Ethical walls

A wall removes a matter from someone entirely, rather than marking it as off-limits.

What it does

It is evaluated before anything else, which means a walled person fails every check identically to someone who was simply never assigned. There is no locked row, no greyed-out entry, nothing to notice.

Wall versus absence

They are not the same.

• Absence from the roster means no access row. The matter does not appear for that person.
• A wall is an active deny. It survives being added to the matter, and it beats a firm role that would otherwise reach the file.

That is why the Team tab lists them separately, and why lifting a wall is not the same as adding somebody back.

Setting one

Wall someone off on the Team tab. Pick the person and type a reason — kept permanently: why must this person not see the matter?

Attorneys and the firm owner can set a wall.

Lifting one

Lift the wall, with a reason kept permanently. It is recorded as a waiver, never a deletion — the fact that a wall existed survives, with who set it, who lifted it, and both reasons.

Where walls are visible

• The matter’s Team tab, active and lifted.
• Firm Settings → People, across every matter, as person — matter.

They are not listed on your own account. A walled matter shows no trace anywhere, and a line saying you are walled off one would be the disclosure the wall exists to prevent.

Walls and the conflict check

A conflict check runs as the system, so it sees walled matters. It reports that something matched and who it matched — and nothing else. The matter is not named, and nobody on it is named.