Matter Mobility: Find Files Based On a Matter's Unique Requirements
Set specific criteria and Shinydocs reads what's inside files, not just filenames. You decide what moves, stays, and is disposed of.
- Estimated manual search cost per matter mobility event
- $5,000+
Source: Shinydocs customer interviews (IT and IG teams), 2026
- of enterprise files are unstructured — most of what attorneys leave behind was never formally tagged or classified
- 70–90%
Law Firm Events Involving Matter Mobility
Certain events trigger different matter mobility deadlines, but they don't differ in obligation. Either way, your firm owes the client a complete matter file. Firms that build one process for all events stop improvising under the deadline.
Lateral Partner Departure
Politically charged and always deadline-driven. Your IG team owns completeness whether the exit is amicable or not.
Lateral Partner or Associate Hire
Incoming files must be classified and linked to active matters. Privileged content from prior engagements must never come with them.
Client-Directed Transfer
The files belong to the client, and the obligation to transfer is immediate. Delay is a professional conduct risk, not a service failure.
Firm Merger or Acquisition
Two firms bring legacy systems, inconsistent tagging, and years of ungoverned content. Reconciling both into one governed state dwarfs a single departure.
Practice Group Dissolution
Multiple attorneys, a compressed timeline, no single owner. At this scale the manual approach does not slow down. It collapses.
Attorney Retirement or Passing
Retirement can be planned for. Death or incapacitation cannot. Either way, the firm must locate and transfer files without the attorney's help.
Five phases, one platform
Five Phases of Your Matter Mobility Workflow
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01
Cross-System AI Search
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02
Classify
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03
Discover & Analyze
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04
Package
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05
Transfer and Close
Your Team Makes the Calls. Shinydocs Handles the Searching and Surfacing.
- Transfer turnaround
- Days to hours
Days of coordination, manual searches, and spreadsheet tracking run end to end in hours.
- System coverage
- 100%
iManage, NetDocuments, Exchange, shared drives, legacy systems, and physical file flags are all in scope at once.
- Files moved without your approval
- Zero
Every transfer centres on human judgement, supporting the review process rather than replacing it.
Traditional vs Streamlined Matter Mobility
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✕
Your team spends time searching for files using separate systems.
✓Shinydocs surfaces files across systems from one place.
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✕
Teams hunt for various documents hoping they were saved and filed correctly.
✓Shinydocs finds files by reading what's inside them and their filing details, surfacing files regardless of how they were saved.
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✕
Client emails are notoriously hard to track and scattered across inboxes and folders, sometimes with no matter number.
✓Shinydocs finds client emails fast using specific keywords when no matter number appears.
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✕
Lawyers and clients expect matter files fast, but manual searching eats the time reviewers need for judgment calls.
✓Shinydocs surfaces every matter file fast, so your team spends its time making decisions, not searching.
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✕
Create a manual record of the transfer process, making completeness and accuracy difficult to demonstrate.
✓Shinydocs generates an audit log at every closure, so you know what goes out and what stays.
Works With Every System Your Law Firm Already Runs
Connector Coverage for Every Repository in Your Environment
- iManage
- NetDocuments
- Microsoft Exchange Email
- SharePoint Online
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Microsoft Teams
- File system
- Azure Files
- Box
- Laserfiche
- OpenText Content Server
- eDocs
Highlighted connectors are the most used in legal matter mobility. All are included in a standard deployment.
A Defensible Record for Each Matter Closure and Transfer
Immutable Audit Log Covering Every Action
The workflow records every action and locks it against later edits. The log covers who initiated it, what was searched, what was found, and what was exported.
Exportable Bar-Compliance report on Every Closure
At closure, the audit log compiles into a structured file built for bar counsel, client audits, and firm leadership. It documents scope, process, decisions, and outcome, ready for external production.
Retention Triggered on Firm-Side Copies at Close
Retention policy applies automatically to firm-side copies the moment a transfer closes. Nothing sits in a governance grey zone awaiting manual follow-up.
Frequently asked questions
See Shinydocs in Action
On a quick call, we'll map your environment and show you how Shinydocs works with your systems.
