Established 1946
Your papers should not travel by email.
Wills, completion statements and company filings leave this office through the client room, under a link issued to one person that stops working on its own. Nothing confidential sits in an inbox waiting to be forwarded.
Where we are instructed
Private client
Wills, trusts, probate and lasting powers of attorney, usually for families we have acted for across more than one generation.
Corporate and commercial
Share sales, shareholder agreements and reorganisations for owner-managed businesses, working alongside your accountant.
Property
Residential and commercial conveyancing, landlord and tenant work, and the occasional matter involving a boundary and a hedge.
How documents reach you
- 01
We issue it to you by name
A link is created for one recipient with a set expiry. There is no permanent address to forward or leave in a thread.
- 02
You read it here
Documents open in the client room, marked with your name, so a copy taken elsewhere still shows where it came from.
- 03
You send yours back
Anything you upload is checked before it reaches a fee earner, which is a courtesy to both of us.
The firm
- Year of establishment
- 1946
- Partners
- 4
- Advising families and owner-managed businesses
- 79 yrs
“Our previous solicitors emailed a completion statement to an address I had not used in six years. Pemberton Hale sent a link that expired before I had finished reading it. I have never been so pleased to be inconvenienced.”
Client, corporate sale, 2025
Enter the client room
Issue a document to a named recipient and watch the link expire. This is the room our clients use.
A Filestack demo
Expiring, watermarked document links demo
A fee earner issues a document to one named client. The link carries a Filestack security policy signed on the server, scoped to one file and set to expire. The preview is stamped with the recipient’s name by the watermark task, so the mark is in the pixels and a screenshot still says who it was issued to.
Pemberton Hale is a fictional company. Its people and figures are invented to show how Filestack works in legal services. The uploads, processing and delivery run on the real Filestack API.
Source code on GitHubAll Filestack demosFilestack documentation
Filestack features in this demo
- Signed URLs
security=p:…,s:…A short-lived policy signed on the server and scoped to one file. - Watermarking
watermark=file:…Composites the recipient’s name into the page itself. - PDF page rendering
output=format:png,page:1Turns the first page into an image the watermark can be applied to. - Document preview
previewLets a client read a document without downloading it.
How it works
- Upload the document. A completion statement, a will or any confidential file goes to Filestack.
- Name the recipient. The fee earner types who the document is for.
- Issue the link. The server signs a policy with an expiry and returns a finished URL.
- Stamp the preview. The recipient’s name is drawn to an overlay and composited onto the page with watermark.
Frequently asked questions
What is a secure client document portal?
A secure client document portal is a private space where a firm shares confidential files with clients and receives files back. Each file opens under a link issued to one person, with access that ends at a set time.
How do expiring links work in Filestack?
Each link carries a policy, base64 JSON holding an expiry time, the permitted calls and the file handle, plus an HMAC-SHA256 signature made with your app secret. Filestack refuses the link once the expiry passes. Turn on security for the application as well, or the plain URL for the same file keeps working.
Can a signed link be withdrawn before it expires?
A policy stays valid until its expiry, so short expiries and a fresh link on request take the place of revocation. Your portal's own sign-in controls who can request a link.
How is the recipient's watermark applied?
The watermark task composites another stored file, such as an image of the recipient's name, over the document. The name is in the pixels, so a screenshot still shows who the page was issued to.
Are client uploads scanned for malware?
They can be. Filestack's virus_detection task runs in a Workflow after each upload and sends its verdict to your portal by webhook, so the portal can hold a file until it comes back clean. The Pemberton Hale demo does not take client uploads yet, so it does not show this step.
Which plans include virus detection and webhooks?
Virus detection and webhooks run on paid plans, each with a free trial. Uploads and CDN delivery run on every plan, including the free plan. See pricing.
Is Pemberton Hale a real company or a Filestack customer?
Pemberton Hale is a fictional company, created to show how Filestack works in legal and professional services. The firm, its people and its figures are invented, and the demo runs on the real Filestack API.
Can I see the code behind the Pemberton Hale demo?
Yes. Pemberton Hale is open source on GitHub in the filestack-use-cases repository, under apps/fs-legal. It is a Next.js app with the signing route, the countdown and the watermark overlay.
Every link carries a short-lived Filestack security policy signed server side. Previews are watermarked and inbound files are screened before release.
What Filestack does here
Signs every link so it stops working after a set time, stamps previews with the name of the person they were issued to, and screens anything a client sends back.
© 2026 Pemberton Hale LLP. A Filestack use case, not a real company.
View the source