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40 C loud-based collaboration has reshaped the landscape of modern legal work. As law firms shift routine communication and document sharing to platforms like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Box, a silent but seismic shift has unfolded: traditional static email attachments are giving way to hyperlinks to files stored in the cloud. At first glance, links might seem innocent, even necessary for agile teams working across locations and time zones. Yet beneath this convenience, a wave of hidden risk is emerging for IT teams tasked with legal compliance, retention, and defensibility. Hyperlinked files are not simple snapshots; they are dynamic, living documents. Their contents can change, permissions can shift, and links themselves can go stale. Meanwhile, rigorous ediscovery and compliance demands— mandating the collection, preservation, and retrievability of every relevant document for litigation or investigation— remain unchanged. For IT professionals in law firms, this raises a critical question: Are your systems equipped to collect, preserve, and produce hyperlinked files in a legally defensible way? With growing regulatory pressure and increasing litigation involving digital evidence, now is the time to understand the technical nuances and governance gaps that hyperlinked files present. WHAT MAKES HYPERLINKED FILES CHALLENGING FOR LEGAL IT? A hyperlinked file is not an attachment embedded in an email or chat; it is a cloud- hosted document shared via a link. This distinction is crucial in the legal context. Hyperlinked files can be edited at any time, even after the link has been sent. Their permissions can change, access can be revoked or expanded. And the link may always point to the latest version, rather than the version available when the email or message was initially sent. This introduces serious complications for ediscovery and compliance: • The version viewed or shared during a legal event may no longer exist. • The file may be inaccessible if permissions have changed. FEATURES THE IT CHALLENGES OF HYPERLINKED FILES IN EDISCOVERY Are You Prepared? BY DAN LEVINE

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