A SharePoint site for every matter: how a small law firm organizes Microsoft 365 by case
SharePoint has no built-in idea of a "matter". Firms on Microsoft 365 end up choosing between one library with a folder per case, a subsite per case, or a Team per case, and then creating each one by hand. Proserus Legal does the third one for you: when a matter is opened, it creates a Microsoft 365 Group with a Team and a SharePoint site, adds the people on the matter, lays out the folder structure your practice area uses, and links the site back to the matter. The files stay in your tenant, under your retention and sharing rules.
What gets created when a matter opens
- A Microsoft 365 Group and a Team: The Group is named for the matter, and a Team is created on it. Every matter gets a Team, even if your firm doesn't use Teams yet, so nothing has to be rebuilt later.
- The people on the matter: The responsible and primary attorneys and the firm members assigned to the matter are added to the Team.
- The SharePoint site: The site that comes with the Group, with its document library.
- A folder skeleton: The default litigation layout has General and Pleadings (with File Stamped Court Filings), Discovery (Depositions, Requests and Responses, Third Party Productions), Correspondence, Client Specific (Discovery Requests and Responses, Authorizations, Medical Billing, Medical Liens, Medical Records), Experts, Invoices, Notes and Research, Trial (Appeal, Outlines, Exhibits, Transcripts, Pretrial), Settlement, and an External Share folder. A second layout adds a subfolder per client. Transactional matters can start with an empty library, and a case-type pack can define its own tree.
- A Proserus tab in the Team: Time, billing and the matter record are one click from the files.
- The link back: The site address and the Group's email address are written back to the matter in Proserus.
Client intake: converting a lead opens the matter and starts this in one step
If a step fails
Provisioning runs as a job with a saved checkpoint after each step. If Microsoft is slow to create the site or a step errors, the job resumes from the last completed step instead of starting over, and the new-matter wizard shows the progress until the site is ready.
Why a site per matter, not a folder per matter
- Permissions follow the matter: Membership in the Group decides who sees the files.
- Email has a home: Each Group has its own email address, and Proserus records it on the matter.
- Teams is already there when you want it: Chat, meetings and the files share one container.
- It is the structure Microsoft builds for: Retention labels, eDiscovery and sensitivity labels all work at the site level.
What stays in your tenant
Documents, email and calendar never leave your Microsoft 365. Proserus keeps the practice records (matters, time, billing, trust ledgers) in its own US-hosted database with tenant isolation. The Microsoft Graph permissions this needs are listed on the security page, and revoking consent cuts off access immediately.