How Legal Teams use Secure Custom Fields

Legal teams work across multiple departments to manage contract approvals, compliance reviews, vendor onboarding, and procurement workflows. Jira is often the central tool used to track these processes.

But here’s the challenge: not every field in a contract should be visible to every team member.

While project managers, procurement teams, and finance teams may collaborate on the same issue, legal teams are responsible for protecting highly sensitive information, from redlined clauses to signed contract details.

Unfortunately, Jira’s default permissions don’t offer field-level visibility control. So, if someone can see the issue, they can see everything.

Secure Custom Fields for Jira changes that. It allows legal teams to protect specific fields within shared issues. So, they can collaborate securely without fragmenting their workflow.

The Challenge: Legal info doesn’t belong in everyone’s inbox (or Jira issue)

In a single Jira issue, you might find:

• Legal clause negotiations
• Termination language
• Penalty clauses
• Confidentiality obligations
• Internal legal approvals

Yet these often sit alongside:

• Vendor selection steps
• Procurement task checklists
• Budget approvals and timelines

The result? Sensitive legal details can easily be accidentally exposed to roles that don’t need them simply because everything is bundled in one issue.

Why field-level visibility matters for legal teams

Legal teams operate in a unique position: supporting operational workflows, but with a responsibility to protect sensitive content.

You might:

• Review legal terms while procurement finalizes pricing
• Add redlined clauses while product teams prepare documentation
• Upload signed contracts into shared issues for record keeping

Each of these moments requires precision: some fields must stay confidential, even while others remain visible.

Secure Custom Fields for Jira gives legal teams the ability to manage this field-level visibility without breaking the workflow or isolating legal from the rest of the team.

How Legal teams use Secure Custom Fields

Step 1: Identify legal fields that require restricted access

Start by auditing your legal-related workflows in Jira. Identify fields that contain privileged or contractual information.

Common examples:

• Termination Clause Details
• Penalty Terms
• Liability Language
• Redline Summary
• Signed Date & Contract ID
• Internal Legal Notes
• Compliance Risk Rating

Ask yourself:

• Which fields are legally sensitive or regulated?
• Who needs access, and who doesn’t?

This creates a visibility map you can use to protect legal fields.

Step 2: Set field visibility rules by role

Use Secure Custom Fields for Jira to define access to each field based on:

• Project roles (e.g., Legal, Procurement, PM)
• Groups (e.g., Legal Counsel, Vendor Approvers)
• Specific users

Example configuration:

This keeps contract workflows centralized, while ensuring sensitive clauses are restricted to those with appropriate access.

Step 3: Use secured custom fields to stay audit-ready and legally compliant

Legal teams are often required to demonstrate:

• Controlled access to confidential information
• A clear record of who saw or edited what
• Adherence to data governance and compliance standards

Secure Custom Fields for Jira helps by:

• Applying least privilege access at the field level
• Preventing exposure of redlines, legal notes, and risk flags
• Making it easy to document compliance controls during internal or external reviews

💡 Bonus tip

Automate visibility based on workflow status

Legal workflows don’t stand still, so field visibility should adapt as work progresses. Pair Secure Custom Fields for Jira with Jira Automation to adjust access automatically.

Example automations:

• When issue transitions to “Legal Review,” reveal Redline Summary to Legal
• After approval, expose Contract ID (Signed) to Finance
• If Compliance Risk = High, alert Legal via email and hide downstream fields

Here’s a quick video walkthrough on how to set up Jira automation with secure custom fields:

These automations are easy to configure and ensure visibility stays aligned with process and policy.

TLDR

• Legal teams often manage sensitive data inside shared Jira workflows
• Secure Custom Fields for Jira lets you protect specific fields, like redlines or contract terms
• You can collaborate across teams without overexposing legal content
• Visibility can change automatically as work progresses
• Legal stays in control, without slowing down the business

Ready to keep legal workflows compliant and secure?

Secure Custom Fields for Jira empowers legal teams to manage contracts, approvals, and compliance reviews with confidence, right inside Jira.

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