Legal records at risk: does the legal profession care about preserving its heritage? What could be done to rescue private sector legal records

In this article Clare Cowling (Director, Legal Records at Risk Project, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London) explores the hypothesis that modern private sector legal records are at more at risk of loss than their historical equivalents. There are many reasons for this, but one factor, detailed in this article, appears to be the indifference or reluctance of legal practitioners themselves. The LRAR project seeks to allay any concerns practitioners may have about confidentiality and to raise their awareness of the potential commercial and historic value of their legal records. It will do this by a combination of case studies, interviews with stakeholders and investigations into the current information management and archiving practices of institutions specialised to law. In so doing it will provide guidance and advice on the more cost-effective management and preservation of legal records so that the history of change to non-governmental legal services in the UK over the past century will be accurately documented.