Document Knowledge Management

Programme profile

Reviewing, proposing and implementing a firm-wide document and records management function for a leading international law firm.

Intro

Why this work,
and why us.

Svoon implements document, knowledge and records management platforms that fit naturally into the way your organisation already works. The right platform should make the right document easy to find, the right version obvious, and the right retention rule automatic — without becoming a project in its own right for end users.

Key Issues

The situation
we walked into.

01
No firm-wide policy, governance, versioning or local adoption regarding how documents should be filed, retained, or destroyed — creating inconsistency and unmanaged risk
02
Digital and physical records treated as entirely separate problems — no integrated view of what the firm held, where it was, or how long it needed to be kept
03
Fee-earners frustrated and wasting time every day locating documents — worsening when physical files held offsite needed to be retrieved
04
Regulatory audit identified confidential client files accessible to staff outside the relevant matter — a direct legal and reputational exposure the firm had no process to prevent
05
Offsite physical storage costs growing year on year with no mechanism to identify and remove material the firm was legally permitted to destroy

Svoon Actions

How we took control,
step by step.

01
Conducted a full gap analysis across document and records management — assessing systems, data, suppliers, processes, and ownership against both regulatory requirements and the firm's operational needs
02
Designed an integrated document and records policy — treating digital and physical records as a single, connected discipline rather than two separate problems
03
Restructured the firm's document management system — establishing a consistent filing structure linked to client, matter, and document type, with access controls and automated workflows built in from the point a file is opened
04
Defined retention schedules for every document category — automating the review, escalation, and destruction process so compliance no longer depended on individual judgement
05
Audited the physical archive — identifying records within boxes as eligible for destruction and/or digitising, with a cost model built to track ongoing storage liability and support future decisions

Key Impacts

What changed,
measurably.

Firm-wide document and records policy implemented across all practice groups — with clear ownership, governance, and review cycle built in
Document retrieval time reduced — physical files accessible same-day
Physical storage costs reduced — removing material the firm had been paying unnecessarily for years and at risk
Access control breaches eliminated — confidential client files now visible only to those with a direct need, with a full audit trail in place
Fee-earner hours reclaimed annually — time previously lost to searching for documents now returned to billable work