Method and system for role-based access control to a collaborative online legal workflow tool

A computer system for distributed legal workflow security, the computer system providing central administration of legal workflow conducted by a plurality of distributed workflow participants, the system comprising a computer network including one or more computers operably programmed and configured to:

• permit an administrator to (i) create user accounts for each of the participants, (ii) associate one or more legal workflow role types with each of the accounts, and (iii) associate menu item permission privileges for a plurality of common menu items of a common legal workflow graphical interface with each of the types;
• provide the common interface to each of the participants, wherein the menu items are displayed to each of the participants via the common interface independent of the permission privileges associated with the type of the participant's account such that only the menu items for which the type of the participant's account has permission are active;
• and
• permit one of the participants to create another account of a same type as the one of the participant's account and with same or fewer permission privileges as the type of the one of the participant's account.