LawVu provides two ways to give users access to matters and contracts: membership and team assignment. Understanding the difference helps you manage who can see, interact with, and receive notifications about your organization's records.
The key distinction: Team assignment gives users visibility over a matter or contract. Membership gives users active participation in it.
Membership
Members are directly involved in a matter or contract. They appear in the Members tab, see the record in My Matters/My Contracts grid, and receive notifications about activity.
How users become members
Added manually by an owner, manager, or authorized member
Added automatically through Auto-Assignment configured on a matter or contract type
Click Join on a record that they can already access
What membership provides
Records appear in My Matters/My Contracts
Receives notifications
Can contribute based on their access level
Team Assignment
Team Assignment gives a group of users visibility over matters or contracts without making them members.
This allows teams to monitor work and access records when needed without cluttering their My Matters/My Contracts list or generating unnecessary notifications.
How team assignment works
Teams can be assigned through:
The creation form
The record's Details page (under Details for matters and General Information for contracts)
The Security tab
When a team is assigned, all team members can view the record.
What team assignment provides
Records appear in All Matters/All Contracts
Can search, filter, and preview the records
Can choose to Join and become a member
What team assignment does not provide
Does not appear in My Matters/My Contracts
No notifications
Not listed in the Members tab
No contribution rights until joining
| Membership | Team Assignment |
Where it appears | My Matters/Contracts + All Matters/Contracts | All Matters/Contracts only |
Notifications | ✔ Yes | ✘ No (until you join) |
Listed in the Members tab | ✔ Yes | ✘ No |
Can edit/contribute | ✔ Yes (based on access level) | ✘ No (preview and join only) |
How it's granted | Added individually or via auto-assignment | Inherited from the team's matter/contract type assignment |
How restricted records affect access
Any matter or contract can be marked as Restricted. Restricting a record is a hard override that:
Removes any teams added via the Security tab (either manually or by inheritance)
Limits access to only explicitly named members in the Members tab
The assigned team is still displayed on the Details tab for record-keeping purposes, but visibility by team members is restricted
Note: Users with visibility through team assignment will not have access to a restricted record unless they have been added as a direct member. Members will need to be specifically added to restricted matters by the Matter Manager or Matter Owner.
Frequently asked questions
I want my team to see all Employment matters but not get notified about everything.
→ Use team assignment. Assign the team to the Employment matter type. Team members will see these matters in their All Matters grid and can join when they need to get involved.
I need someone to actively work on a specific matter and receive updates.
→ Add them as a member with the appropriate access level.
I want new matters of a certain type to automatically add specific people as members.
→ Use auto-assignment at the matter type level. This adds users as members upon creation, so they appear in My Matters and receive notifications straight away.
What is the benefit of team assignment?
→ Having a team assigned allows the team manager to create saved views and track a team's work. It also means all team members have visibility into assigned records, so they can step in for colleagues who may be away.