Manage Spaces

Overview

Spaces give teams one place to organize the people, context, resources, and ongoing work for a matter or project. This article explains how workspace admins configure and govern Spaces.

You’ll learn how to:

• Enable Spaces permissions
• Assign Connection Admins and Space Admins
• Manage external collaboration and guest access
• Associate Spaces with client matters
• Review sharing requests
• Govern internal Spaces and review activity

For an introduction to Spaces and guidance on when to use them, see Spaces Overview.

Before You Begin

Decide which collaboration model your organization will support:

• Internal Spaces only
• Internal Spaces and external collaboration with other Harvey organizations
• Internal Spaces and guest access for people who do not have a Harvey license

If you enable external collaboration, confirm that:

• Both organizations use Harvey.
• Both workspaces are in the same data processing region.
• At least one trusted Connection Admin can review external collaboration requests.

External collaboration is separate from internal Spaces. Enabling internal Spaces does not automatically enable external sharing or guest access.

Understanding Roles and Permissions for Spaces

Roles describe a user’s scope of responsibility regarding Spaces. Permissions determine which Spaces capabilities a user has. Users with an administrator role may still need specific Spaces permissions enabled.

Refer to the tables below for details on roles and permissions.

Roles

Each organization manages its own roles. One organization cannot assign a Space Admin role to someone from the other organization.

Permissions

Configuring Collaboration Permissions

You can grant permissions to individual users or to roles.

Grant permissions to an individual user

1. Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Users.
2. Search for and select the user.
3. Select Manage Permissions.
4. Search for the permission you want to grant.
5. Select Add permissions.

Grant permissions by role

1. Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Roles.
2. In the search bar, enter Collaboration. The Collaboration permission category appears.
3. Check the permission boxes for each role. To enable a permission for all users, check it for every role.
4. Select Save.

A recommended starting point is to enable Use spaces for users who need internal collaboration. Enable Use external collaboration only for users who actively work with other organizations.

Assign Connection Admins

Connection Admins govern collaboration between organizations.

Assign a Workspace-Level Connection Admin

A workspace-level Connection Admin can:

• Manage all external connections
• Review and approve or deny external sharing requests across Spaces
• Assign relationship-level Connection Admins

To assign this capability, grant the user or role the Manage external connections permission.

Because this permission provides organization-wide control over external sharing, limit it to a small number of trusted users.

Assign a Relationship-Level Connection Admin

Use a relationship-level Connection Admin for a relationship manager, deal lead, or other person who owns one external partnership but does not need access to every relationship.

To assign the role:

1. Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration.
2. Select the external collaborator or connection.
3. Open the Users tab.
4. Find the user.
5. In the role menu, select Connection Admin.

A relationship-level Connection Admin can manage approvals for that connection. The other organization’s Workspace Admin or Connection Admin must still approve requests on its side.

Assign Space Admins

A Space Admin manages one Space without receiving broader workspace or connection-level access.

A Space Admin can:

• Invite and remove members within the Space
• Approve or deny join requests
• Assign roles within the Space
• Configure Space settings on the hosting side

A Space Admin cannot:

• Manage other Spaces where they are not Space Admins
• Create a new external connection
• Grant external-sharing privileges beyond the limits already set by workspace and Connection Admins

Assign the role to the person closest to the work, such as a matter lead, project lead, paralegal, or legal operations coordinator.

Assign a Space Admin from the Space

1. Open the Space.

   1. If the admin is already a member of the Space, select the members avatar(s) next to Invite.
   2. If the admin isn’t already in the Space, select Invite.
2. In the popover, enter the email address of the user.
3. In the dropdown menu by the user’s name, select Space Admin.

Assign a Space Admin from Command Center

1. Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration.
2. Locate and select the Space.
3. Select the Users tab.
4. Locate the user.
5. In the role dropdown menu by the user’s name, select Space Admin.

Associate a Space with a Client Matter

Law firms with client matter numbers enabled can associate a Space with one client matter. If your firm uses an ethical walls integration, Harvey applies the relevant matter access and content-filtering policies to the Space.

A client matter association is optional. Harvey does not automatically create a Space for every client matter, and existing content tagged with a matter is not automatically moved into its associated Space.

How Access Works in a Matter Space

Matter access determines whether a person can open the Space. Resource access determines what that person can do with an individual resource inside the Space.

A person must have access to the client matter to open a matter-associated Space. Space and resource permissions still determine which resources that person can view, edit, run, or access.

Set or Change a Space's Client Matter

1. Open the Space.
2. Select the ellipsis menu (•••).
3. Select Customize.
4. Select the client matter from the Space Client Matter dropdown.
5. Confirm the change.

Things to Know

• Each Space can be associated with one client matter.
• Harvey doesn't create a Space for each client matter, and it doesn't create Spaces automatically from your matter management system.
• Content already tagged with a client matter isn't moved into the matching Space. Only new work done in the Space is scoped to the matter.

Manage Space and Resource Access

Space access and resource access are separate:

• Space access determines who can enter the Space.
• Resource access determines what each party or user can do with a specific resource.

Depending on the resource type, access levels can include View, Edit, Run, Full access or No access. Start with the minimum necessary Space-level access, then increase access for a specific organization or user only when needed.

Before inviting collaborators, use Preview or View as party to confirm what each participant will see and which actions they can take.

Review and Approve Requests

Open a Space and select Requests in the top-right corner to review sharing and access requests. Note that internal Spaces do not require external-connection approval.

External Organization Requests

External sharing follows this sequence:

1. The requester submits the request and may add a justification.
2. Your organization reviews the request in the Action required tab.
3. A workspace-level or relationship-level Connection Admin approves or denies it.
4. The other organization reviews the request.
5. Access is granted only after both organizations approve.
6. The completed request appears in the Resolved tab.

The Requests page includes the following tabs:

• Action required: Requests waiting for approval from your organization
• In progress: Requests approved by your organization but waiting for the other organization
• Resolved: Approved, rejected, or cancelled requests with the outcome and timestamp

Guest Invitations

Guest invitations require approval from your organization. After approval, the guest can access only the Space they were invited to through secure email authentication.

Guest access is different from collaboration with another Harvey organization: a guest does not have a Harvey workspace, so there is no second Harvey organization approval step.

Govern Internal Spaces

Admins with the Manage internal spaces permission can use the Internal Spaces view in Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration to find and manage internal Spaces.

Admin visibility is separate from Space membership. Seeing a Space in the admin view does not automatically add the admin as a member or grant access to the Space’s content. An admin must explicitly join the Space to work inside it.

Govern External Spaces

Admins with the Manage external connections permission can use the External Spaces view in Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration to find and manage External Spaces.

Admin visibility is separate from Space membership. Seeing a Space in the admin view does not automatically add the admin as a member or grant access to the Space’s content. An admin must explicitly join the Space to work inside it.

Review Space Activity

Admins have an expanded view of the Space Activity Feed. In addition to the activity members see, it includes admin-only events such as invitation requests, approval and decline decisions, and members removed by an admin.

• Workspace Admins can review activity across all Spaces.
• Space Admins can review activity in the Spaces they manage.

To review admin activity:

1. Open the Space.
2. Select the ellipsis menu (…) in the top-right corner.
3. Select Activity. This opens the activity feed.
4. At the bottom of the activity feed, select View all activity.
5. Filter by user, activity type, or workspace.

By default, Space activity is private to your workspace. In an external Space, each organization sees the other organization’s activity only if that organization opts in to share it.

Recommended Admin Checklist

Before launching a Space, confirm that:

• The Space has a clear matter, project, or team purpose.
• For external Spaces, workspaces must be in the same data processing region (US to US, EU to EU, etc.).
• Users have only the Spaces permissions they need.
• A trusted workspace-level Connection Admin is assigned if external collaboration is enabled.
• Relationship-level Connection Admins are assigned where appropriate.
• A Space Admin is assigned to manage the Space day to day.
• Space Context contains only information appropriate for every participant.
• Resources and access levels have been reviewed.
• External collaborators and guests have been invited through the correct approval path.
• The Space has been previewed from the relevant collaborator or party view.
• Membership and activity are reviewed regularly.

FAQs