Power outages. Ransomware attacks. Failed servers. Snowstorms shutting down court access. These disasters don’t send a calendar invite. And when they hit your Salt Lake City law firm, even a short disruption can cause case delays, lost billables, or worse—a breach of client trust.
Here’s the truth: backups alone won’t cut it. You need a legal-specific business continuity plan. One designed by an IT provider who understands that your cases don’t pause for a flood or power surge.
Backups Are Step One. Continuity Is the Full Picture.
Yes, backups matter. But if your plan stops at "we have a backup," your firm is exposed. A business continuity strategy ensures your team can keep working, no matter what happens.
Think beyond restoring files. What if:
- Your office becomes inaccessible?
- The courtroom VPN goes down?
- Your remote team can’t access client records?
Backups get your data back. Continuity keeps your law firm operational.
Backups vs. Business Continuity: Why Salt Lake Firms Need Both
Too many IT companies confuse data recovery with business continuity. Here’s the difference:
- Backups help you restore what you lost.
- Continuity ensures you never lose function in the first place.
A true legal continuity plan from Qual IT includes:
- Encrypted, immutable, off-site backups
- Prioritized recovery based on critical practice functions (RTO/RPO)
- Secure remote work readiness (yes, even from courtrooms)
- Failover systems for essential case and billing platforms
- Regular simulation testing tailored for legal workflows
If your current IT provider can’t explain how your firm stays fully functional after a disaster, they’re not a managed IT services provider—they’re just a backup vendor.
Think This Won’t Happen to Your Law Firm?
Let’s break this down with real examples:
- A Salt Lake criminal defense firm lost access to their client database for 48 hours after a power surge fried their server—during trial week.
- A regional PI practice got hit with ransomware, only to find their backup system hadn’t been tested in over a year.
- A snowstorm shut down a mid-sized real estate law office—but they kept running from home because their continuity plan included remote access and cloud-based legal tools.
Disasters don’t just hit hospitals or Fortune 500s. They hit your competitors. Your peers. You.
Ask These Questions Before It’s Too Late
If disaster hits your Salt Lake City firm tomorrow:
- Can your attorneys work remotely right away?
- How quickly can your case files, billing system, and email be restored?
- Are your backups tested, and do they include legal-specific systems like Clio, NetDocuments, and TimeSolv?
- Who triggers your disaster recovery plan—and do they know what to do?
- Will you still meet compliance requirements for data security and continuity?
If your answer is anything less than “absolutely,” you’re running on hope—not strategy.
You Can’t Stop Disasters. But You Can Eliminate Downtime.
At Qual IT, we help Salt Lake City law firms stay up, running, and compliant no matter what hits them. Because we know that in the legal world, even a few hours offline can be catastrophic.
Book your FREE Legal Network Assessment now. Let’s make sure your law firm is built for resilience.
