Global IP law firm secures matter data and cuts restores to minutes

Matter files were scattered across Windows file servers, DFS namespaces and local silos, so access controls and retention rules were inconsistent and hard to enforce.

Legacy Veeam backups were not consistently deployed across systems, and there was no immutable or air-gapped copy of critical data, which raised ransomware risk and prolonged outages after an incident.

Corporate clients began sending detailed security questionnaires that demanded proof of strong encryption, auditable access controls and tested recovery, and the fragmented environment made that evidence hard to produce.

External collaboration depended heavily on email attachments and personal cloud tools that were difficult to control and audit.

IT staff spent large amounts of time on routine restores, DFS permission fixes and remote user support, so modernization projects lagged behind.

Z7 began with a structured assessment of storage and DFS usage, backup coverage and retention, access models for matters and practice groups, client security requirements, and internal document workflows. The result was a future state design with FileCloud as the matter-centric collaboration layer and Commvault Metallic as the unified data protection platform.

Z7 deployed FileCloud as the primary secure collaboration and file services platform and redesigned the folder hierarchy around matters and practice needs. Permissions and inheritance now follow legal confidentiality requirements and partner policies, so attorneys, paralegals and staff work from a single source of truth for each matter.

FileCloud policies control download, print, copy and external sharing at the document level, block unapproved sharing in real time and expire shared links automatically. Ethical walls tied to matter team membership, multi-factor authentication, identity-based access and full chain of custody recording complete the governance layer.

Encrypted, governed portals replaced email attachments and personal cloud tools. Co-counsel, foreign associates, clients and experts receive time-bound, auditable access to only the materials they need, and attorneys work from web and mobile without moving client data onto unmanaged devices.

Commvault Metallic now produces backup copies that cannot be altered or deleted, even by administrators, logically isolated from production and protected by separate encryption keys. One platform covers FileCloud repositories, virtual machines and server infrastructure, Microsoft 365 workloads, and SAN storage used by legal applications.

Z7 built quarterly recovery tests into the program. Recovery runbooks and test results are documented to directly support client audits and outside counsel guideline responses.

Reported incidents of unauthorized data leakage since deployment.

Clean room restore time, down from hours.

Recovery tests, documented for client audits.

Backup platform in place of a patchwork of tools.

End-to-end encryption covers data at rest and in transit, DLP policies stop unapproved sharing, and every file action is recorded in a complete audit trail, with zero reported incidents of unauthorized data leakage since deployment.

Clean room restores that previously took hours now finish in minutes, and immutable backups exist for every critical system.

The multi-tier backup architecture is aligned with NIST and CMMC guidance, and the recovery posture is documented for rigorous client security audits.

Scattered file shares are consolidated into one governed structure, and manual restores and DFS permission fixes have dropped significantly, freeing IT to focus on modernization and attorney support.

The firm meets or exceeds typical corporate counsel security requirements for encryption, access control and recovery, and can demonstrate chain of custody for matter data at a granular level.

The firm is better positioned in RFPs and client onboarding evaluations where security posture and data handling practices influence selection.