Controlling access to sensitive information is crucial for any law firm. Filevine offers a comprehensive and flexible permissions system that helps ensure data security, promote collaboration, and improve workflows. This page provides an overview of Filevine's permission types, including:
- Project Permissions: Control access to data within individual projects.
- Org Admin Status: Grants system-wide administrative privileges.
- Contact Permissions: Manage the ability to create and edit contacts.
- Data Visibility Permissions: Control access to sensitive information, like billing rates.
- Project Roles: Define responsibilities for task assignment.
- Teams: Simplify user management and permission assignments.
Project Permissions: Controlling Access Within Projects
Project Permissions determine what users can see and do within individual Filevine projects. These permissions are fundamental to controlling access to case-specific information and ensuring that only authorized individuals can view or modify sensitive data. Filevine offers several distinct project permission levels:
Guest Permissions
Guest access is designed for external users, such as clients, co-counsel, or experts, who need limited access to specific project information. Guests can only see what is explicitly shared with them, ensuring maximum control over sensitive data. [Link to "Filevine Guest Permissions" page once updated]
Collaborator Permissions
Collaborators are typically internal team members who need to work actively on a case. They have read and write access to most project data (except for locked fields), allowing them to contribute to the project's progress.
Project Admin Permissions
Project Admins have full control over a specific project. They can manage team members, edit locked fields, change project settings, and have access to all project data.
Project Subscriptions
Subscribing to a project allows users to receive notifications for that project. Users subscribed to a project will receive notifications for project activity.
Filevine also allows for even more granular control over data visibility within projects through Protected Sections and Protected Folders. Access to Protected Sections and Folders is managed exclusively through Filevine Teams.
Org Admin Status: System-Wide Control
Org Admin status in Filevine grants users elevated, system-wide administrative privileges. This is distinct from Project Admin status, which provides control over a single project. Org Admins have the ability to configure and manage settings that affect the entire Filevine organization, making this a powerful role that should be assigned carefully.
Key Capabilities of an Org Admin:
- Comprehensive User Management: Org Admins can add, remove, and modify user accounts across the entire organization, controlling access levels and permissions.
- Billing and Subscription Control: They have full control over the organization's Filevine subscription and billing settings.
- Control Contact Permissions: Org Admins are able to grant users to edit or create contacts.
- System Customization: Org Admins can tailor Filevine to match the firm's specific needs, configuring custom fields, project templates, and other organization-wide settings.
- Security Oversight: They play a key role in configuring and maintaining the organization's security settings, ensuring data protection.
- API Portal: Org Admins are granted access to add and remove portal users.
Managing Permissions with Teams: Simplify User Access
Filevine Teams offer a powerful way to manage user permissions efficiently. Instead of assigning permissions individually, you group users into Teams (e.g., "Litigation Team," "Paralegals") and assign permissions to the team itself. This approach provides several key benefits:
- Faster Onboarding: Add new hires to a team to instantly grant them the correct access.
- Simplified Offboarding: Remove departing employees from a team to instantly revoke access.
- Consistent Permissions: Ensure all team members have the appropriate access levels.
- Efficient Role Changes: Easily update permissions for entire groups when roles change.
Learn more about Filevine Teams.
Bulk Actions for User/Team Permissions: Efficiency at Scale
Filevine's "Mass Update Permissions" tool allows for efficient management of individual user permissions across multiple projects. Instead of making changes one by one, you can apply updates to a defined set of projects simultaneously.
This is particularly useful for onboarding, offboarding, role changes, or any situation where you need to modify permissions for a user across many projects.
For example, you could quickly grant a new attorney Collaborator access to all projects in a specific practice area, or transfer all of a departing attorney's cases to another team member.
Mass Update Permission/Roles/Primary: Assign project access levels, Org Admin status, roles, and notification subscriptions to a single user based on a project report.
Permissions Cloning Tool: Mirror one team's access and permissions to another team, streamlining team management.
Contact Permissions: Managing Contact Creation and Editing
Contact Permissions in Filevine control users' ability to create and edit contact records within your organization. These permissions are managed at the Org level, meaning they apply across all projects. It's important to note that even users with no contact permissions can still view all contact information and add existing contacts to projects and fields; these permissions only restrict the creation and modification of contact records.
No Contact Permissions
Users with no contact permissions can still interact with contacts in several ways:
- View Contact Information: They can see all details within contact cards.
- Add Existing Contacts: They can add existing contacts to person fields and projects. However, they cannot create new contacts or edit any information in existing contact records.
Contact Editing Permission
Granting a user "Contact Editing" permission allows them to modify existing contact records. This includes updating names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and any other custom fields associated with the contact.
Contact Creation Permission
The "Contact Creation" permission encompasses both creating new contacts and editing existing ones. Users with this permission have full control over contact records. This permission level is essential for users responsible for managing your firm's contact database.
Data Visibility Permissions: Controlling Access to Sensitive Information
Beyond project access and contact management, Filevine allows you to control the visibility of specific, sensitive data elements within your organization. This fine-grained control ensures that confidential information, such as billing rates, is only accessible to authorized users.
Rate Permissions
Rate Permissions determine whether users can see billing rates across Filevine, including rates displayed in time entries, project billing sections, reports, and invoices. By default, users do not have permission to view rates, providing a baseline level of security.
Managing Rate Permissions allows for:
- Controlling Access to Billing Rates: You can grant or restrict access to billing rate information on a user-by-user basis. This is managed through Filevine's centralized billing settings.
- Additional Security Measures: To ensure complete confidentiality of billing rates, consider these best practices:
- Limit Access to Billing Configuration Tools: Only grant access to Filevine's billing configuration tools to users who require it for their job responsibilities. Access to these tools allows users to see rates regardless of their individual Rate Permissions setting.
- Centralize Invoice Storage: For maximum security, store all invoice PDFs in a single, designated project with restricted access. This prevents unauthorized users from viewing rate information through individual project files.
Project Roles: Defining Responsibilities Within Projects
Project Roles in Filevine are used to define the responsibilities of different team members within a specific project. It's crucial to understand that Project Roles are primarily for task assignment and workflow automation, not for controlling data access. A user's ability to see and interact with project data is determined by their Project Permissions (Guest, Collaborator, Admin), not their Project Role.
Project Roles become particularly powerful when used in conjunction with Filevine's taskflow and autotask features. You can assign tasks to specific roles, rather than individual users.
For example, in a litigation taskflow, you might assign the task "Draft Complaint" to the "Lead Attorney" role. Filevine will then automatically assign that task to the user who is designated as the "Lead Attorney" on that specific project. This eliminates the need to manually assign tasks to different individuals each time.
Common Project Roles include:
- Lead Attorney
- Associate Attorney
- Paralegal
- Legal Secretary
- Intake Specialist
- Client Manager
- Investigator
You can create a custom role as well! These roles can be tailored to match your firm's specific organizational structure and workflow.
Learn more about Permissions within Filevine.
Get Started with Filevine Permissions
Take control of your firm's data security and enhance user management with Filevine's comprehensive permission system. Request a demo today to see how Filevine can help you manage access, improve collaboration, and enhance efficiency.