Executive Summary
- In-house counsel often view data as a liability because unstructured and unknown information is nearly impossible to control or quantify.
- Information governance is not only about reducing risk; it is also a pathway to discovering and leveraging information assets that hold real value.
- By learning how the business creates, enriches, and shares data, counsel can identify what is useful, strategic, or necessary—and guide lifecycle management of those assets.
- Thinking of data in categories—reason, season, lifetime—can help simplify governance and disposal decisions.
- Effective information governance supports compliance, strengthens decision-making, and positions legal as a strategic advisor.
Why Information Governance Matters
For many lawyers, the instinctive reaction to data and documents is to see them as liabilities.
This view is understandable. Data often feels like sand slipping through our fingers—difficult to see, hard to control, impossible to fully measure.
Without knowing what is out there, it becomes nearly impossible to assess the risks data may present.
For in-house counsel, this lack of visibility is a problem. When you cannot identify what data exists, where it lives, or how it is being used, you cannot advise the business effectively on compliance, litigation risk, or security threats.
Traditionally, the legal function has approached information governance as a defensive exercise: retention schedules, litigation holds, or deletion projects designed to limit liability.
But what if there is another side of the coin? What if information governance is not just about risk reduction, but also about unlocking value from information assets?
This is where in-house counsel can add meaningful perspective and guidance.
The Challenges of Data Management
Retention and disposition policies are hard to design and even harder to enforce.
Few organizations achieve consistent compliance with their retention policies. Add to this the vast amounts of data being generated daily—structured and unstructured, across countless systems—and the challenge multiplies exponentially.
The risks are familiar: regulatory exposure if sensitive data is mishandled, increased cost of discovery in litigation, and vulnerability to cyberattacks when old systems and forgotten files remain open.
Less obvious, but equally significant, is the missed opportunity cost.
Valuable insights are often hidden in duplicate repositories or buried within volumes of unused or obsolete information.
When data management is approached only as a liability exercise, enterprises overlook the potential upside: the ability to identify and cultivate information assets that can support strategy, efficiency, and innovation.
Seeing the Other Side of the Coin: Data as an Asset
To change the conversation, it helps to define “information assets.” Information assets are the subset of data that provide unique value to the enterprise.
They are the streams of information that reveal how the business operates, how it creates value, and how it differentiates itself.
Examples include:
- Transactional data (reason): created for a specific process or event, like contracts or invoices.
- Operational data (season): relevant for a period of time, such as project documentation or customer service records, but whose value diminishes as business cycles move forward.
- Foundational data (lifetime): core to the organization’s identity (entity integrity information); competitiveness—such as intellectual property, or proprietary methodologies; and necessary for compliance, reporting, knowledge management.
This framework—reason, season, lifetime—offers a more approachable way to think about governance. It gives business partners language to help them distinguish between what must be protected for risk reasons and what must be cultivated for its long-term value.
In practice, most organizations are already enriching, sharing, and creating artifacts from their data.
Paying attention to these patterns is often the easiest way to identify information assets.
For in-house counsel, the question becomes: how do I help the business define and manage these assets while still ensuring legal and regulatory compliance?
Practical Considerations for In-House Counsel
- Learn How the Business Uses Data
Start by asking simple but revealing questions:
- What data is being shared with partners?
- What datasets are enriched, cleaned, or analyzed?
- Which reports are considered essential by senior management?
These practices reveal what the business finds valuable—its information assets.
- Define What Matters
Once identified, categorize data according to its value to the enterprise. Separate the “Strategic, Useful, Necessary” (SUN) from the “Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial” (ROT).
While this may sound like an IT exercise, lawyers bring a unique perspective on risk, privilege, and regulatory expectations that help refine the categories.
- Guide Lifecycle Management
Treat information assets like other enterprise resources. Just as hardware or office equipment is depreciated and eventually disposed of, information too should have a lifecycle.
When data outlives its usefulness, the organization should have a defensible, practical process for disposal.
In-house counsel can help design policies that balance compliance requirements with business realities.
- Enable Data-Driven Decision Making
Consider what data would help you, as in-house counsel, make better decisions.
For example: data on contract cycle times, frequency of regulatory inquiries, or incident response metrics.
If you can articulate what information you need, you can help the business prioritize the collection and management of similar information assets.
Why This Approach Matters
Reframing information governance as both a shield and a tool creates significant advantages:
- Improved compliance and risk mitigation: fewer surprises when data inventories are current and defensible.
- Cost reduction: elimination of ROT decreases storage costs and limits discovery exposure.
- Smarter decision-making: curated, trusted information assets enable executives to act with confidence.
- Stronger alignment with business strategy: understanding how the business uses information gives counsel insights into priorities, emerging risks, and opportunities for innovation.
Importantly, this approach positions in-house counsel not just as risk managers but as strategic advisors who help the business unlock value while still managing liability.
Conclusion
Information governance has never been easy, and it is unlikely to ever be simple.
There are no quick fixes or perfect solutions. But by shifting perspective—from seeing data only as risk to seeing it also as value—counsel can guide the enterprise toward smarter, more balanced practices.
The practical path forward lies in discovering and defining information assets, helping the business manage them thoughtfully, and ensuring they are disposed of responsibly once they no longer serve a purpose.
Much like friendships, some data is meant for a reason, some for a season, and some for a lifetime.
By adopting this mindset, in-house counsel can bridge the gap between compliance and opportunity, ensuring information governance not only protects the enterprise but also strengthens it.
Practical Takeaways for In-House Counsel
- Shift the lens: Data is both a liability and an asset—treat it as such.
- Ask the right questions: Learn how your business enriches, shares, and stores data.
- Define assets: Use categories (reason/season/lifetime) and the SUN vs. ROT framework to distinguish value.
- Plan for lifecycle: Develop defensible approaches to storage and disposal of information assets.
- Be a strategic partner: Use governance to support business goals and position legal as an enabler of value, not just a risk manager.