Ethical Walls & Conflict Detection

Ethical walls (also known as Chinese walls) prevent conflicts of interest by restricting access to specific matters. Lawzana Flow checks for possible conflicts and lets you restrict who can see a matter.

What Are Ethical Walls?#

In law firms, ethical walls prevent team members from accessing matters where they have a conflict of interest — for example, if a lawyer previously represented the opposing party, or if two matters involve related parties on opposite sides.

How Conflict Detection Works#

Lawzana Flow checks for conflicts:

1. When a lead arrives from the Lawzana Directory or completes its intake form, the names it gives are checked against the clients and participants of your matters. You can also click Run Check (or Re-run) in the lead's Conflict Check section at any time.
2. When you convert a lead to a matter, Flow looks at the lead's latest conflict check.
3. When you add a participant to a matter, the contact is checked against your other matters
4. When the AI reads a document on a matter or lead, the parties it names are checked too (see Conflicts Found in Documents below)

Conflict Severity#

Conflicts found on a matter have one of three severities:

Each conflict has a status: Pending until someone reviews it, then Waived, Declined, or Cleared.

A lead's conflict check shows No conflicts, Potential conflict (a partial name match), or Confirmed conflict (an exact name match). A confirmed conflict stops the lead becoming a matter until you write a reason and click Override and Convert. Nothing else is blocked: conflicts on a matter are warnings for you to review.

Conflicts Found in Documents#

When the AI extracts the key facts or the people and companies from a matter document (automatically after upload, or when you run extraction again), Flow compares each party the document names with the clients and opposing parties of your firm's other matters. Names must match in full; case, extra spaces and titles such as Mr, Mrs, Ms or Dr are ignored. People already on the matter are skipped.

Each match is logged as a Potential Conflict that names the document, appears on the Conflicts page and in the matter's Activity tab, and adds an entry to the matter's timeline. The same party is not logged twice for the same pair of matters. These checks also run when you assign a document from the Documents section to a matter, and on the documents a lead brings with it when it becomes a matter.

On a lead, names found in its documents are added to the lead's conflict check. A match from a document alone is only ever a Potential conflict, so it never blocks conversion.

Restriction Types#

To restrict a matter, open it and choose Restrict access from the More actions menu in the header (shown when ethical walls are on and your role may restrict matters). Pick a Restriction Type, add a reason (required if your firm turned on Require Reason), and choose who to Grant Access To:

The type is a label shown on the matter's badge; all three restrict access the same way. Only the people you grant access to, the person who restricted the matter, and (if Owner Override is on) the firm owner can open it. Everyone else stops seeing the matter in lists, search, and AI assistant answers.

You also pick an access level for each person (Full Access, Read Only, or Documents Only). The level is saved with their access, but what each person can change on the matter still follows their role.

Viewing Conflicts#

Conflicts Page#

Go to Conflicts in the sidebar (the Conflict Checker page) to see:

• Stats cards — Total, Pending, Waived, Declined, and Cleared
• Pending Conflicts list showing:
  • Severity badge (color-coded)
  • What was found and who is involved
  • The matter affected
  • Waive, Decline, and Clear buttons

Owners and admins always see Conflicts in the sidebar. Members and viewers see it only while a conflict is pending.

On Matter Detail#

When a matter has pending conflicts, a banner at the top of the matter shows how many need review, and the Activity tab lists them in its Conflicts section.

When a matter has an active restriction:

• A restriction badge (Ethical Wall, Confidential, or Limited Access) shows on the matter header, with the reason in its tooltip
• Manage access in the More actions menu lets you grant or remove access, or remove the restriction
• Team members without access who open a link to the matter see an Access Denied page

Resolving Conflicts#

From the Conflicts page or the matter's Activity tab, you can:

1. Clear — Mark the conflict as a false positive (for example, a different person with the same name)
2. Waive — Record that the conflict was waived (for example, the client gave a written waiver)
3. Decline — Record that you declined the representation because of the conflict

Each option lets you add Resolution Notes to document your reasoning. Each decision, with its note, is recorded on the matter's timeline. Viewers can't resolve conflicts.

Setting Up Ethical Walls#

1. Go to Settings → Access (owners and admins)
2. Turn on Enable Ethical Walls
3. Configure:
   • Require Reason — a reason must be given when restricting a matter
   • Owner Override — the owner can always open restricted matters (on by default)
   • Who Can Restrict Matters — Owners, Admins, and/or Members. Pick at least one, or no one can restrict matters.
4. Click Save Changes

Best Practices#

• Review conflicts promptly — Don't leave detected conflicts pending
• Document waivers — Always add notes when waiving a conflict
• Regular reviews — Periodically review your restricted matters and who has access to each
• Train your team — Make sure everyone knows which matters are restricted and why