Last Updated on February 12, 2026 Sarah Gayda
Law firms and legal departments manage a constant flow of documents and email every day—from contracts and pleadings to correspondence, advice, and supporting materials. As legal teams look to modernize their operations, many are turning to Microsoft SharePoint Online as a foundation for managing legal information more efficiently.
When implemented with the right structure and governance, SharePoint can support legal workflows while reducing reliance on legacy, standalone document management systems.
What is a SharePoint Legal DMS?
A SharePoint Legal DMS is a document management approach that uses Microsoft SharePoint Online as the central repository for legal matter documents, combining security, version control, search, and collaboration with governance practices required for legal records and compliance.
Rather than acting as a generic file store, a SharePoint Legal DMS is designed to organize information by matter, control access to sensitive content, and ensure legal documents and communications are retained and managed appropriately throughout their lifecycle.
Why legal teams are looking to SharePoint
Legal professionals need to collaborate internally and externally while maintaining strict controls over confidentiality, versioning, and access. SharePoint offers several advantages that make it attractive as a legal document management platform:
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A familiar interface integrated with Microsoft 365 tools such as Outlook and Teams
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Centralized storage for documents and email related to legal matters
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Built-in version history and permissions management
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Powerful search and metadata capabilities
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Reduced infrastructure and licensing costs compared to legacy systems
For many legal teams, SharePoint provides a modern, cloud-based alternative that aligns with how they already work.
Where SharePoint meets legal requirements — and where governance matters
Out of the box, SharePoint includes many capabilities essential to document management, including version control, permissions, metadata, and search. However, legal teams have additional requirements that go beyond standard document storage.
Effective legal document management requires:
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Matter-centric organization of documents and email
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Consistent filing and classification across matters
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Controlled access to sensitive or restricted information
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Retention policies, legal holds, and defensible disposal
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Auditability and discovery readiness
To function effectively as a legal DMS, SharePoint must be configured and governed in a way that aligns with these legal-specific needs.
Improving efficiency with SharePoint for legal teams
When SharePoint is structured around legal matters and supported by clear governance, legal teams can see meaningful efficiency gains. Documents and email are easier to locate, collaboration improves, and time spent searching for information is reduced.
For example, filing key client emails and attachments directly into the appropriate matter workspace ensures communications are retained alongside related documents, improving retrieval and reducing discovery risk. This approach also helps standardize how legal information is stored and accessed, reducing inconsistencies that can lead to errors or compliance gaps.
Tools like Colligo Email Manager help enable this approach by allowing lawyers to file email and attachments directly to SharePoint matter workspaces with consistent metadata and governance.
Real-world results: SharePoint in legal practice
Legal teams using SharePoint as part of a structured legal document and email management approach report measurable efficiency and governance improvements. Two recent examples highlight the impact this approach can deliver:
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Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC):
By integrating Colligo Email Manager with SharePoint Online, legal professionals at IOPC saved over 20 hours per lawyer per month, totaling approximately 500 hours of time saved across the organization. Improved filing reliability, metadata tagging, and bulk filing helped ensure case files were more complete and easier to retrieve.
Read the IOPC case study → -
L. Fournier & Fils Inc. legal department:
A legal team operating under strict retention requirements saved up to 80 hours per person per year by filing email into SharePoint using Colligo Email Manager, while ensuring compliance with professional and regulatory obligations.
Read the legal department case study →
These examples demonstrate how combining SharePoint with purpose-built legal email and document management practices can deliver tangible productivity and compliance benefits.
Compliance, retention, and modern Microsoft 365 capabilities
Today’s SharePoint environment integrates closely with Microsoft 365 compliance tools such as Microsoft Purview, supporting retention labels, audit logs, and eDiscovery workflows. These capabilities help legal teams align document governance with regulatory, ethical, and professional responsibility requirements.
By combining SharePoint’s collaboration features with modern compliance and governance controls, legal teams can manage documents and email in a way that supports both productivity and risk management.
SharePoint as part of a broader legal document management strategy
Email and documents often contain the official record of legal advice, decisions, and approvals. Managing this information effectively requires more than personal inboxes or ad hoc folders.
Used thoughtfully, SharePoint can serve as a strong foundation for legal document management—supporting collaboration while ensuring legal information is secure, governed, and discoverable across its lifecycle.
Using SharePoint as a Legal DMS Without Increasing Risk
Embracing SharePoint as a Legal DMS is not simply about adopting new technology. It’s about applying structure, governance, and legal-specific practices to a familiar platform so legal teams can work more efficiently without increasing risk.
Plus, centralizing on Microsoft 365 and standardizing on the software you already own(and pay for) makes a lot more sense than creating another data silo.
With the right approach, SharePoint enables legal organizations to modernize document management while maintaining the control and compliance their work demands.
Get in Touch
For further information on replacing your legacy in-house legal document management system with SharePoint Online and Colligo Email Manager, get in touch.