Workflows by profession

A legal practice's files

Updated 2026-07-31 · 5 min read

Legal work is the extreme case of every filing problem: volume, versions, deadlines, and consequences for losing any of it.

Matter-centric, always

One folder per matter, everything inside:

Matters/
  2026-014 AcmeCo v Beta/
    Pleadings/   Correspondence/   Contracts/   Research/   Billing/

Matter number + name in the folder means every document inherits findability from its path. Loose client documents outside a matter folder are the cardinal sin.

Contract versions

The redline chain must be reconstructable years later:

2026-07-31 MSA v4 (our redline).docx
2026-08-02 MSA v5 (their turn).docx
2026-08-04 MSA v6 EXECUTED.pdf

Date, version, whose turn, and EXECUTED marks the one that binds. The executed PDF is sacred; drafts are history. Never edit a file named EXECUTED.

Email is half the file system

The attachment trail in Mail *is* the correspondence record — and it lives in Mail's container where file search cannot certify completeness. Practice discipline: file significant attachments into the matter folder on receipt, named by date and substance. "It is in my email" is not a filing system a partner accepts at deposition prep.

The searches under pressure

• Matter number → everything, instantly (this is what the folder scheme buys)
• EXECUTED across all matters → every binding document
• A clause phrase → content search across the corpus:

mdfind -onlyin ~/Matters "limitation of liability"

• Opposing counsel's name across correspondence

Retention and archives

Closed matters move to archive storage intact — often to external drives per firm policy. The offline-drive search problem lands hard here (which drive holds 2019's closed matters?), and the solutions are the standard ones: listings, or an index that keeps unmounted volumes searchable with results labelled by drive.

Common questions

How should legal files be organised on a Mac?

Matter-centric: one folder per matter with standard subfolders, matter number in the folder name.

How do lawyers track contract versions?

Dated, numbered filenames noting whose turn, with EXECUTED reserved for the binding copy — which is never edited.