Overview

Challenges of securely delivering documents to your outside counsel

1. Transferring documents securely and efficiently.  Most companies send their first-party litigation documents via encrypted email, an SFTP site, or through virtual private network (VPN).  All these methods have challenges and complications.  For example, with encrypted email, the file size you send is usually limited to about 20MB.  Also, encrypted email requires registration, passwords, and considerable administrative overhead and support.  Finally, SFTP sites and VPNs need your IT support to set up and maintain.  
2. Closing off access.  Once you send an email, you can't retrieve it.  Also, by putting up your documents on an SFTP site or similar shared access, the documents remain sitting out there forever until you manually remove them.
3. Record retention and automatic deletion.  Systems such as encrypted email and SFTP sites may not have record retention tools that let you delete documents automatically after a specified period of time.
4. Audit record.  Depending on the system you use, there may be no audit record of who made documents available, when were they made available, and who accessed what documents.  Even when that evidence is available, it may be difficult for you to organize and compile.
   
5. Reports.  Generating a list of all documents you deliver to your outside counsel, especially across all matters, may be extremely difficult for you to generate.
   

AUDIT RECORDS AND REPORTS ARE PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT IN THE ERA OF DATA BREACHES.  Unfortunately, law firms don't have the best track record of securing data, and there are many instances of even high-profile law firms being hacked.  When that occurs, it's important for you to know what documents have been delivered to that firm.  

Advantages of using Safari

1. Transferring documents securely and efficiently.  Safari's SecureShare portal functions like a built-in SFTP solution that gives you the highest security with two-factor authentication.  Your law firm users don't need to register accounts or maintain passwords.  Also, you don't need IT support.  
2. Closing off access.  Safari automatically closes the portal for you on the portal expiration date.  What's more, you can immediately shut down a portal at any time.
3. Record retention and automatic deletion. Safari has a built-in record retention capability.  You gain peace of mind that the data is deleted from Safari's platform when you want it gone (which could even include in a short time like 10 days after delivery).  To learn more, see Setup - Auto-Delete Documents (Record Retention Policy).
4. Audit records.  Safari automatically preserves the audit history for who made documents available, when were they made available, and who accessed what documents.  That audit history is easily accessible in each matter.
5. Reports.  Safari has a purpose-built Document report, showing you who made documents available, when they were made available, and the outside counsel that had access to the documents.  To learn more, see the description of the Documents report in Reports - Standard Reports & Fields.

Setup Features that Tailor the Experience for Outside Counsel

How to Implement a Workflow for Delivery to Outside Counsel

1. It automatically turns off cost recovery (i.e., no invoice is selected, and no financial fields display.  To learn more, see the section titled "Enable Cost Recovery" in Setup - Subtypes.
   
2. In the portal notification email and in the portal, your outside counsel is referred to as the "Requestor."  However, to your company users in Safari, the fields still show as the "Serving Party."
   
1. Comment:  We made this change so that your counsel wouldn't be confused by seeing references to serving party, which is actually just your counsel.
3. When the portal transfers to your outside counsel, the receiving attorney’s office only receives documents in the SERVED folder.
   

                                         

1. Safari not only makes it easy and secure to deliver documents to your outside counsel, but it also gives you alerts if the SecureShare portal expires but your outside counsel didn't download ALL the documents you made available. 
   

Using Your Matter Management ID with Outside Counsel rather than the Safari ID

1. In the setup of the Subtype, select "Internal Reference ID" to be the "Reference ID Shown in Portal."  This causes the Internal Reference ID field to be required to deliver documents.  
   
2. Instruct your users to enter the matter management ID in the Internal Reference ID field in each matter (the field is located toward the bottom in the "Additional" section).  Safari displays that ID to your outside counsel in the portal notification email and in the portal.  For example, in the example below, the support footer in the portal notification email shows the matter management number of "48394-8374763" rather than the Safari ID.