Drafts, advice and disclosure
Draft agreements, opinions, witness statements, settlement terms and disclosure bundles are produced as PDF and DOCX files, and the Document Engine processes them in those formats.
Document watermarking for legal services
Law firms and legal departments circulate drafts, advice and disclosure documents among clients, counterparties, experts and courts. Invisproof issues each recipient an individual copy with an invisible watermark, so that a document found outside a matter can be identified.
Legal documents and their recipients
Clients, counterparties and experts
A single matter may involve the client's officers, the lawyers on the other side, expert witnesses, counsel and, in a transaction, the advisers to every party.
Confidentiality owed to a client
A firm's duty of confidentiality covers every document in a matter, and the disclosure of a draft or a settlement can prejudice the client's position.
An individual copy for each recipient
Invisproof issues each recipient in a matter a copy of their own and keeps a record of which copy was issued to whom.
The process for a matter
Watermark
The Document Engine prepares an individual copy of each draft, opinion and bundle for every recipient named in the matter.
Distribute
Lawyers within the firm sign in with their accounts, and clients, experts and the other side open their copies with a passcode or a one-time code sent by email.
Identify
If a document from the matter is found outside it, an investigation compares the document with the copies issued and identifies the copy it came from.
Legal work in which it is used
Corporate lawyers exchange drafts and disclosure with the other side and with every adviser to the deal.
- Draft agreements and disclosure schedules
- A separate copy for each party
- A record of which copy was issued to whom
Pleadings, witness statements and settlement terms are confidential to the parties and their counsel.
- Witness statements and expert reports
- Copies for counsel and experts
- Settlement terms held in confidence
Reports prepared for a board or a regulator are read by a restricted group.
- Investigation reports and legal advice
- Copies limited to named readers
- Reading in the secure viewer where required
A firm's partnership papers, financial information and client lists are themselves confidential.
- Partnership and management papers
- An individual copy for each partner
- Sign-in with the firm's own accounts
Controls for a law firm
Documents read in the browser
A document is read in the secure viewer in a browser, with nothing to download and nothing to install. The organization decides which documents are read only in this way.
Copies in the original format
Where the organization permits it, a recipient saves a copy in its original format. The copy opens in the usual applications, can be read offline and keeps its watermark.
Recipients inside and outside
Members of the organization sign in with their accounts. Recipients outside it need no account, and open a file with a passcode or a one-time code sent to their email address.
Investigation of a found copy
A file found outside its intended audience is submitted for investigation, which compares it with the copies issued and states the probability that it came from a given copy.
- Nothing to download
- Nothing to install
- Decided file by file
- Original format
- Usual applications
- Offline viewing
- Watermark retained
- Sign-in for members
- Passcode
- One-time code by email
- No account for outside recipients
- Any found file submitted
- Compared with the copies issued
- Probability stated
- Decision left to the organization
What a law firm gains
Drafts and disclosure can be provided to every party who is entitled to them. Because each copy remains accountable, there is less occasion to restrict circulation to paper or to supervised reading.
When a document from a matter is disclosed, the firm can tell its client which copy it came from, on the evidence of an investigation and the record of copies issued.
A finding concerns one copy. Where that copy was issued to another party, the firm and its staff are not left under the suspicion that follows an unexplained disclosure.
Questions from law firms
Do clients and opposing counsel need an account?
No. Recipients outside the firm open a document with a passcode or with a one-time code sent to their email address. Lawyers and staff of the firm sign in with the firm's own accounts.
Can Invisproof's staff read a client's documents?
No. Files are held in encrypted form, and Invisproof's staff cannot open them. Files provided by customers are not used to train models.
Where are a firm's files stored?
Each organization selects the European Union or the United States as the location in which its files are stored.
What happens to a firm's files if it stops using Invisproof?
The firm may export its files, and everything is erased thirty days after it leaves.
Related use cases and solutions
Transactions and due diligence
Information memoranda, term sheets and disclosure documents, issued as a separate copy to each bidder and adviser.
View use case
Source identification
A file found outside its intended audience, compared with the copies that were issued and matched to the copy it came from.
View use case
Financial services
Research, deal documents and investor reports, issued by banks, funds and advisers as an individual copy to each recipient.
View solution
Board and leadership material
Board packs, strategy papers and minutes, issued as an individual copy to each director and officer.
View use caseRequest access
Invisproof is provided to organizations by approval.