Over the years, Corporate Governance and IT departments have not enjoyed much overlap – something that may perhaps have impacted a business’ company wide outlook on important issues such as cybersecurity or information governance. Nevertheless, that may be changing as corporate attorneys and resident IT experts seek to address both the risk and technical challenges of moving towards the remote working environment necessitated by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.
The chief legal officer at the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), Susanna McDonald, has described the trend as an extension of a relationship that began as companies were trying to navigate both the policy and cybersecurity-related issues posed by privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
In her words, “The lawyers are talking about this with their board of directors. They are talking about cybersecurity and risk with their board of directors. … So the legal departments are getting involved and in order to be able to do that, they have to have a good relationship with the IT department.”
Lawyers were needed to interpret the legal nuances of the CCPA and the steps a company may have to take towards compliance, while IT departments could provide reality checks around the technical feasibility of such initiatives while laying down the technical groundwork necessary for execution. The CEO of Logicforce, Gulam Zade, pointed out that a similar arrangement has emerged to deal with the sudden onslaught of remote working needs.
Seen from an IT perspective, for example, it can be more intimidating to secure a network of devices spread from home-to-home than one that is centralized in a shared office space. In addition, those same cyber vulnerabilities—some of which have already emerged in the shape of phishing scams—also raise the legal risk associated with the threat of breaches and stolen or lost data. For companies, developing a solid remote working strategy definitely requires legal and IT departments to share notes.
Zade further said, “I think this has really brought the two groups together as they plan long-term plans for organizations on how they are going to deal with however long this COVID virus and the work from home situation lasts.”
Be that as it may, once the virus recedes and businesses potentially return to something approaching a new normal, a stronger relationship between legal and IT departments could begin bearing fruit beyond company policies or cybersecurity postures. McDonald along with the ACC firmly believes that the framework companies established to assist with remote working could also yield long-term gains for legal department efficiency.
She indicated towards the implementation of technologies like remote signature solutions, which could become a more regular fixture inside legal departments after serving as a necessary bridge in times of social distancing. McDonald also observed that remote working has actually yielded higher productivity inside some organizations, so IT departments may be expected to keep video conferencing and other remote working platforms going strong even once they are no longer strictly necessary.
To put it in the words of McDonald, “We’re all going to be looking at probably faster adoption of IT to help us get our job done faster and more efficiently.”
