Set up a group for a client

A new client has instructed the firm, or a practice team wants one place for its work. Before the first matter is opened, give it a group. The group holds the client's matters, its templates and its standard building blocks, and it decides how the people in it reach those matters.

Two questions decide the setup. Should everyone in the group see every matter, or only the matters they are staffed on? And who looks after the group with you?

Create the group

1. On the home page, click New and choose Group. If you are opening a matter and the client has no group yet, type the client's name under Select Group and pick Add: the same form opens.

   If Juristic tells you that only admins can create groups, your firm has decided that its admins set up groups. Ask one of them.

2. Give the group a Title the team will recognise in a list, such as "Beta Holding A/S" for a client or "Disputes" for a practice team. Click the round icon beside it (Click to change icon) to choose an icon or upload the client's logo; otherwise the group shows its initials.

3. Add a Description, such as the client's main contact partner or what the group covers, so colleagues know they are in the right place.

4. Choose how the group hands out its matters.

   

   The group	Choose	What it means
   A client with confidential matters, or where some lawyers have a conflict on one matter	Restricted access	People see a matter only once they are added to it, matter by matter
   An internal practice area, where everyone works on everything	Unrestricted access	Everyone in the group is put on every matter in it, without being added one by one

5. Click Save and open to go straight to the new group, or Save to stay where you are. You are the group's first Manager.

Bring in the managers and members

6. On the group's page, click the row of avatars at the top right (Click to view and manage members).

7. Under Invite collaborators, find the colleague by name or email and click Invite. They join the group as a Member. A colleague who is not on Juristic yet can be invited with their Full name and work Email when the search finds no one; only your firm's own email domain is accepted.

8. Under Collaborators, click the role next to a colleague and choose Manager or Member.

   

   Role	What they can do in the group
   Manager	Change roles and take people off, switch between Restricted access and Unrestricted access, change the group's templates and building blocks, set the matter layout for the group, and archive or delete the group
   Member	Open the group, start matters in it and use its templates and building blocks

   Make a second senior lawyer a Manager, so the group does not depend on one person who is away. The last Manager cannot leave the group.

What happens next depends on the access you chose. In a group with Unrestricted access, a colleague you invite is put on every matter already in the group, and every new matter is opened with everyone in the group on it. In a group with Restricted access, the matter's manager adds people to each matter; see bring your team into the matter.

Tips from practice

• Decide the access model at the start. Switching later changes how people are added from then on: it does not take anyone off a matter they are already on, and it does not add the existing members to matters already open. To change it, click Edit Group on the group's page.
• Adding someone to a matter brings them into the group. In a group with Restricted access, a lawyer you add to one matter becomes a Member of the group too, but sees only the matters they are on.
• Groups from your directory. If your firm manages people through single sign-on, admins can link a group to a directory group so new joiners land in it automatically. See put people in the right groups automatically.
• Who may create groups is a firm policy. See set the firm's policies for Juristic.

Next: open a matter for new work, and give the group its standard material in set up a group's templates and standard content.