You are a law firm running hundreds of active client collaboration and matter-related sites on HighQ. When a simple question arises ahead of a regulatory audit, “Are we compliant with our data access policies?”, no one can answer with confidence.
Matters close, but sites remain active. External users still have access, and documents governed by strict retention policies sit outside the firm’s Document Management System (DMS). When risk and compliance teams ask for proof, and clients require it as a condition of engagement, the answer is the same: “I think so, but I cannot prove it.” In that moment, the risk is no longer theoretical.
This is not a new issue for legal organizations. It’s one the industry has lived with for years. Stewart Rasmussen has seen it firsthand throughout his 16-year career in legal technology before creating Syncly.
I founded Syncly to solve a problem the industry has tolerated for too long: fragmented systems that don’t speak to each other, siloed data, and complex data governance processes that only look in the rear-view mirror. Legal technology should enable progress, not create complexity.Stewart Rasmussen, CEO and Founder, Syncly
Jump to ↓
| Why control breaks down in HighQ environments |
| Connect governance to HighQ workflows with Syncly |
| Automate user access and act on risk in real-time |
| Strengthen governance for AI readiness |
Why control breaks down in HighQ environments
HighQ supports hundreds of thousands of sites, more than a million users each year, and a steady influx of new documents. Each adds new access, retention, or lifecycle decisions, placing growing pressure on the limited number of administrators responsible for keeping it all in order.
Most firms still manage governance through periodic reviews, pulling together scattered reports, identifying issues, and assigning manual cleanup tasks. Over time, that model breaks down because review cycles can’t keep up, leaving organizations exposed to an increasingly unacceptable level of risk.
As usage grows, visibility becomes harder to maintain. Administrative overhead increases, and staying on top of compliance obligations becomes more challenging. Firms are under pressure not just to collaborate effectively, but to demonstrate control over how information is shared.Tadeusz Peisert, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Legal Tech, HighQ at Thomson Reuters
In one case, a global law firm discovered thousands of external accounts where users had not logged in for more than a year. Those accounts represent the risks organizations can quietly accumulate, without any alerts or triggers.
Connect governance to HighQ workflows with Syncly
HighQ provides the collaboration environment for legal work, while Syncly enables governance through integration and automation. Together, in the HighQ Integration and Governance Hub, they support continuous oversight across users, sites, and data.
Founded by former HighQ executives, Syncly runs deep within the platform. Firms can move away from point-in-time reviews and apply governance directly within existing workflows.
The goal is to support compliance at scale rather than chase issues after the fact. This shift is essential as collaboration environments continue to expand.Steve Fullerton, Sr. Product Manager, Legal Practice and Productivity at Thomson Reuters
Without integration, teams rely on manual downloads and uploads between systems like iManage and HighQ, creating delays, duplication, and breaks in data integrity. These inefficiencies can disrupt chain of custody, create audit gaps, and increase compliance risk.
Move data at scale with control and security
Syncly enables secure, large-scale data movement and bi-directional synchronization across systems, including:
- iManage, SharePoint and NetDocuments for document management and matter work
- OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box for storage and collaboration
- DocuSign, Litify, Smokeball, Teams, and many more cloud‑based contract and matter management platforms
Security remains under the firm’s control. Built on a System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type 2-certified platform, Syncly does not store document content or user credentials. It manages access through the organization’s existing identity provider, allowing firms to extend governance without added risk.
Automate user access and act on risk in real-time
Organizations can identify inactive accounts and queue them for deactivation based on defined criteria. A built-in review window allows administrators to validate changes before they are finalized.
Teams use reporting and automation to act on risk as it emerges. In practice, they can:
- Identify inactive sites before they create risk
- Monitor activity alerts tied to thresholds
- Archive sites, manage access, and move data through scheduled workflows
- Reduce manual effort while maintaining consistency
- Track actions through audit trails that support transparency and compliance
Policy-driven automation strengthens control at the user level. Many firms manage thousands of external users without clear visibility into whether access is still required, sometimes across tens of thousands of accounts. Consistent rules keep access aligned with firm-wide privacy and security obligations, as well as bespoke terms of use across specific practice areas.
Strengthen governance for AI readiness
Legal teams relying on AI for daily work need data they can trust as their firms grow. More than 80% of legal professionals already use GenAI for legal research, increasing the importance of accurate, current information. Without consistent oversight, those outputs become harder to defend.
Being prepared for the age of generative AI requires more rigor in how systems are managed. Moving from retrospective to proactive governance ensures firms (and their clients) have access to live, current, actionable data while also preserving valuable insights from past matters or engagements. That balance requires integrations that can run 24/7 without fail, along with automation tailored to a firm’s evolving data privacy requirements across regions.Stewart Rasmussen, CEO and Founder at Syncly
Firms can reduce manual overhead, maintain cleaner data across active matters, and generate more reliable results when using AI. That leads to faster response times, stronger client trust, and more efficient operations as complexity grows.
See how the HighQ Integration and Governance Hub, powered by Syncly, helps you take control of users, sites, and data with greater speed and confidence.
HighQ Integration and Governance Hub
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