Secure File Sharing for Legal Firms

August 19, 2020

Over the past two decades the world has shifted to paperless, especially with respect to the legal industry. File sizes have grown – along with the importance of secure external collaboration.

Although email inbox capacity has increased, that hasn’t necessarily been a great thing. It’s caused lawyers, their support staff and IT departments to find creative yet less secure ways to send large files, often by sending multiple emails, .ZIP files and using FTP. Many use even less secure methods than those, such as personal email.

In addition to these industry-wide business changes, most law firms are governed by federal regulations and compliance guidelines that must be followed to ensure the secure transmission of confidential information.

There are several secure file sharing tools available, such as Dropbox for Business, Box, Google Drive and OneDrive, to name a few. Many law firms have turned to iManage Share, iManage’s fully integrated and stand-alone answer to secure file sharing for their offices. iManage through Konica Minolta offers many benefits, which include but are not limited to the following.

1. Secure File Sharing and Document Collaboration

Securely exchange files with clients, partner firms and outside consultants using tools with which the firm has already become familiar. iManage Share offers industry leading security with seamless integration with iManage Work and Microsoft Outlook©, so secure file sharing is easy and convenient without sacrificing security and governance of the firm’s client files.

2. Seamless Integration with iManage Work

With iManage Share, the firm can create folders for shared content within their iManage Work engagement file and invite their clients and external collaborators to view and/or update the content.

The unique architecture of iManage Share allows firms to seamlessly use tools for metadata scrubbing and document comparison just as they would with content in iManage Work. They can even compare documents that are in a shared folder to their master version to see what changes their client has suggested.

3. Smart Integration with Microsoft Outlook

Other file sharing solutions on the market today provide simple ribbon bar actions to allow uploads, requiring the professional at the firm to take a specific action. The iManage Share “Smart Attachments” integration goes even further – monitoring for emails with attachments and suggesting a secure file link based on a set of customizable preferences for each firm.

4. Cloud-based Collaboration Folders

When the firm’s file sharing needs extend beyond email, iManage Share scales to meet those needs. They can easily create a cloud-based collaboration folder where they and one or more external collaborators can exchange files.

5. Secure, branded web portal

The firm’s clients and external collaborators will access their collaboration folders through an easy-to-use browser interface. This modern, responsive interface supports “favorites” and intuitive searching and filtering options to quickly locate documents. The responsive design ensures full functionality from any device – desktop, tablet, or phone.

There are no costly development projects. And with the ability to customize the portal, the firm’s work product will always be presented with their firm brand to make ownership easily identifiable.

6. Mobile access from a variety of environments

A single responsive interface allows external collaborators to access content from any device. Native applications for iOS and Android are also available. Integration with your camera and email allow documents to be captured and uploaded from a mobile device.

Customers already using the iManage Work mobile application see the iManage Share folders within the engagement file, allowing them to access content without needing to install another application.

Work with files in your synchronized briefcase and have them automatically synced to iManage Share in the cloud for access anywhere – from any device.

7. Governance and Security meets Ease of Use

iManage Share provides industry leading security to protect the firm’s client files. Multi-level file encryption protects the privacy of content at rest. The most stringent industry standards are employed to encrypt all data in transit and customers have the option to manage their own encryption keys stored in a FIPS-140 compliant hardware security module (BYOK).

iManage Share is hosted in iManage Cloud SOC2-certified and ISO 27000 compliant data centers which provide a level of security and monitoring typically not achievable to smaller organizations.

If you’d like to schedule a demo to see the iManage Share product, contact Konica Minolta’s IT Services Division, All Covered, today. We’ll show you several ways in which file sharing for your firm can be made easier and more collaborative – in a few simple steps.

Nathan Holmes
Principal Engineer, All Covered