Law Firm Year-End IT Checklist

It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving. Your office manager opens an email that looks like a shared-document notice from co-counsel. Half the firm is out, the IT contact is on vacation, and nobody is watching for odd logins. That’s the week year-end IT work is supposed to protect, and it’s the week it usually isn’t finished.

The Short Version: Do renewals, access cleanup and budget decisions in October. Test a real restore in November. In December, push updates, freeze changes and brief staff on phishing before the holiday break. Talk to your CPA before December 31 about equipment purchases. January is for closing the loop.

Key Takeaways

• Year-end IT for a law firm is five jobs: security review, license renewals, budget and tax timing, backup and retention testing, and holiday phishing readiness.
• A backup you haven’t restored from is a guess. Test one in November, not in January.
• Cancel unused subscriptions and renegotiate the ones you keep before they auto-renew.
• If you’re hiring help, ask for a fixed scope and a written deliverable. Our guide to legal IT consultants covers what to ask.

What the Other Checklists Skip

I read the checklists currently ranking for this. SimpleLaw’s is an operations list with a technology audit tucked inside it. SurePoint’s 2025 checklist is the most useful on integrations, scheduled tasks, inactive users and backup retention, but it leans toward finance and operations. CATS Technology’s 2026 checklist is strong on MFA, Microsoft 365 permissions and recovery testing. It says little about renewal timing or tax.

Here’s what most people miss: none of them tells you when to do each item, or what a passed backup test looks like. That’s the gap this article fills.

The Timeline

October: Renewals and Money

Audit everything with a login: billing, document automation, e-signature, phone and VoIP, CRM, timekeeping and cybersecurity tools. SimpleLaw’s advice is blunt and correct. Cancel what nobody uses, and negotiate the tools you’re renewing.

The research found no published pricing for year-end IT services, so I won’t invent a number. Your leverage is the renewal date. Vendors move on price before an auto-renewal, not after. Many consultants publish fixed monthly pricing, so ask for a fixed quote for any year-end review.

Pro Tip: Put every renewal date in one shared calendar with 60 days’ notice. A forgotten annual renewal can cost more than the review that would have caught it.

Section 179 Timing

Section 179 generally lets a business deduct qualifying equipment and some software in the year it’s placed in service, instead of depreciating it over time. The catch is “in service.” A server that ships January 3 doesn’t count for this year.

The sources I pulled touch cost control only indirectly, so I’m not quoting limits. They change, and eligibility depends on your firm’s situation. Ask your CPA in October. Hardware ordered in mid-December can miss delivery. Subscriptions and cloud services are usually ordinary expenses, which means a cloud migration changes this math.

Reality Check: Buying equipment for the deduction alone is how firms end up with hardware they didn’t need. Plan the purchase first and the tax treatment second.

November: Security and Backups

Start with the basics both SurePoint and CATS list: MFA on everything, unique passwords, external file-sharing controls, endpoint protection and Microsoft 365 permissions. Then clean up access. Inactive users, departed staff and old vendor accounts are open doors.

You also have a professional duty here. ABA Model Rule 1.6(c) requires reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized access to client information, and your state’s version may differ. A documented year-end review is evidence you made those efforts.

Now test the backups. Reviewing the backup schedule isn’t enough.

Pro Tip: Ask your provider exactly what your Microsoft 365 retention covers and for how long. Don’t assume it works as a backup.

December: Phishing Season

Staffing thins, people are rushing, and “please review this document” is a believable message. Run a short refresher with real examples: fake file-share notices, invoice requests and urgent messages from “a partner” asking for wire details. Make sure staff know how to report a suspicious email in one click.

LEAP’s year-end checklist says to install the latest updates and have staff log out before the break. Do both. Then freeze changes until January. The risky weeks are the ones when nobody can fix what you just broke.

Region by Region

The research doesn’t show timing differences between states, so I won’t invent any. What varies is the rules around you. California firms handling consumer data should check their CCPA exposure, and Connecticut has the CTDPA. State enforcement differs, so ask your consultant which state laws touch your firm.

If you’d rather bring in help, you can browse verified providers in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. For what that help costs, see how much a legal IT consultant costs.

By the Numbers

From DocketTech directory data:

• 368 verified providers listed across 46 states
• Most providers: TX (31), CA (31), FL (23)
• CISSP: 12 providers (3%); CompTIA Security+: 7 (2%); Microsoft 365 Certified: 5 (1%)
• Average years in business, where published: 24.2

Credentials are a minority, so check them. If a security review is on your list, ask who will do it and which credential they hold.

Practical Bottom Line

1. This week: list every subscription with its renewal date, and email your CPA about equipment timing.
2. By mid-November: remove inactive accounts and run one real restore.
3. By early December: finish updates and the phishing refresher.
4. Before the break: log everyone out and freeze changes.
5. In January: confirm the automated jobs, integrations and backups all ran.

That’s the whole list. Do it in order and the holiday week is quiet.