Shared vs Personal Portfolios: How Ownership Works in GleanMark

GleanMark has two types of workspaces — personal and firm/organization — and portfolios behave differently in each. This guide explains who owns what, who can see what, who can edit what, and how alerts are configured.

Personal Workspace vs Firm Workspace

Every GleanMark user has a personal workspace. If you belong to a firm or organization, you also have access to your firm workspace. You can switch between them from the workspace switcher in the profile menu.

• Personal workspace — just you. Portfolios here are yours alone.
• Firm workspace — you and your team. Portfolios here are shared across the firm.

How Portfolios Are Owned

In Your Personal Workspace

Portfolios are owned by you. No one else can see them or edit them. They're tied to your user account.

In a Firm Workspace

Portfolios are owned by the organization, not by the individual who created them. This means:

• When anyone on the team creates a portfolio in the firm workspace, it becomes a shared firm portfolio
• All authorized team members work with the same portfolio records — not individual copies
• When one person edits a shared firm portfolio, other authorized team members see the change
• Each team member isn't getting their own private version

This is similar to how shared documents work in tools like Google Drive or Notion — one source of truth, collaboratively edited.

Who Can See and Edit Firm Portfolios

Access is based on your role in the organization:

Most internal firm members can edit shared firm portfolios. Client Users are the main view-only role, intended for clients who need visibility into their own matters but shouldn't change firm records.

Private Portfolios Within a Firm

A common question: "Can I have my own private portfolio inside my firm workspace?"

Today, the answer is no — portfolios created in the firm workspace are shared with the team by default. If you need a private working portfolio, the workaround is to use your personal workspace instead:

1. Switch to your personal workspace via the workspace switcher in the profile menu
2. Create the portfolio there
3. Only you will see it

This is a product area we're continuing to develop. For now, treat firm workspace portfolios as shared team resources and use your personal workspace for any private working portfolios.

How Alerts Work for Portfolios

Alert configuration in GleanMark happens at two levels:

Portfolio-Level Monitoring Settings

Each portfolio has its own monitoring configuration — which alert categories are active (status changes, deadlines, TTAB activity, ownership changes, similar marks) and the notification frequency. These settings are stored on the portfolio itself, so anyone viewing the portfolio sees the same monitoring rules.

Configure these from the portfolio's settings page.

Workspace-Level Alert Preferences

On top of portfolio settings, each user has alert preferences tied to their current workspace context. When you're in personal mode, your preferences apply to your personal portfolios. When you're in firm mode, your preferences apply at the workspace level.

Configure these at Settings > Alert Settings (/settings/alerts).

Key Nuance for Firm Workspaces

A frequent question: "Can I turn off email alerts for one shared firm portfolio just for me, while someone else still gets them?"

Today, alert settings don't expose a clean per-user, per-portfolio delivery model. Alert behavior is driven by a combination of portfolio-level monitoring settings and workspace-level delivery preferences. If a teammate changes a portfolio's alert settings, it affects the whole team's monitoring on that portfolio.

If you need per-person control over which alerts you personally receive, use the workspace-level preferences at Settings > Alert Settings to mute categories you don't want, rather than trying to mute alerts per portfolio.

Quick Reference

Related Features

• Portfolio Management — Day-to-day portfolio operations
• Setting Up Your First Portfolio — Creating and populating portfolios
• Team Management — Roles and permissions
• Setting Up Alerts — Configure monitoring and notifications