File management for law firms
For law firms, file management involves consolidating case and client files into separate areas visible only to the relevant lawyers and staff, preserving every draft of petitions and contracts, and recording who made what changes to which document. SmartFiles provides this order via browser and mobile app without requiring setup.
What file issues do law firms face?
- "Everyone can see every client folderIn shared drives, client folders are often open to the entire office. Interns or support staff not working on the file may also access confidential documents.
- "The submitted version of the petition is unclearDrafts multiply with names like “last_revise”. The version sent to the court or the opposing party can only be found by scanning the email history.
- "Finding information in long documents takes hoursIn hundreds-of-pages case files, dates, amounts, or statements are searched manually. This search consumes the most valuable time before hearings.
- "It is unknown who accessed the documentThere is no record of who downloaded or deleted a document. In the event of a complaint, only vague recollections remain regarding what happened and when.
Why does file organisation become difficult in law firms?
In a law firm, dozens of litigation and advisory files run simultaneously. Each file accumulates petitions, expert reports, documents from clients, correspondence from the opposing party and draft contracts. A significant portion of these documents is client confidential information and does not need to be seen by everyone within the firm.
Client folders on a shared drive are often accessible to everyone; interns or secretaries may access files they are not working on. Draft petitions proliferate with names like "petition_final_revised", and it is only by scanning email history that you can find out which version was submitted to court.
How to restrict access to client files?
Article 36 of Law No. 1136 on Advocacy regulates that lawyers cannot disclose matters entrusted to them or learned by virtue of their duties. Since client documents also contain personal data, obligations under the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 come into play. The counterpart of these obligations in file management is simple: each document should only be seen by those who need to see it.
In practice, this means creating a separate area for each major client or case group and granting access only to the lawyers handling that file and the support team. Shared petition examples, case law notes, and internal templates reside in a separate area readable by everyone. This section is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
How is the version of petition and contract drafts tracked?
In contract negotiations, every version sent to the other party may become significant in future disputes. Instead of drafts proliferating as separate files, saving them as versions of the same document keeps track of which version was prepared, when, and by whom within the document’s own history.
Short notes left at key stages ('sent to the other party', 'client approved', 'submitted to court') clarify which version was released. Assigning a review task for a draft requiring senior lawyer examination also removes the approval process from email traffic and moves it next to the document.
How to find information in long files?
Finding a specific date, amount, or witness statement in a hundreds-of-pages case file can take hours. Asking a question to the document with AI answers queries like "What damage amount was determined in the expert report?" based on the document's content. The response acts as a guide that speeds up finding the relevant section in full text; it does not replace legal assessment.
The office must decide whether AI usage should be enabled specifically for high-privacy files. Since AI permission is granted per area, it can be kept closed in some client areas and opened in others.
What is an example area layout for a law firm?
- "Office Partner: petition examples, case law notes, power of attorney templates. Everyone reads, only partners write.
- "Client A (Commercial): contracts, correspondence, consultation notes. Only the lawyers handling the files and one assistant.
- "Case Group – Labour Law: case files, expert reports, hearing notes. Relevant lawyers; interns have read-only access.
- "Accounting and Administrative: attorney fee invoices, office expenses. Only the administrative team and partners.
How does SmartFiles solve this?
In SmartFiles, a separate storage area is opened for each client or case group. In each area, eight independent permissions (Read, Write, Edit, Delete, Folder, AI, History, Note) are granted to a person or department; a person without read permission does not see that area at all in the sidebar, nor are its files shown in search or note streams.
A draft uploaded with the same name becomes a new version; previous states remain in the version history with the uploader's name and date. A note is left on the file, and a task of type Approval or Review is assigned. A person with History permission sees uploads, downloads, moves, deletions, and permission changes in the area's activity history, along with the person and time.
Documents are read and summarised by AI as soon as they are uploaded; questions can be asked about a document or documents in a folder. The organisation administrator can disable AI entirely or grant AI permission only in specific areas.
Area-based authorisationGranting person permission to storage areaAssign task, approval, or review