IT services for Montana law firms. Secure from any courthouse.
Your firm is in Billings. Your hearing is in Sidney. Your deadline is five o’clock. We build IT for a practice that spends half its life on the highway.
The first assessment is free, and the findings are yours either way.
Vetted, tested, and in writing.
Every certified firm is assessed by a third party risk assessor and keeps the required controls in place. The Big Sky Guarantee and Service Warranty put that standard in writing.
Containment, forensics, eradication, recovery, and rebuilding if needed, at no additional cost, within defined service limits.
The Big Sky Guarantee is not an insurance policy. It’s our commitment to do the response work ourselves.
Eligible payments made directly to the organization, up to $500,000 per covered incident, depending on plan.
The Big Sky Service Warranty is not an insurance policy and does not replace cyber insurance.
For certified clients on Professional, Enterprise, or co-managed plans, with required controls in place. Eligibility requirements, service limits, and exclusions apply. Full terms are provided for your review before you sign. See which plans qualify
Security built for an office breaks on travel days
Two hundred and seventy miles, long stretches of it with no service, and the motion still has to clear ePass before the clerk’s office closes. So the practical fix is usually to turn things off.
MFA switched off for travelers
The text message never arrives in a dead zone, so the attorneys who drive stop using it.
Files sent to personal email
So they’re available offline. Now client data lives somewhere the firm can’t see.
Courthouse wireless
Someone works an afternoon on public wifi because the building offers no alternative.
Every one of those is a reasonable workaround, and every one leaves client data outside the firm’s control.
What it costs, in your terms
A firm can’t make up a lost Tuesday on Saturday. The deadline didn’t move, and the client didn’t wait.
Hours that don’t come back
If your blended rate is $300, ten idle attorneys cost $3,000 an hour. No court tolls a deadline because a server was down.
A compromised mailbox in a closing
Business email compromise in a closing is the shortest path from an IT failure to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Opinion 483 notice
If client information is compromised, you must tell affected current clients. Logging decides whether you can say what was taken.
Find out what your firm switches off on the road before a client asks.
The assessment is free, and the findings are yours either way. Thirty minutes with your firm administrator, and nothing to sign.
A day from Billings to Sidney, without switching anything off
Files synced
Matter files sync before the attorney leaves, so work can continue through areas with no service.
MFA with no signal
Authenticator apps and hardware keys work offline. Text codes may not arrive on the Hi-Line.
Courthouse wifi is public
We configure always on tunneling, so your team doesn’t have to remember to start a VPN or sign in again.
Filed before five
State filings through ePass, federal through PACER and CM/ECF, both working on one bar.
Laptop left behind?
Hard drive encrypted and documented for § 30-14-1704, then wiped remotely if it was stolen or can’t be retrieved.
Calls from Havre
An attorney calls from a parking lot for help with email, and someone on our Montana team answers.
Backups validated
Backups complete with validation and results sent to you, with logs kept long enough to answer what happened.
Your practice area changes what you handle and the liability it carries
The same network carries different obligations depending on what’s in the matter files.
Five questions for your current provider
Put these to whoever runs your IT today. If they can answer all five, stay.
How long do we retain logs, and is that longer than typical attacker dwell time?
If we’re breached, who images the machine: you, or someone you refer us to?
Do you know what Opinion 483 obligates us to do, and when it’s broader than state breach law?
What’s your procedure when preserving evidence conflicts with getting us back online?
Which of our systems touch the trust account, and who has access to them?
If any answer is a pause, ask us the same five.
Built to answer questions a partner will have
Essentials
Per device, per month, plus a per user charge. Managed IT, monitoring, and support.
Professional
Per device, per month, plus a per user charge. Adds eligibility for The Big Sky Guarantee and Service Warranty once certified.
For the partner meeting
What changes, what doesn’t, and what it costs, in plain English. Tell us the meeting date and we’ll work back from it.
Three times you should call someone else
We’d rather tell you before a partner meeting than after.
You’re a solo practitioner in the cloud
You need MFA, a password manager, and secure file sharing, not a managed contract. We’ll name them on the call.
You need someone in the office daily
Contract clients get same day onsite across Great Falls, Helena, and Billings. If you need a desk filled, hire one.
Your provider answered all five
If they passed the questions above, stay. Switching costs you time you’d rather bill.
Forensic analysts run your firm’s IT
We started on the investigation side: reconstructing what happened, with documented chain of custody for insurers, counsel, and courts. The IT came after.
So we secure your systems the way attackers probe them.
Frequently asked questions
What firm administrators and partners ask before the first conversation.
We already have an IT company. Is this worth the disruption?
Often not. If they can answer the five questions above, stay. Firms usually switch because something specific broke: a failed client security questionnaire, an attorney who couldn’t file from the road, or a spoofed email that nearly worked.
Do you work with our practice management software?
Clio, Smokeball, PracticePanther, MyCase, Tabs3, and Actionstep on the practice side; iManage, NetDocuments, and Worldox on the document side. We’re not going to ask you to migrate.
Do you replace our internal IT person?
No. Most firms your size don’t have one, and the ones that do usually have someone stretched too thin. We take the infrastructure and security load so they can focus on the work only they can do. See co-managed IT.
Do you work around trial calendars?
Yes. Send us your trial calendar and filing deadlines, and we’ll schedule changes around them, never the night before a dispositive motion is due.
Can you help us pass a client’s security questionnaire?
Yes. We fill in what we can substantiate and tell you plainly where the honest answer is currently no, so you can fix it rather than answer optimistically.
Does Montana require technology competence from lawyers?
Yes. Montana doesn’t adopt the ABA comments, so the duty sits in paragraph 5 of the Preamble to its Rules of Professional Conduct. We document the controls we put in place, so you can show how you meet it. This is general information, not legal advice.
What happens if client data is compromised?
Call us. Contract clients get same day onsite, with proper evidence collection, and you get a record of what was reached, so you and your counsel can decide what Opinion 483 requires. For certified clients, the response comes under The Big Sky Guarantee, within defined service limits.
What does it cost?
Managed IT runs $75 to $95 per device per month, plus a per user charge. You get a fixed monthly number your administrator can take to a partner meeting.
Talk to us before you need us.
Thirty minutes with your firm administrator, and nothing to sign.