---
title: Legal & Contract Document Security | Protection Beyond the Firewall | FileOpen
description: Improve your document security when dealing with contracts and legal documentation with FileOpen Services
---

# FileOpen for Legal and Contracts

![fileopen_for_legal](https://www.fileopen.com/hs-fs/hubfs/fileopen_for_legal.jpg?width=848&name=fileopen_for_legal.jpg)

## Control Documents Inside and Outside the Firm

Law firms have a unique set of requirements to protect their clients’ privacy, as well as an obligation to adopt efficient administrative procedures. Heavyweight document management solutions and security systems designed for corporations are an awkward fit for smaller practices, who have a constant need to share documents outside the firm with minimal friction for the clients and colleagues trying to view them.

### Why FileOpen for Legal Documents

FileOpen’s approach of controlling access at the document level is well-suited to the legal use case, as it enables legal staff to explicitly grant specific users with access to certain documents, inside or outside the firm. FileOpen DRM supports [review and annotations](https://www.fileopen.com/annotations) of secured documents and provides an audit trail of document usage and printing for monitoring and forensic purposes. 

FileOpen's software can be installed inside the firewall and [integrated with Active Directory or other LDAP systems](https://www.fileopen.com/identity-authentication) to allocate access according to a firm's policies, and can also be installed on public-facing servers to manage access to files distributed to outside parties. PDF and MSOffice file formats are supported in their native applications, allowing [editing, annotation, tracking of changes, redlines](https://www.fileopen.com/annotations) and other application features.

![1a0ccb8e-fdc1-439f-8735-41bc5b245b77](https://www.fileopen.com/hubfs/1a0ccb8e-fdc1-439f-8735-41bc5b245b77.png)

Document link won't work for another user

Dynamically watermarked based on user identity

Redlines and comments are also encrypted

![female-lawyer-working-late-at-laptop-in-urban-office-697540591-59a4712968e1a20013536419](https://www.fileopen.com/hubfs/female-lawyer-working-late-at-laptop-in-urban-office-697540591-59a4712968e1a20013536419.jpg)

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### Use Cases

**Limit access** to the attorneys and staff assigned to a case   |   Allow collaboration on a document, then **lock the final version** to prevent changes   |   Share discovery materials on a **time-limited** basis   |   Restrict the number of **concurrent users** of a document or collection   |   Selectively **enable/disable search** within a document collection   |   **Track access** at the page level   |   **Revoke** documents after external distribution, for some or all recipients

![legal2](https://www.fileopen.com/hubfs/legal2.png)

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### Example Document

Production systems in legal environments are often complex and involve multiple modifications. FileOpen's encryption tools work within these environments to enforce confidentiality and version control.

### Request a Demo

![](https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/viewthroughconversion/1071657555/?guid=ON&script=0)