ShareFile to Clio: filing link-delivered documents before they expire
ShareFile is the delivery truck of legal document exchange: opposing counsel sends productions through it, clients return signed documents through it, experts deliver reports through it. The documents arrive as emailed links — links that expire, on a clock the sender chose. This guide covers the receiving side: getting what arrives via ShareFile into the right Clio matter, reliably, before the link dies.
You don't choose ShareFile — it arrives
Most guides about cloud storage and Clio assume the files are yours, sitting in storage you control — for firms on Microsoft 365, that's the OneDrive and SharePoint guide. ShareFile is usually the opposite: it's the sender's tool. Opposing counsel's firm standardized on it for productions. The hospital's records department delivers through it. The expert's office sends the report as a ShareFile link because their IT department said so. Your firm may not have a ShareFile account at all — and doesn't need one to be on the receiving end several times a week.
That creates a specific workflow shape: a link in an email, pointing at files in someone else's account, gated by whatever access rules the sender chose — view-only flags, download limits, and above all an expiration date. The files behind the link are not in your possession until someone at your firm downloads them and files them into the matter.
The failure mode is equally specific: the email gets read, the documents get skimmed in ShareFile's browser viewer, everyone moves on — and three months later the link is dead, the documents were never filed, and someone is drafting an awkward re-share request to opposing counsel. Everything below is about making "file it into the matter on first access" the path of least resistance.
Three arrival patterns, one discipline
Hundreds or thousands of Bates-stamped files, often one large zip. Download the complete set on first access and keep the as-received archive intact.
A handful of high-stakes files — signed letters, financial and medical records. The risk here is skim-and-forget, not volume.
Co-counsel or a records vendor sends a link every week or two. Give it a named owner so nothing slips past an expiry.
Productions from opposing counsel. The heavyweight case: hundreds or thousands of Bates-stamped files, often delivered as one large zip or a folder tree. The link email usually states the expiration. Download the complete set on first access — ShareFile bundles multi-file downloads into a zip — and keep the as-received archive intact alongside the working copies you file into the matter. For the downstream organization (folder structure, Bates ranges, privilege logs), see the discovery documents guide.
Client and third-party deliveries. Signed engagement letters, financial records, medical records from a provider's release-of-information department or a retrieval service. Usually a handful of files, but high-stakes ones — these are matter records the moment they arrive. The risk isn't volume; it's the skim-and-forget pattern, because nothing about reading a document in ShareFile's viewer puts it in the matter.
Recurring exchange with a counterparty. Some matters settle into a rhythm — co-counsel or a records vendor sends a ShareFile link every week or two. Worth a named owner: one person whose job is "links from X get filed to matter Y within a day," because recurring arrivals are where expired-link surprises cluster.
Download, unzip, drag into the matter
The baseline: open the link, download everything (single files directly; multiple files arrive as a zip), unzip if needed, and drag the files or folder onto the matter's Documents tab in Clio's web UI — folder drops preserve structure. Works for every arrival pattern with no tooling beyond the browser.
What it's good at. Productions and anything bulk. The zip-download-everything step doubles as your as-received archive, and folder drag-and-drop carries the sender's structure into the matter intact.
What it costs. The full round trip — download, unzip, upload, clean up — and a local copy of client-confidential material sitting in a Downloads folder until someone remembers to delete it. For one big production that's fine; as the everyday path for every two-file client delivery, the overhead is what makes people skim-and-forget instead.
Browser-based upload tools
Browser extensions that send a downloadable file from the page straight into a Clio matter — right-click the file link in the ShareFile page, pick the matter and folder, done, with no Downloads-folder intermediate copy. Examples in this category include Send to Case and similar extensions. Delivery pages vary (link-shared file lists, view-only viewers, request-files portals), so verify a tool against the kinds of ShareFile pages your firm actually receives.
What this category is good at. The everyday arrivals — the client's two signed documents, the expert's report — where the friction of the full download-unzip-upload loop is exactly what causes skim-and-forget. Filing on first access becomes a few clicks while the document is already open. Tools with batch scanning can also pick up multiple file links on a delivery page in one pass, and some handle zips by extracting them during upload.
Where it doesn't shine. View-only shares that genuinely block downloading block everything else too — that's the sender's setting, and a tool can't override it (ask the sender for a downloadable share). And for the giant production, the deliberate download-archive-then-file workflow is the better discipline anyway; speed isn't the constraint there, completeness is.
Which workflow when
| Workflow | Strong when | Weak when |
|---|---|---|
| Download, unzip, drag into the matter | Productions and anything bulk; the zip download doubles as your as-received archive | Everyday two-file deliveries — the round trip is what makes people skim-and-forget |
| Browser-based upload tools | The everyday small arrivals; filing on first access in a few clicks, no Downloads-folder copy | View-only shares that block downloading; the giant production, where deliberate archiving wins |
Treat every link as already dying
ShareFile link lifetimes are the sender's choice within their plan's policy — common defaults run from 30 to 180 days depending on the surface, and retention policies on the sender's side can cut links off earlier than their stated expiration. From the receiving side, none of that is visible or contractual. The email's stated expiration is the only date you have, and even that is soft.
So the firm-level rule worth writing down is simple: a ShareFile link is a delivery notification, not a storage location. The matter file isn't updated until the documents are in Clio. "It's in the ShareFile link" should sound as wrong as "it's in my Downloads folder."
A practical backstop: when a link-bearing email arrives, file the documents and then file the email (or a note with the link email's date and sender) into the matter too. If a dispute ever turns on what was delivered and when, the delivery email plus the as-received files answer it; the long-dead link answers nothing.
What this actually costs to run
Setup. Effectively zero for the manual workflow. Browser tools add a short install-and-authorize step per person. There's no integration to build or maintain — the counterparty owns the ShareFile side.
Per delivery. A small client delivery is two or three minutes manually, under a minute with a browser tool. A production is however long the download takes plus the filing pass — dominated by file size, not workflow choice.
What firms actually do. The pattern that works is less about tooling than about the rule: documents get filed into the matter on first access, and the link is never the storage. Manual drag-and-drop covers the bulk cases; a browser tool earns its place by making the everyday small deliveries frictionless enough that the rule actually gets followed.
Is there a native ShareFile-Clio integration?
+No. Clio's document-source integrations cover OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and NetDocuments — ShareFile isn't among them. Anything connecting the two is custom (Zapier-style automation or Clio's API). For the common receiving-side case — a link arrives, the documents need to be in the matter — the manual and browser-tool workflows on this page are the practical paths.
How long do ShareFile links last?
+Whatever the sender set, within their account's policy. ShareFile expiration settings vary by surface and plan — common defaults range from 30 to 180 days, and senders can often choose shorter or longer. The practical rule for the receiving firm: treat the expiration in the email as the deadline, and treat the link as already dead for planning purposes. File the documents into the matter on first access; never bookmark a ShareFile link as if it were storage.
The ShareFile link expired before we saved the documents. Now what?
+Ask the sender to re-share — that's the only fix. The files still exist in the sender's ShareFile account; expiration kills the link, not the files. It's an awkward email to send to opposing counsel, which is the strongest argument for a file-on-first-access habit: open the link, download everything, file it to the matter the same day.
What's the best way to file a multi-gigabyte ShareFile production into Clio?
+Download the full set first (ShareFile bundles multi-file downloads into a zip), then get it into the matter: unzip and drag the folder structure onto the matter's Documents tab, or use a bulk-upload tool that accepts a zip and extracts it during upload. For productions with Bates-stamped structure, preserve the sender's folder layout — reorganizing inside Clio later is easier than reconstructing what arrived.
Should we keep a copy of received productions outside Clio?
+Many litigation teams do — an as-received archive (the original zip, untouched) alongside the working copies filed into the matter. The archive answers later disputes about what was actually produced and when; the matter copies are what the team works from. Clio holds the working set; the as-received zip can live in the matter too, or in the firm's archive storage, as long as somewhere holds the original.
Do ShareFile's access controls carry into Clio?
+No. ShareFile links are the sender's access control — view-only flags, download limits, expiration. Once you download and file a document into Clio, the Clio copy is governed by your matter permissions and nothing else. That's normal and usually what you want; just remember that a 'view-only' ShareFile share was the sender's preference, and what your firm files and retains is governed by your obligations, not their link settings.
Is there a maximum file size when sending files to Clio?
+Yes. Clio caps a single file at 5 GB, identical for the web Documents area and the Clio Drive desktop app. A file over 5 GB has to be split first, or kept in external storage and linked from the matter — no upload method beats the cap. Large shared files can approach it, and a zip won't rescue one, since video and PDF content barely compresses.
Keep going
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