Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann chooses MozyPro to protect attorneys’ data
“In every way possible, we need to protect our attorneys’ data—their work product—whether they are around the corner or around the planet.”
Backing up the data of traveling attorneys became a priority for Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann when a laptop wouldn’t start up two days before trial. David Roden, the firm’s director of technology, chose MozyPro to automatically back up the data of the firm’s attorneys.
It is not rare for the attorneys of the Baltimore-based law firm Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann to be working on cases throughout the United States. Occasionally, their attorneys even work on cases in other countries.
One of the firm’s cases sent a senior partner to Arkansas in January of 2008. The attorney had prepared a solid case, and like any traveling employee, all of his work was on his laptop. Two days before trial, his computer would not start, and he was unable to access the work he had prepared for the case.
“My phone rang at eight o’clock that evening,” said David Roden, director of technology at Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann. Roden was on the next flight from Baltimore to Arkansas.
“Can you imagine being in front of the judge and saying that your dog ate your homework?” he asked.
Luckily, he was able to recover the files, and the trial was not affected. However, the experience led Roden to look into a backup solution for traveling attorneys that would safeguard their data but not detract time from their work.
“In every way possible, we need to protect our attorneys’ data—their work product—whether they are around the corner or around the planet,” Roden said. “Getting on a plane to go recover data is not a viable solution.”
Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann is familiar with using technology to meet its needs. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the firm decided to keep a copy of their data off-site, and began backing up their servers and key desktop computers.
When the firm decided to include attorneys’ laptops in the backup, it faced some different challenges. As a smaller firm with limited IT resources, the upfront costs of building and managing its own backup solution were prohibitive. Additionally, the firm needed a backup solution that could work from anywhere and would not require the time and effort of the attorneys.
“Our attorneys expect the backups to happen, but they don’t want to be the ones doing it,” Roden said.
The firm turned to online backup to meet its requirements. Roden tried out multiple solutions, but one was time consuming and difficult to manage, and another was expensive and hogged network resources.
In early February 2008, Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann found a service that is easy to mange and did not hog network resources—MozyPro. MozyPro securely and automatically backs up files in the background to Decho’s world-class data centers, allowing attorneys to focus all of their time and effort on their cases.
“MozyPro’s low cost and ease of use allow our attorneys to provide great service to our clients in an extremely efficient and cost-effective manner,” Roden said. “With Mozy Pro, we know that our attorneys are protected no matter what time zone they happen to be in today.”
MozyPro’s Administrative Console also helps Roden save time. It allows the status of each laptop’s backup to be viewed from one screen, regardless of which state the laptops may currently be in. Roden can quickly note which of the firm’s machines have backed up and which ones still need to run a backup.
“Had we selected one of the other solutions, we estimate there would have been several hours per month of administration,” Roden said. “The time we spend administering Mozy can be measured in minutes per month.”
About Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLP
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