Send a document for four-eyes review

The board resolutions for Beta Holding A/S are drafted, or the legal opinion for Project Alpha, and the firm's rules say a second pair of eyes has to approve them before they leave the firm: a senior associate first, then the partner. A screening puts that review on the record. You add the documents, name the reviewers in the order they review, and each one can approve only when the one before has approved.

Two questions decide how you set it up. Who has to approve, and in what order? And which documents are being approved, and which are only there for context?

Screening is part of your firm's subscription. If you cannot find it under Create new, ask your organisation's admin; see add a product to the firm's subscription.

Create the screening

1. Open the matter, then its screenings, and click Create new. You can also click Create new in the sidebar and choose Screening: with a matter open, the screening goes into that matter.

   

2. Under Give your screening a title, name it after what is being approved, for example "Beta Holding A/S: board resolutions, capital increase". Click Next.

Add the documents

1. Drop the documents to be approved on Primary document, or click it to browse. These are what the reviewers approve or send back.

2. Drop supporting material on Attachments: the cap table, the earlier draft, the client's instructions. Reviewers can read them, but they are not what is being signed off.

   

3. Click a document in the list to preview it, and remove anything that went into the wrong box. Click Next once at least one document is in.

Choose the reviewers

1. Under Select who needs to review documents, tick each person who has to review. Use Search users... to find them by name. You can include yourself, for example to take the last step.

   

2. The list also has colleagues who are not on the matter yet; tick them like anyone else, and they are added to the matter when you click Next. For someone not in the list, click Add new user to find them or invite them to Juristic, and check that they are ticked. The count at the top of the list shows how many you have selected.

3. Click Next. With a single reviewer, the screening opens straight away on the review chain, and there is no order to set; go on to start the screening, below.

Set the review order

1. Under Set the review order for users, drag the reviewers into the order they review in. The first in the list reviews first, and each one after can approve only when the one before has approved.

2. Check the title of each review step in the list beside the reviewer's name. Juristic suggests Peer Review for the first, Partner Review for the last and Manager Review for those in between. To use the firm's own name for a step, such as "Risk sign-off", choose Create a title.

3. Click Start review. The screening opens on the review chain: your own Upload step first, then each reviewer's step in the order you set.

   

Start the screening

The first reviewer's turn does not come until you start the screening.

1. Select the Upload step in the review chain and check the documents one last time.

2. Click Start screening. The first reviewer's step is now the one the screening is waiting for, and each reviewer after them gets it when the one before approves.

   

File it in the matter

A screening created outside a matter is a draft: only the people added to it can open it, not the team on the matter. Assign it so the team can find it and the record stays with the matter.

1. Click Screening configuration at the top left of the screening and choose Change assigned matter.

   

2. Select the matter and click Save. Reviewers who are not on the matter yet are added to it.

Who sees what

Tips from practice

• One screening per thing to be approved. Resolutions and an opinion approved by different people belong in two screenings, so each record shows exactly what each reviewer signed off.
• Primary means approved. Only put in Primary document what the reviewers are approving. Everything else goes in Attachments, so nobody approves a reference document by mistake.
• Name the steps after the firm's rules. A step called "Partner Review" or "Second partner review" tells anyone reading the record later why that person approved.
• Changing the chain later. You can add a step or change a reviewer after the review has started, from Screening configuration; steps that have already been reviewed are locked. See change the review chain during a review.

Next, the reviewer's side: review and approve a document in a screening. When the review is done, see file the record of a completed review.