Document Retention Policy Checklist

Walk each practice group through the records they actually generate — pleadings and discovery for litigation, deal binders and ancillaries for transactional, I-589/PERM files for immigration, title commitments and HUD-1s for real estate. Estate planning and real estate matters typically need their own categories with longer retention than the firm baseline.

Most state bars set a 5–7 year minimum post-matter close, with trust-account records under Rule 1.15 typically 7+ years. Confirm the current rule in every state where the firm practices — multi-state firms default to the longest applicable period per matter type.

Managing partner, firm administrator, IT manager, and at least one practice-group representative. IT presence is non-optional — retention rules that the DMS cannot enforce are theater.

Default to the longer of (a) state bar minimum, (b) statute of limitations for malpractice claims in the relevant jurisdiction, (c) any contractual retention term in the engagement letter. Real estate and estate-planning files routinely run 10+ years; trust records 7+ years.

Minor clients (toll until age of majority + SOL), capital cases, ongoing trust administration, and matters with QDROs or long-tail indemnity obligations need carve-outs from the firm baseline. Document the rationale for each exception.

Spell out who can issue a hold, how the hold is communicated to custodians, how the DMS suppresses scheduled destruction, and how the hold is released. A retention schedule that runs over an active hold is a spoliation event.

In NetDocuments, iManage, Worldox, or Clio Documents — set matter-type, close-date, and retention-class as required fields at matter open. Without metadata, the destruction report at year-end is guesswork.

Trust ledgers, three-way reconciliations, and bank statements live in a restricted folder accessible only to the responsible attorney, billing clerk, and firm administrator. Rule 1.15 record requirements are independent of matter retention — they outlast the matter close by years.

Model Rule 1.6(c) requires reasonable safeguards. Confirm AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit, and that access logs are retained for the same period as the underlying documents — auditors and disciplinary counsel ask for both.

Cover what to keep, what not to keep, how litigation holds work, and the prohibition on personal-cloud or personal-email storage of client materials. Collect signed acknowledgments and store them in each personnel file.

Update the new-matter intake template in Clio, MyCase, or Smokeball so retention class and projected destruction date are captured at intake — not retrofitted at close, when the responsible attorney has moved on.

Check each state's Rules of Professional Conduct for amendments since last review, plus any new ABA Formal Opinions on records retention, cloud storage, or AI tools. Note any rule changes that require schedule revisions.

Redline the policy with the drafting committee. Common revision triggers: new state cloud-storage opinions, generative-AI usage policies, breach-notification thresholds, and DMS migration changes that affect destruction automation.

Issue a redline summary and require fresh acknowledgments. Silent updates to the handbook are not effective notice — disciplinary counsel will ask how the change was communicated.

Pull from the DMS every closed matter past its retention date, grouped by responsible attorney. The responsible attorney signs off before any file leaves the system.

Cross-check the destruction list against the active-hold register. Holds for ongoing matters, malpractice claims, fee disputes, and government inquiries all block destruction. When in doubt, hold.

Paper files via a NAID AAA-certified shredding vendor; electronic files via DMS purge with cryptographic erase of backup tapes. The vendor must issue a certificate of destruction listing each container or file ID.

The destruction register is itself a permanent record — keep it indefinitely. If a former client or court asks where a file went, the register is the answer.