A confidentiality audit is an assessment of the confidentiality procedures in your company and the effectiveness of those procedures. You can begin by preparing an explanation of the procedures in place. From the explanation, counsel will come into your company for a short period of time to gather any remaining information and to physically observe the situation. Based upon all the information from the audit, counsel will prepare a legal opinion and provide you with counsel's thoughts regarding your program. The charge will depend upon the size of the company and the preparation work done before counsel's visit.
Larger companies take more effort to analyze than small companies.
The legal opinion can be used as persuasive evidence in trial should litigation become necessary. In court, the trade secret holder needs to prove it used reasonable measures under the circumstances to protect its information. The trade secret holder stands in a strong position if they consulted with counsel about protection of its information. The trade secret holder's position is greatly enhanced if they have a recent review by counsel, stating that the measures are reasonable under the circumstances. That is, it is unreasonable to require the company to second guess a legal opinion absent a showing that the trade secret holder knew the legal opinion should not be trusted.