Microsoft Purview: streamlining legal compliance & data governance

With workloads up 40% since 2016, law firms are turning to legal technology to maximise billable hours without increasing pressure on their teams.

But what’s the best way to use technology to cut clerical overheads, build cases faster and free your team from repetitive tasks, so they can do higher-value work?

Often, the answer is Microsoft Purview, a comprehensive data governance and security platform, powered by Microsoft's advanced cloud infrastructure. Purview not only enables you to automate and accelerate data discovery, protection and management, but it also ensures security and compliance.

Table of Contents

1. What is Microsoft Purview?
2. Designed for legal investigations and document discovery
3. Get the power of legal AI without the risks
4. How can law firms benefit from Microsoft Purview
5. Get started with Microsoft Purview

What is Microsoft Purview?

Microsoft Purview allows organisations to discover, organise, manage and secure the data they need to do their job. The toolset is particularly suited to law firms and can be invaluable in assisting with tasks such as GDPR Subject Access requests.

Through a single, streamlined interface, the Microsoft Purview portal gives you instant access to all the documents and data relevant to your caseload. This data is organised by case and secured using advanced encryption, role-based data-protection policies, anti-deletion rules, and more.

Purview: Designed for legal investigations and document discovery

Microsoft Purview provides you with comprehensive eDiscovery and other tools to make data discovery, governance, security, and compliance more efficient.

Some of the Microsoft Purview features most interesting to law firms include:

• Cut discovery time with eDiscovery: Microsoft Purview automatically searches relevant repositories and indexes the data you need for your case.
• Find the document you need, faster, with Content Search: use the powerful Purview search function to find the legal document you need, faster.
• Organise data more efficiently, with Case Management: organise documents into cases, set case status, share cases with colleagues, and more.
• Stop unauthorised data deletion with Holds: Use Purview to put a hold on data repositories, including mailboxes, SharePoint and more.
• Prevent data loss with Information Protection: encrypt case data for maximum security, label sensitive data to prevent its deletion, and control data access.
• Find every piece of evidence, with the forensic Audit feature: specify the audit criteria and the locations to be audited, let Purview do the rest.
• Simplify compliance and minimise risk with unified data governance: identify, manage and minimise risks with intelligent, automated governance.
• Secure your collaboration with Information Barriers: enable teams to collaborate on document processing while preventing unauthorised sharing.

Get the power of AI without the risks

AI is embedded directly into Microsoft Purview, helping your legal team work smarter, faster, and more securely. AI-powered features in Purview include:

• Detect and secure sensitive data as it’s discovered, with Microsoft Security Copilot built into the discovery process.
• The eDiscovery function uses AI to find and prioritise for review the documents and data likely to be most significant to the case you’re building.
• Microsoft Copilot automatically scans the documents for a case and creates a case summary, giving you instant, actionable case insights.
• Use AI-powered natural-language search to generate expert-level Keyword Query Language (KQL) searches and find relevant evidence faster.

The platform also includes features that help you secure the data you use and generate with other generative-AI systems you integrate into your legal workflows.

Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management for AI analyses your use of AI and provides ready-made policies and security measures to help you manage risk.

How law firms can benefit from Microsoft Purview

As well as working 40% more cases than they did in 2016, UK law firms are also dealing with an increased compliance burden.

The same law firms face both staffing and retention challenges. They need a way to increase employee productivity without compromising their experience.

Unsurprisingly, these factors are causing increased costs as well as extra work and stress for UK law firms.

Integrating Microsoft Purview into your workflows can help manage, mitigate and even solve many of these problems:

• Make your solicitors and clerical employees more productive, helping them to accomplish more in less time, resulting in more billable hours.
• Find the documents and data you need to build a successful case faster, with greater accuracy, using the streamlined Microsoft Purview Portal.
• Beat the labour shortage and reduce employee stress by using advanced automation to free up time-consuming, repetitive labour.
• Reduce the scope for human error by using advanced eDiscovery as well as data management and compliance tools.
• Safely deploy Microsoft, self-built and third-party AI platforms, using Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management for AI.

When you manage legal investigations in Microsoft Purview, you have all the tools you need to hit your targets faster and build a winning case.

Get started with Microsoft Purview

Texaport has extensive experience in Microsoft technologies, with a strong track record of IT support for law firms. Our consultants will help you design and deploy a Microsoft Purview implementation that is right for you and gets you the best possible return on your investment.

Find out how Microsoft Purview can help you build cases faster, reduce manual error rates, and free your team for higher-value work. Contact us today to speak to one of our Microsoft experts.