How Law Firms Can Use Smart Physical Security to Better Protect Their Offices

Law firms hold sensitive client information, and clients will be impressed by tight security measures when visiting your buildings.

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An American Bar Association study shows that in 2020, 29% of law firms experienced a security breach. Office spaces are subject to security threats that compromise the physical safety of employees and the sensitive data of clients contained in law offices.

If you equip your law firm with the proper protection, you can avoid compromising sensitive information and increase the security of your building to create a safe workspace.

So, what are the ways a law firm can use smart physical security to protect their offices better? Read on to find out more.

How to Assess Your Law Firm’s Security Requirements

By performing a risk assessment on your law firm, you will be able to identify your security requirements and any security defects or vulnerabilities in your current security system.

Every building is different and so requires various security features in different locations. How we think of security has evolved to include health and safety, cyber security, and threats posed by remote working. You must take four initial steps to assess your firm’s security needs:

1. Identify the data and assets of your law firm that need protection. 
2. Assess the security threats posed to your data and assets, creating a risk profile for each asset.
3. Come up with a plan should there be a security breach.
4. Identify the preventative measures that you can add to your security system to prevent a security breach.

Once you have performed a risk assessment, you should be well aware of your law firm’s vulnerabilities and security requirements. Let’s move on to discuss how you can create a security plan that will eliminate your firm’s vulnerabilities.

How to Create Your Smart Physical Security Plan

A smart physical security plan can protect your firm from data breaches and promote a working environment that values the health and safety of its employees.

Set Up an Access Control System

An access control system can provide a platform for many other building security integrations.

Access control systems allow your security team to open door locks via touchless access cards that your employees can store on mobile devices. This means you can protect your building from unauthorized access.

With a touchless access system, you can remotely grant access to visitors by remotely unlocking and locking doors from an offsite location. In addition, an access control system that supports RFID door locks allows you to select a frequency to adjust the distance from the reader necessary for unlocking an entry point, meaning touchless door access is available without you having to dig around in your pockets.

Set Up an Integrated Smart Physical Security System

Once you have established an access control system, you can integrate other security platforms on one interface. 

Other security platforms to integrate with your access control system include:

• Video security for visual verification – If you set up a video security system integrated with your access control system, you can access information and video feeds on one interface, allowing you to quickly and easily review access control events with corresponding visual footage. 
• Wellness verification – Access can be denied until visitors and employees fill out daily wellness registration forms to protect their health. You may also wish to add mental health wellness checks to promote a culture of emotional wellness within your company.
• Visitor management – You can integrate visitor management systems with your access control system that will allow you to better understand visitors’ movement through the building and in the parking lot.

An integrated security system will allow you to manage the security systems for different firm locations while keeping all security on one platform. This can prove extremely useful for firms not restricted to one location and need to manage several buildings.

The Benefits of a Smart Physical Security System

Using a smart security system can benefit your law firm in the following ways:

• User-friendly security operations – If your security systems are user-friendly, your security team will address issues more quickly and manage multiple buildings on one interface.
• Increased physical security – You will have more control over entry and exit to your law firm.
• Increased health and safety – Wellness verification allows you to respond to the problems posed by the pandemic and protect the physical health of your employees on your premises.

Summary

Law firms hold sensitive client information, and clients will be impressed by tight security measures when visiting your buildings. This will reassure them that their data is safe.

With the right access control system, employees will also feel well protected in your buildings and confident that their management takes health risks of working in the office at a law firm following the pandemic seriously. An access control system is a foundation for building your security system and integrating features that will further protect your offices.