Why SharePoint Is the Best Document Store for Law Firms

Why SharePoint; inside the firm's own Microsoft 365 tenancy; is the right document storage choice for UK law firms, and how it works when integrated into a matter-centric practice management platform.

Document storage is one of the most important infrastructure decisions a law firm makes. Every matter generates documents; correspondence, contracts, court forms, identity documents, valuation reports, statements of case; and they all need to be stored securely, organised logically, and retrievable quickly.

Many firms still store documents in a mix of local drives, network shares, email attachments, and cloud storage services that aren't designed for legal practice. The result is document chaos: the same document in three places, none of which is the authoritative version; documents that can't be found when they're needed; and no clear link between a document and the matter it belongs to.

This guide explains why SharePoint; specifically, SharePoint inside the firm's own Microsoft 365 tenancy; is the best document storage choice for UK law firms, and how it works when integrated into a matter-centric practice management platform.

The problem with traditional document storage

Network drives

The traditional approach; a shared network drive with a folder structure; has three fundamental problems:

No per-matter structure; the folder structure depends on whoever set it up, and it varies from fee earner to fee earner. Finding a document means knowing where someone decided to put it.
No access control; everyone with access to the drive can see everything. There's no way to restrict access to specific matters for specific fee earners (important for conflict management).
No version control; when two people edit the same document, the last save wins. There's no history of changes, and no way to revert.

Consumer cloud storage

Dropbox, Google Drive, and similar services solve some of the network drive problems but introduce others:

Not designed for legal compliance; no audit trail, no matter-level access control, no integration with legal practice management
Data location; the firm's data is stored on third-party servers, potentially outside the UK. For GDPR compliance, this is a concern.
Ownership; the firm's documents are in a system the firm doesn't control. If the cloud provider changes terms, loses data, or suffers a breach, the firm is exposed.

Practice management system storage

Many practice management systems include built-in document storage. This solves the integration problem but creates a different one:

Vendor lock-in; the documents are stored in the vendor's proprietary system. If the firm switches systems, extracting the documents is often difficult and expensive.
No direct access; fee earners can't access documents outside the practice management system. If the system is down, the documents are inaccessible.
No native Office integration; editing a Word document usually means downloading it, editing locally, and re-uploading. SharePoint allows co-authoring directly in the browser.

Why SharePoint is different

SharePoint, as part of Microsoft 365, solves these problems:

The firm owns the storage

With SharePoint inside the firm's own Microsoft 365 tenancy, the documents are stored in the firm's own Microsoft environment; not in a third-party vendor's system. The firm controls access, retention, and permissions. If the firm switches practice management systems, the documents stay in SharePoint; they don't need to be migrated.

This is the key difference. The practice management system integrates with SharePoint; it doesn't own it. The documents belong to the firm, not the software vendor.

Microsoft 365 integration

Because SharePoint is part of Microsoft 365, it integrates natively with the tools fee earners already use:

Outlook; emails can be saved directly to SharePoint folders, linking correspondence to the matter. See our Microsoft 365 legal AI integration guide.
Word, Excel, PowerPoint; documents can be opened and edited directly from SharePoint, with real-time co-authoring. No downloading and re-uploading.
Teams; matter-related discussions and document sharing can happen in Teams channels, with the documents stored in SharePoint.
OneDrive; documents can be synced to local machines for offline access, with changes syncing back to SharePoint automatically.

Per-matter access control

SharePoint supports granular permissions. Each matter can have its own folder with access restricted to the fee earners working on that matter. This is essential for:

Conflict management; fee earners working on one side of a transaction cannot access documents from the other side's matter
Confidentiality; sensitive matters can be restricted to a small group
Staff changes; when a fee earner leaves the firm, their access to matter folders can be revoked immediately

Version history

SharePoint maintains a full version history for every document. Every save creates a new version, and previous versions can be viewed or restored. This is critical for legal documents; if a contract is amended and the firm needs to show what the original version said, the history is there.

Search

SharePoint's search is powerful; full-text search across all documents in the tenancy, including the content of Word documents, PDFs, and emails. A fee earner looking for a specific clause in a contract can search across all matters and find it in seconds, not hours of folder-browsing.

Data residency and compliance

Microsoft 365 tenancies can be configured to store data in specific geographic regions; including the UK. This is important for GDPR compliance and for clients who require their data to be stored in the UK. Microsoft's compliance certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2, and others) provide assurance that the data is stored securely.

For more on data protection in legal practice, see our guide on data privacy and AI.

How SharePoint works inside OrdoLux

OrdoLux uses SharePoint as its document storage backend; but inside the firm's own Microsoft 365 tenancy, not a shared OrdoLux environment.

One folder per matter

Each matter in OrdoLux has its own SharePoint folder, created automatically when the matter is opened. All documents for that matter; correspondence, contracts, court forms, identity documents, time records; are stored in that folder.

Automatic filing

Documents are filed to the SharePoint folder automatically:

Emails sent from OrdoLux are filed to the matter's SharePoint folder
Checkboard verification results are filed automatically
Court forms generated in OrdoLux are filed to the folder
Documents uploaded by the fee earner are stored in SharePoint, not in OrdoLux's own storage

Access from inside OrdoLux

Fee earners access documents from inside the OrdoLux matter workspace. They don't need to open SharePoint separately; the document list is shown in the matter, and clicking a document opens it (either in the browser via Office Online, or in the desktop application).

The firm can also access SharePoint directly

Because the documents are in the firm's own SharePoint, the firm can access them directly through the SharePoint interface or File Explorer (via OneDrive sync). The IT team can manage permissions, retention policies, and backup directly; without going through OrdoLux.

Where OrdoLux fits

OrdoLux uses SharePoint in the firm's own Microsoft 365 tenancy as its document storage backend. Each matter has its own folder, documents are filed automatically, and access is controlled by the firm; not by OrdoLux. The documents belong to the firm, and they stay with the firm if they ever leave OrdoLux.

OrdoLux also includes Checkboard for KYC and AML, Stripe for card payments, built-in e-signature, 350+ HMCTS court forms, and time recording; all in one matter-centric workspace.

See all features or book a demo.