Corporate email for law firms
Law firm business email requires a system where client correspondence can only be seen by authorized lawyers and employees, every important email sent to the opposing party can be checked before it is sent, and every action is recorded. SmartMail establishes this system with per-mailbox permissions, send approval and an audit log.
Why does email in law firms require special care?
A law firm's mailbox contains clients' most sensitive information: case files, contract drafts, settlement offers, personal, and commercial secrets. The lawyer's obligation to keep secrets (Law on Legal Professions, No. 1136, Article 36) also covers correspondence; the protection of personal data is also important within the framework of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data, No. 6698. This page provides general information and does not constitute legal advice.
The most frequently encountered risks in everyday practice are as follows:
- Everyone can see every fileWhen a shared mailbox is used in the office, an intern or a new employee can also access correspondence with clients they have nothing to do with.
- Wrong recipientBecause of the address autocomplete feature, an email meant for the opposing party's lawyer may go to another person with the same name; an internal assessment meant for the client may reach the opposing party.
- Unchecked outgoing textA figure in a settlement offer or a deadline in a formal notice can be sent without being seen by the senior lawyer.
- Missing recordsMonths later, the question "when was this document sent to the other party, and by whom?" may go unanswered.
- Fake payment instructionsOffices that handle collections and escrow accounts can be targeted by fake emails claiming an IBAN change.
How are private communications protected?
In SmartMail, each employee only sees the mailboxes assigned to them. Access is granted with nine separate permissions per mailbox: viewing, writing, deleting, tagging, quarantine management, rerunning analysis, chatting about email, writing notes and flagging. An intern can be granted only viewing and note-writing permissions; delete and quarantine management are disabled by default for new assignments.
The firm can open separate mailboxes for case teams; when a mailbox is assigned to a department, a lawyer joining the team automatically receives access, and the access of someone leaving the team is removed automatically. Mailbox passwords are not shared with employees; everyone signs in with their own identity.
Internal evaluations about the file are not written in the email sent to the client or the other party; they remain as a team note next to the email and do not go to the recipient. The note can be linked to the sender's address or organization so that it appears in subsequent emails from that client.
How is an email to the other party checked before it is sent?
For critical correspondence, SmartMail's send approval is used. The lawyer or employee writing the email chooses send for approval instead of send and selects one or more approvers; with multiple approvers, the "any one" or "all" rule is set per email. The approver sees the entire email: which corporate address it will be sent from, the recipients, attachments and body. If they approve, the email is sent; if they request changes, they must write what needs to change; if they reject, the request is closed.
This flow is particularly suitable for settlement offers, formal notices and contract drafts: a text not reviewed by a senior lawyer does not represent the firm.
In the preview screen that opens before every send, recipients, the sending address, signature and attachments are shown together; a wrong recipient is noticed at the last moment.
How is the correspondence record kept?
Every step of the approval request is recorded with its date and time; revision versions are also stored. On the administrator side, actions such as opening a mailbox, granting access and changing settings are written to the audit log with the identity, time and IP address of the person who performed them. Each mail's activity log shows who read it, added a note and tagged it.
Every email is archived in its raw form together with its attachments. This makes it possible to show later exactly which version of a document was sent or received.
What to do about fraudulent payment instructions?
SmartMail measures every incoming email in terms of identity, structure and content: the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records of the sender domain are recalculated; addresses that resemble the firm's or client's domain, display-name spoofing and replies going to another address are flagged separately. Suspicious email is quarantined before it reaches the inbox, and the reason is stated. Confirming every email that reports an account information change with a registered phone should also be written as an internal office rule.