Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP is a Chicago-based law firm providing legal services to a diverse group of clients in a wide array of domestic and global business transactions and litigation matters. Its clients include privately and publicly held companies, financial institutions, nonprofit organizations and high-net-worth individuals.
Security is a core principal of the company, and management works to ensure the firm always remains in compliance regarding client information, keeping it safe and secure. In light of its large number of legal files with long retention schedules, Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg outsourced file storage to a document management provider. However, the company quickly became unsatisfied with the poor service it received from its vendor. The vendor was unable to locate and deliver time-sensitive files in a prompt manner, according to the law firm. In addition, the vendor constantly raised its prices and charged Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg for unnecessary reboxing and administration fees.
“Our previous storage provider caused us problem after problem, and we quickly grew unhappy with their service,” says Shirley Pietrowiak, records manager, Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg. “We needed a partner that could provide us cost-effective solutions with the quality service and attention we require.”
A Fresh Start
In search of a cost-effective, secure and efficient provider, Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg selected Cintas Document Management for its document storage and shredding solutions. The firm says it found Cintas to be an ethical company with flexible solutions that could meet its needs.
“Many of the providers we interviewed weren’t flexible and had a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude,” Pietrowiak says. “Cintas’ sales representatives were trustworthy and worked with us to customize a document management solution to meet and exceed our company’s needs. Further, they listened to our complaints from our previous provider to make sure the same issues did not occur again.”
In December of 2009, Cintas transferred 60,000 cubic feet of the law firm’s files from the previous records storage provider to its secure document storage facility in Chicago. Cintas also provided the law firm with on-site, secure shredding bins to enable employees to easily and safely destroy sensitive business documents.
“Cintas made the transition seamless,” Pietrowiak says. “Everyone involved was very proactive. All of our files were accounted for, and Cintas was always eager and willing to help out if we had any problems.”
Responsive Service
Since partnering with Cintas, Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg has been pleased with the successful management of clients’ files. The firm has found Cintas to be responsive, attentive and accommodating. The local, dedicated customer service team from the Cintas location in Chicago has enabled the firm to receive time-sensitive files quickly and efficiently. Further, with just one phone call, all service queries are handled promptly. This capability has saved the firm a significant amount of time and energy.
In addition, with Cintas’ steady pricing and flexibility, the firm has saved $45,000 annually and claims it is satisfied with the security and efficiency of the storage and shredding solutions.
Now, all of Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg’s physical records live in a secure environment and can be retrieved on-demand and properly destroyed if required. Cintas also visits the firm on a regular basis to securely remove and shred the confidential business documents located in the shredding bins. In addition, in light of ever-changing legal regulations, Cintas serves as a consultant for Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg, ensuring the firm remains up to date and compliant with industry standards and regulatory requirements.
“Cintas is always willing to service our needs,” Pietrowiak says. “The sales representatives are a terrific representation of the philosophy of the company and they always work hard to make sure our needs and expectations are met.”
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Addressing the Challenge Accessing, retrieving and recovering potentially hundreds of documents for an investigation or as evidence in a legal matter consumes time, is expensive for clients and can negatively affect a law firm if not found or produced in a timely manner. This was true for a mid-sized law firm with 640 attorneys mainly located in St. Louis and in Kansas City, Kan. This firm’s attorneys became accustomed to the inconvenient chore of manually reviewing their paper files for a case, wasting hours of unproductive billed time. With the use of optical character recognition (OCR) and coding of relevant information ,the attorneys and paralegals can now search for key words or data, permitting them to review only pertinent documents in a timely fashion. Other services Cintas provided include document unitization, document preparation, scanning, page-to-image verification, document coding, electronic bates labeling, blowbacks and summation, concordance and Ringtail load files. Partnering with Cintas for more than 50 different cases has allowed for the processing of more than 1 million pages for this client, greatly improving its bottom line. Improved response to time-sensitive discovery requests and secure access to crucial information has made valuable personnel more available to focus on more significant tasks. During the past eight years, thousands of attorneys’ and paralegals’ hours have been saved with this specific legal customer. Additionally, the law firm benefits from reduced legal expense and improved search mechanisms for key documents. Cintas also has provided this legal client with the ability to find key data so it can win more cases. |
The author is a freelance writer based in Chicago. The article was submitted on behalf of Cintas.
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