Confidentiality agreement template for law firm staff
A confidentiality agreement, signed by everyone in the office from lawyers to secretaries, accountants, representatives and trainees, defines what is confidential, how client files, systems and devices are handled, and what is returned on leaving. It complements the employment contract; professional rules still apply.
The agreement is prepared by the managing partner or the office administrator, and the employee signs it on their first working day, before being given an account in the system or receiving any file: confidentiality that begins after access comes too late. The template below is written specifically for a law office: it names the secrets of clients and their opponents, draft memoranda and fee arrangements, deals with what generic agreements overlook, such as WhatsApp, personal email, passwords and printing, and ties the end of the relationship to handing back office property and suspending accounts. With small changes it suits trainees, and outside contractors who see the office’s data, such as a translator or technical support.
When do you need this template?
- When hiring any employee, before giving them an account in the system or handing them a file.
- When taking on a trainee or a student intern, even for a short period.
- When engaging a translator, an external accountant or a technical support provider with access to the office’s data, after adjusting the description of the second party.
- When the office updates its confidentiality policy, or starts using a new system or communication channel.
- When employment ends, to remind the employee of their continuing obligation and have them sign the annex on handing back office property.
What must it include?
- The parties’ details: the office and its representative, and the employee’s name, nationality, ID card number and position.
- A clear definition of confidential information that names what concerns clients, opponents, cases, fees, the office’s affairs and login details.
- The exceptions: what is public without any breach, and what the law or a court order requires to be disclosed.
- Day-to-day obligations: access on a need-to-know basis, approved channels, and no copying or taking documents out.
- Rules for devices and accounts: the personal account and password, phones and printing.
- Immediate reporting of any disclosure or the loss of a document or device.
- Return of documents and devices when employment ends, and the obligation continuing afterwards.
- The consequences of a breach, the governing law and the forum for disputes.
Confidentiality Agreement
This agreement is made between:
First Party: [Firm name], licence No. [Firm licence number], of Building [Building number], Street [Street number], Zone [Zone number], Doha – State of Qatar, represented for the purposes of signature by [Managing partner’s name] in their capacity as [Capacity] (hereinafter “the Firm”).
Second Party: [Employee name], [Nationality], holder of QID No. [QID number], employed by the Firm as [Job title] with effect from [Start date] (hereinafter “the Employee”).
Preamble
Whereas the nature of the Firm’s work requires those who work in it to have access to the secrets, affairs and documents of its clients and to information concerning the Firm and its business, the Parties have agreed on the provisions of this agreement as a supplement to the employment contract between them, without prejudice to the obligations imposed by the laws in force in the State of Qatar and the rules of the legal profession. This preamble forms an integral part of the agreement.
Clause 1: Confidential information
Confidential information means anything the Employee sees or comes to know because of or in the course of their work, whether written, oral or electronic, and includes in particular:
- The identity of clients, their details and contact information, and the very fact that a person is a client of the Firm.
- Cases, criminal complaints, consultations and services, their facts, parties and opponents, and the documents, judgments and correspondence relating to them.
- Draft memoranda, legal opinions, defence strategies and internal notes.
- Agreed fees, amounts paid and due, client accounts, and the Firm’s financial and administrative affairs.
- Usernames, passwords and any means of access to the Firm’s systems, email and devices.
- Any other information the Employee is told is confidential, or whose nature shows it to be confidential.
Clause 2: What is not confidential
The duty of confidentiality does not cover information that is publicly available other than through a breach of this agreement by the Employee, nor information whose disclosure is required by law or by an order of a competent judicial authority, provided that the Employee notifies the Firm as soon as they become aware of it, unless such notice is prohibited, and that the disclosure is limited to what is required.
Clause 3: The Employee’s obligations
The Employee undertakes:
- Not to disclose any confidential information to anyone outside the Firm, and to share it within the Firm only with those whose work requires it.
- Not to use confidential information except in performing their work for the Firm, and never for their own benefit or anyone else’s.
- Not to copy, photograph or take out of the Firm any document or file, except as the work requires and in the manner the Firm approves.
- Not to send clients’ documents or data except through the channels approved by the Firm, and not to send them to their personal email or to personal messaging apps.
- Not to discuss clients’ cases in public places or on social media, and not to make any statement about them to the media.
- To keep paper files in their designated places, and not to leave them on desks, in the printer or in a car.
Clause 4: Systems, devices and passwords
The Employee uses their own personal account on the Firm’s systems, discloses their password to no one, does not use anyone else’s account, and changes the password immediately if they suspect someone else knows it.
The Employee locks their screen when leaving their desk, logs out of the Firm’s systems on shared devices, and complies with the Firm’s rules on using a personal phone for work.
The Employee acknowledges that the Firm’s systems log the operations carried out on them, including viewing, downloading and printing documents, and that the Firm may review these logs in accordance with its policy.
Clause 5: Reporting
The Employee shall immediately report to [The designated person at the Firm] any unauthorised disclosure, any loss of a document, device or means of access, or any suspected unauthorised access, even if it occurred through no fault of their own.
Clause 6: Return of documents and devices
When the employment relationship ends for any reason, or at the Firm’s request, the Employee shall return all documents, files, devices, means of access and other Firm property in their possession, shall keep no copy of any of them by any means, and shall sign the attached annex on the handover of Firm property.
Clause 7: Duration of the obligation
This obligation applies throughout the Employee’s employment with the Firm and survives the end of the employment relationship for whatever reason.
Clause 8: Breach
Any breach of the provisions of this agreement constitutes a breach of the Employee’s duties. The Firm may take such action as it sees fit under the employment contract and the approved internal regulations, and may claim compensation for any damage it suffers, without prejudice to any other liability arising by law.
Clause 9: Governing law and jurisdiction
This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Qatar, and any dispute arising from it falls within the jurisdiction of the competent judicial authority in the State of Qatar.
Clause 10: Counterparts
This agreement is made in two counterparts, one held by each Party to act upon, and the Firm keeps its counterpart in the Employee’s personnel file.
Annex: Handover of Firm property on leaving
To be completed on the Employee’s last working day; the person in charge signs against each item on receiving it.
| Item | Handed over | Date | Signature of person in charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper files and documents in the Employee’s custody | [Yes / No] | [Date] | .................... |
| Computer and accessories, No. [Device number] | [Yes / No] | [Date] | .................... |
| Phone or SIM card provided by the Firm | [Yes / No] | [Date] | .................... |
| Office keys and access card | [Yes / No] | [Date] | .................... |
| Account suspended on the Firm’s systems and email | [Yes / No] | [Date] | .................... |
| Employee’s declaration that they keep no copies of documents | [Yes / No] | [Date] | .................... |
Adjust Clause 4 to match your office’s actual policy on phones and devices, and change the description of the Second Party if a trainee or an outside contractor signs it.
How to fill in the template
Complete the parties’ details
Write the office’s name, licence number and address, and the name and capacity of whoever signs for it, then the employee’s details from their ID card, their position and their start date, so that the agreement reads with the employment contract without any ambiguity.
Match the definition to your office’s work
Keep the items that name the secrets of clients, cases and fees, and add what is specific to your practice, such as corporate secrets in a commercial practice, or family matters in an office that handles family cases.
Write the device rules as you actually apply them
If lawyers use their phones for work, spell out precisely what is allowed and what is not, instead of a blanket ban nobody observes: a clause everyone breaks weakens all the others.
Explain before signing
Go through the clauses with the employee on the first day, with practical examples of what counts as disclosure; then both parties sign, the employee receives their copy, and the other is kept in their personnel file.
Tie it to accounts and permissions
Do not create the employee’s account in the system or grant access to files until the agreement is signed. On the last working day, the handover annex is completed and the account is suspended the same day.
Common mistakes
- A generic agreement copied from a company that says nothing about client secrets, WhatsApp, passwords or printing.
- Signing it weeks after the employee started, when they have already seen the files.
- Leaving out trainees and outside contractors, although they see the same data.
- Not tying it to the leaving procedure, so the employee leaves without handing back office property and their account stays active.
- Adding a penalty clause or a fixed compensation amount without a legal review of whether it is appropriate.
Issue this document from your office’s data
The agreement sets out what the employee undertakes, and Murafe makes many of its clauses enforceable and verifiable: every employee has an account in their own name with a temporary password they change at first sign-in, and sees only what their role’s permissions allow; a confidential case is visible only to its case team and to those with the “View confidential cases” permission, and within it any document can be restricted to named people. Viewing documents is a separate permission from downloading them, so an employee can read a document inside the system without leaving with a copy, and every view, download and print is recorded in the audit log under their name with the time. Users are signed out automatically after the set period of inactivity, and the team’s internal conversations take place inside the system. When an employee leaves, the system administrator suspends their account: their access stops, and their records and work stay as they are.