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Approval workflows

Updated

Before a document leaves your organization — whether that means sending it to a client or routing it for signature — Legal's matter lifecycle gives you a structured internal review step. Work moves through defined statuses, and a matter can be assigned to a connected attorney.

Matter Status as the Approval Gate

Every matter in Legal moves through a strict lifecycle. These are the seven statuses the service itself holds — draft, submitted, under_review, returned, approved, signed and archived:

  1. Draft — being prepared internally
  2. Submitted — ready for review; no more casual edits
  3. Under Review — an attorney or reviewer has opened it
  4. Returned — sent back with notes for revision. A returned matter is revised and re-submitted; it does not go back to Draft.
  5. Approved — cleared to proceed
  6. Signed — the matter's document has been executed through e-signature; a matter is advanced here automatically when its document signs
  7. Archived — work is complete

The status gates ensure a document cannot be treated as final until it has cleared the Approved step.

Step 1: Submit a Matter for Review

  1. Open the matter in Legal > Matters.
  2. When the matter and its documents are ready, click Submit.
  3. The status moves to Submitted. Editing is locked for non-reviewers at this stage.

Step 2: Begin Review

  1. The assigned attorney or reviewer opens the matter.
  2. They click Begin Review. Status moves to Under Review.
  3. They can open any matter document, leave inline comments, anchor redlines to specific text, and propose changes using Document Comments.

Step 3: Approve or Return

  • Approve: The reviewer clicks Approve. Status moves to Approved. The matter is cleared for the next step (sending for signature, sharing with the client, etc.).
  • Return: The reviewer clicks Return and adds notes explaining what needs to change. Status moves back to Returned, and the submitter can revise and re-submit.

Requesting an Attorney Review on a Specific Document

Focused review of a single document by a partner attorney is not available in the Legal portal yet. There is no Request Review action on a document, and no attorney-facing queue in which a partner attorney accepts or declines a request.

The service can record a review request — linking a matter, and optionally one document inside it, to a connected attorney with a priority, an optional due date and instructions — but the attorney side of that flow is not built, and nothing notifies the attorney when a request is created. Until it ships, arrange a focused review with The One Stack. A recorded request stays Pending until it is cancelled.

Connecting to an Attorney

Legal has no self-serve attorney directory yet — there is no Legal > Attorneys screen to browse partner attorneys, and no Connect button.

Attorney partnerships are arranged by The One Stack: contact support to be matched with a partner attorney. Once a partnership is in place, the attorney appears in your organisation's connected-attorney list, and you can assign them to a matter from that matter's edit dialog.

Inline Comments and Redlines

Any collaborator with access to a document can leave comments directly tied to specific text:

  1. Open the document on a matter.
  2. Click Add Comment, anchor it to the relevant text, and write the comment or proposed change.
  3. Comments have a status of Open or Resolved. Mark comments resolved as changes are accepted.
  4. The document tracks comment_count and open_redline_count so you can see at a glance how much unresolved feedback remains.

FAQ

Can I skip the approval step and send a document directly for signature? The matter lifecycle is strict. A document can be sent for signature from the Documents tab regardless of matter status, but best practice is to complete the approval cycle first so there is an audit trail showing the document was reviewed before execution.

What if an attorney declines the review request? There is no attorney-side accept or decline step in the service today — a recorded request stays Pending and can be edited or cancelled, but no route records a decline or a reason. To move the work on, cancel the pending request; there is no automatic reassignment.

Who counts as a reviewer? Any connected attorney can be assigned as the reviewing attorney on a matter. Users with the admin or owner role in your organization can also move a matter through the lifecycle steps.

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