Legal Hold Issuance

Issues, tracks, and releases legal holds so the right people preserve the right files and confirm it in writing.

macOS — coming soonSee the 2 automations
Legal / AUTOMATE.md

When a legal hold notice is issued, track who has confirmed and post a daily list of custodians still outstanding.

Ready-made: Custodian Ack Reminder

The job, and what good looks like.

What breaks: a hold notice goes out by email, and confirmations come back for perhaps half the custodians. Nobody tracks the ones who never replied, so a year later the company cannot show that it preserved the documents in scope. The opposite problem is just as common: holds are never released, so employees keep preserving personal email years after the matter closed. What the workflow does: it records the matter, the scope, the custodians, and the preservation date, issues the notice with the acknowledgment wording, then tracks each response individually. Custodians who have not confirmed are listed daily, and the matter owner sees the gap before the deadline rather than after. Reminders go out on their own and stop the moment a confirmation lands. On release, it lists everything still under preservation, asks the owner to confirm scope, and clears the custodian so normal retention resumes. What a person still approves: the matter owner sets the scope and approves the release, and no hold is issued or lifted without that approval.

When it is handled

  • Every hold has a named matter owner
  • Custodian confirmations tracked to completion
  • Released holds removed from preservation
  • Hold scope documented at issue

Works with tools like

  • Exterro
  • Relativity
  • Microsoft Purview
  • iManage

Ready-made automations. Pick the one that fits.

Each one is a plain-language document. Run it as it is, or change the timing, the rules and the tools to match your team.

Custodian Ack Reminder

When a legal hold notice is issued, track who has confirmed and post a daily list of custodians still outstanding.

24 hours after a legal hold is issued

Hold Release Check

Before a hold is released, list the files still under preservation and email the matter owner the confirmation you still need.

7 days before a legal hold release date

You stay in charge.
At every step.

It compares and flags. Every legal call stays yours.

  • It never signs or advises

    It quotes deviations against your playbook. Accepting, signing and advising stay with a lawyer.

  • Every flag shows its source

    Each deviation quotes the clause it is about, every step is recorded, and a file change can be put back.

  • Confidential stays contained

    Each automation reaches only the folders you connect for it, and a local model keeps processing on your machine.

Custodian Ack Reminder

Approve before it posts in Slack?

ReviewApprove

Before you download.

Where does it run?
On your Mac or Windows computer, in the background. It keeps working after you close its window, and only reaches the folders and apps you connect for each automation.
How does it connect to our CRM and other tools?
Through each app's own connection where it offers one, signed in once by you, or by using the app in a browser the way you would. Each automation gets only the connections you give it, and the tools a page names are examples you can swap for your own.
Does it run when my computer is asleep?
It keeps your computer awake while a job runs and just before a scheduled one. While the computer is closed or off, nothing runs; when it wakes, it checks the inbox, calendar and other sources it watches for anything that arrived meanwhile.
How does my team use it?
Each person who runs automations installs the app. Keep a project in a shared folder, such as Google Drive or a network drive, and teammates can open it and follow every run, while one person owns it and runs it.
Do I need anyone technical to set it up?
No. Download the app, add an automation in plain words, and connect only what that job needs. Nothing runs until you switch it on.

Already have tools for this? Here is the difference.

Contract management systems

Storing signed contracts and running approval routes.

Their rules can't read new paper against your playbook or explain a deviation in plain words.

Flowchart automation tools

Moving records between apps.

Clause-level judgment does not fit into branches, and every exception becomes another one to maintain.

AI chat assistants

Summarizing a contract when you paste it in.

Nothing happens until someone asks, and the playbook lives in a chat instead of a document you control.

AUTOMATE.md

Your routine, written in plain words. It runs on its own, follows your rules, handles the exceptions a flowchart can't, and asks you when it matters. The file stays yours, whichever AI model runs it.

Related workflows.

Document redaction

Builds the redacted copy and the redaction log as one versioned pair, so the record of what was withheld and why travels with the document.

Write your own

Compliance tracking

Holds every regulatory obligation with a named owner, a due date, and a current status, so a requirement that went overdue cannot sit unnoticed.

Write your own

Contract review

Compares incoming clauses against the recorded positions and returns the exceptions as a short list, so a reviewer opens a document with the argument already framed.

1 automation

Start with one job.
Make it your own.

macOS — coming soon
  1. 1

    Get the app

    It runs on your computer, next to your files.

  2. 2

    Add the automation

    Paste the instructions into the app, or save them as a file next to your work.

  3. 3

    Try it, then turn it on

    Run it once and check the result. It only runs on its own once you switch it on.

macOS — coming soon