As an IT manager, it's important to really know your company's legal team, not just who they are. It's important to have conversations with them long before you have to.

Gartner blogger Frank Kenney outlines what you need to know from the legal department. Here are a few questions to ask:

• How is information that flows in and out of your department governed and controlled?
• How are you maintaining chain of custody processes and procedures?
• How are you showing compliance to judicial, regional and national, industry and internal regulations around the handling and privacy of corporate information?

While these may sound tough and complicated, it's important to know the mechanisms before you need them. With eDiscovery now an integral part of any judicial policy, your legal office should have an electronic mechanism in place to retrieve any and all documents quickly, too.

For more on talking to your legal counsel:
- check out this Gartner blog

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