an unreviewed patch that was applied without formal testing or rollback planning. Internal post-mortem analysis revealed:
- •No formal business continuity or disaster recovery playbooks
- •Inconsistent incident escalation pathways
- •Low ticket classification accuracy
- •Uncoordinated system changes across teams
The outage caused delays in a healthcare litigation matter and raised concerns from a key client. Senior leadership initiated a broader review of the firm's IT governance and service management maturity.
Engagement Approach
I was brought in to support the firm's IT leadership in assessing and remediating foundational risks. Using a structured maturity framework tailored to legal-sector operations, the approach focused on three domains:
- Service Continuity & Resilience
- Incident & Problem Management
- Change & Deployment Governance
What We Did
- •Used a self-assessment tool to establish baseline maturity scores
- •Identified gaps in continuity planning, unstructured change control, and low visibility into incident trends
- •Created a simplified Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and DMS recovery procedure
- •Established a Change Review Board and a risk classification system for production changes
- •Developed root cause templates and implemented post-incident reviews
- •Introduced change freeze windows aligned to matter milestones and fiscal periods
- •Defined service ownership and documented SLAs
- •Improved ticket classification logic in the helpdesk system
- •Conducted the firm's first tabletop continuity simulation
Outcomes
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Documented Change Approvals | <20% | 100% |
| Ticket Categorization Accuracy | 42% | 90% |
| Continuity Tests Conducted | 0/year | 3/year |
| Downtime (Critical Systems) | 6 hrs/month | <1 hr/month |
| IT Satisfaction Score (CSAT) | 3.1 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
Reflections
- Quick operational wins helped build internal trust and momentum
- Having a neutral framework (not vendor-aligned) improved buy-in across IT and legal ops
- Improvements reduced reputational risk with institutional clients subject to regulatory scrutiny
Key Takeaways
Measure First
Establish baseline metrics before making changes to demonstrate value and track progress
Governance Matters
Simple governance structures create accountability and improve outcomes
Practice Makes Perfect
Regular testing and simulation exercises build resilience and confidence