This article originally published on Law.com.
Global and national law firms face a growing dilemma: how to efficiently manage the vast volumes of unstructured data they accumulate over time—much of which cannot be deleted for legal or compliance reasons. From litigation documents to case files, contracts and discovery materials, legal institutions are witnessing explosive data growth, often exceeding 20% annually. This data sprawl presents some thorny challenges, particularly around storage costs, accessibility, and cybersecurity.
For large firms, the inability to get rid of data stems from the unpredictable nature of legal cases. A closed case can suddenly reopen, making every piece of historical data potentially critical. Consequently, firms continue to store decades’ worth of data, even though most of it is rarely accessed and living on high-cost, on-premises storage.
In today’s world, unstructured data poses a more pressing problem: ransomware risk. Unstructured files become the weakest link most vulnerable to ransomware attacks given their sheer volume and given these documents are everywhere. Law firms are especially eager to reduce the risk of ransomware attacks due to the sensitive nature of their work and the need to protect client confidentiality.
From litigation documents to case files, contracts and discovery materials, legal institutions are witnessing explosive data growth, often exceeding 20% annually.
The Weight of Legacy Infrastructure
Traditionally, firms relied on legacy infrastructure built on physical servers and network-attached storage (NAS) systems deployed at each office. However, as data growth accelerated, this model became unsustainable. Regular hardware upgrades were needed—often every 12 to 18 months—to accommodate the swelling tide of digital files, adding to the cost and complexity of IT operations.
Over time, some firms have transitioned their infrastructure to regional colocation facilities, embraced virtualization, and are now moving workloads to the cloud. The move to cloud platforms, particularly Microsoft Azure, is popular due to compatibility with existing Microsoft-based systems which are common in the sector. Yet the transition to the cloud doesn’t necessarily translate to cost savings and easier management, especially when dealing with petabytes of unstructured data.
The Rise of Intelligent Data Management Tools
To modernize their environments for efficiency and simplicity, firms are turning to intelligent unstructured data management systems that can analyze, classify, and relocate data without disrupting user access. These platforms allow organizations to identify “cold” data—files that haven’t been accessed in years—and migrate them to cost-effective, secure cloud storage tiers such as Azure Blob.
A breakthrough in this approach is the ability to tier data transparently:
- Instead of using traditional archiving methods that break links and create access issues, newer solutions leverage symbolic links.
- These links ensure that end users and applications can still access archived data as if it were stored locally.
- This not only reduces IT support hassles but also reduces the risk of workflow disruption: crucial in environments where quick access to files can make or break a case.
Cloud data tiering is yielding dramatic financial benefits.
By identifying and migrating more than 180 terabytes of stale litigation data to Azure, one global law firm recently avoided $400,000 in storage upgrades and expects to save up to $700,000 more through complete re-platforming.
These savings are not just due to reduced hardware needs; the firm can now purchase storage platforms with lower capacity requirements, thanks to the data offload.
Ransomware Resilience
Beyond cost efficiency, data tiering can also deliver a simple ransomware defense. With the legal industry increasingly targeted by ransomware, reducing the attack surface is a top priority. Immutable cloud storage—where data is write-once and cannot be altered—provides a formidable line of defense against attacks. Archived files stored in read-only cloud storage can’t be modified, giving firms an edge in data integrity and protection. This then allows a law firm to protect all their data by using the most advanced security tools to prevent and defend against attacks for high priority on-premises data while using immutable object storage in the cloud to protect non-mission-critical data at a more affordable price.
Read how Komprise reduces ransomware costs and improves unstructured data protection.
Data Workflows for AI
As in many sectors that revolve around data-intensive work, AI has enormous potential in law. According to the American Bar Association, the primary areas where AI is being applied in the law, so far, include document review, legal research, contract and legal document analysis, proofreading and document organization. Research from Harvard Law found that 90% of firms interviewed believe that AI will free up time spent on more menial, manual tasks to help counsel deliver higher quality of service and strategic work.
AI tools require vast amounts of unstructured data to deliver accurate, useful results. Data management tools can help prepare and efficiently deliver unstructured data to AI, which is one of the primary hurdles of putting artificial intelligence into production today. By integrating deep analytics and metadata tagging, IT can create automated AI data workflows that discover the right data for a project while also excluding and confining sensitive data that should not be ingested in an AI tool. This is especially valuable in law, where data governance policies and audits are non-negotiable components of standard operating procedure.
Ultimately, intelligent unstructured data management is not merely an IT function—it is a strategic initiative that influences how a law firm operates, serves its clients, and prepares for the future. The ability to analyze and mobilize unstructured data to address storage growth, lower security risks, and support AI initiatives is fast becoming a competitive advantage.
