Law firms are awash in data. Yet relatively few firms know how to responsibly protect and leverage that data — let alone have the data infrastructure needed to achieve that.

Fortunately, there are practical frameworks law firms can implement to manage their data, make the most of their internal applications, take advantage of third-party data sources, and address the critical challenges involved in building a modern data infrastructure, says Jeff Cox, director of content at legal data and analytics company Unicourt.

“When it comes to law firms, their clients, and the services they provide, there are an incredible number of interconnected data points and even more ways to take advantage of them with the right data infrastructure,” Cox writes. “But where do law firms start? What should they do first to get their own data house in order and modernize their infrastructure?”

Cox offers answers to these questions in his article, Best Practices for Building a Modern Law Firm Data Infrastructure, published in the resources library of the LawNext Legal Technology Directory.

He talks about how to build a data strategy, steps to take before cleaning house, the advantages of the cloud, the use of data lakes and APIs, and the importance of hiring the right people.

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