Entity Management

Entities are collections of one or more contacts — email addresses and names associated with specific individuals, which Everlaw collects as metadata during document upload. Entities can be used throughout the platform, such as when using email search terms (e.g. From, To, Cc, Bcc, Recipients, Parties) and Data Visualizer.

In rare cases — typically due to issues with metadata in underlying documents — conflicts may arise that require remediation. For example, users conducting searches with the Parties term may encounter instances in which individual entities should be merged, email addresses are misattributed, or irrelevant distribution list emails create clutter. Entity management helps resolve these issues by consolidating entities, correcting associations, and filtering out irrelevant data.

This article addresses how entities work in Everlaw, highlights a few places where you may encounter them, and explains how Database Admins can resolve potential entity conflicts.

Requirements

You must be a Database Admin to view and manage entities.

How entity identification works in Everlaw

When you upload emails into your database, Everlaw automatically identifies all email addresses and their associated names (e.g. “Shelley Corman  <shelley.corman@email.com>”) as individual contacts. This information is then stored as searchable email metadata. From this data, Everlaw compiles what we refer to as entities — collections of one or more contacts tied to an individual. For two contacts to be grouped into an entity, there must be at least one email address that is associated with both contacts. Everlaw matches words shared between contacts while also taking into consideration common non-name words to prevent incorrect grouping.

Each entity is identified by the entity’s most prevalent contact name.

If and when new documents are added to an existing database, Everlaw automatically updates existing entities based on the incoming data.

The role of entities across Everlaw

Entities are surfaced throughout Everlaw in a variety of features. Here are a few examples: 

• Search: Search documents by entity name using an email metadata search term (e.g. From, To, Cc, Bcc, Recipients, Parties).
  
• Communication Visualizer: Explore entities’ communication patterns using the “name” node type on Communication Visualizer’s interactive network graph
  

Entity conflicts and resolutions

In rare cases — typically due to unclear or conflicting data in underlying documents — conflicts may arise that require remediation. 

If a conflict does arise, a Database Admin can manually resolve it from the Entities page of Database Settings, by taking one of the following actions:

• Merge entities
• Remove an email from an entity
• Mark an email as shared

Here are a few examples of you these conflicts might surface, along with their recommended resolution type:

• Scenario 1: While searching a set of documents using email search terms (e.g. From, To, Bcc, Cc, Recipients, Parties), a user finds multiple entities that refer to the same individual. In this case, we would want to merge these entities to consolidate them into a single entity, resulting in simpler searches moving forward.
  

  

• Scenario 2: While searching a set of documents using the Parties search term, a user finds an entity that has either a name or email address that is incorrectly associated with the entity. In this case, we would want to remove the misattributed email address.
  

  

• Scenario 3: While searching a set of documents by entity using the Parties search term, a user finds multiple emails sent to or from an email distribution list. This causes clutter, as they are not interested in viewing emails associated with the broader distribution list. In this case, we would want to mark the email as shared, flagging it to be excluded from searches referring to the associated entities.
  

  

The Entities page

Entities are managed from the Database Settings page. To view the Entities page:

1. Select the database or project you want to manage entities on.

   Note

   Database Admins can access the Entities page from either the complete project or a partial project in a database. For an overall understanding of the full set of entities in a database, select the complete project. The Entities page in a partial project only displays entities based on the documents contained in that project.

   Regardless, actions taken on any project’s Entities page are applied at the database level. Because of this, we recommend primarily managing entities from the complete project.

2. Go to Project Management > Database Settings.
3. Select Entities.

The Entities page is composed of three tabs: Entities, Shared Emails, and Activity.

The Entities tab

The Entities tab is the first thing you’ll see when you visit the Entities page. By default, it displays the top 100 most prevalent entities in your database.

From the Entities tab you can:

• Merge entities
• Remove an email from an entity
• Mark emails as shared by multiple entities
• Search the database’s entities. This can be done by searching either the entity name or any names attached to the entity.
• Open a search / results table for a given entity
  To do this, select the search button associated with that entity.
  
• View edits made to an entity

The Shared emails tab

The Shared emails tab displays any email addresses that a Database Admin has marked as shared along with the entities associated with the shared email addresses.

From the Shared emails tab you can:

• Remove the “shared” state of emails previously marked as shared by multiple entities
• Open a search / results table for a given shared email address
  To do this, select the document count button associated with the email address.
  
• View the number of entities associated with the shared email.
  
• View the names of the entities associated with the shared email. To do this, select the expand   button to expand the list.
  

The Activity tab

The Activity tab displays all of the edits your team has made to entities in the database. 

From the Activity tab you can view and undo past edits.

Merge entities

Merging entities combines multiple entities into a single entity. 

Example use case: While searching a set of documents using email search terms (e.g. From, To, Bcc, Cc, Recipients, Parties), a user finds multiple entities that refer to the same individual. Merging these entities would consolidate them into a single entity, resulting in simpler searches moving forward.

To merge entities: 

1. Go to Project Management > Database Settings.
2. Select Entities to open the Entities page.
3. Select the entities you want to merge by selecting their corresponding checkboxes.
   
   

   Tip

   Use the search bar to find the names you’re looking for. You can search for an entity using any of the associated names.

   Tip

   When reviewing entities, it may be helpful to open a search results table for a given entity.
   To do this, select the search button associated with that entity.
   

   The names you select appear at the top of the list.
   

4. Once you have selected all the entities that you want to merge, select Merge.
   
   A few things to know:
   • The task will run immediately upon selecting Merge. It may take a few minutes for changes to propagate throughout all projects in the database. 
   • All names and email addresses are grouped under the most prevalent name, which can then be used to reference the newly merged entity during a search. However, you can still search for any of the names associated with the merged entities and still be able to find the new consolidated entity.

Remove an email from an entity

Removing an email from an entity severs the connection between the email address and that entity. As a result:

• All email documents associated solely with the removed email address no longer appear when searching for the entity using email search terms.
• The removed email address no longer serves as a merging point for that entity.

Example use case: While searching a set of documents using the Parties search term, a user finds an entity that has either a name or email address that is incorrectly associated with the entity.

To remove one or more email addresses from an entity:

1. Go to Project Management > Database Settings.
2. Select Entities to open the Entities page.
3. Find the entity you want to edit, and select the associated Edit button.
   
   This opens the optional Mark emails as shared page of the edit wizard.
4. [Optional] If you would like to mark one or more of the emails as shared, you can select them now.
5. If you opted out of the previous step, select Skip. Otherwise, select Next.
   This opens the Remove incorrect email page of the edit wizard. Entities are broken down by name. Each name lists the associated email address(es).
6. For each email address you would like to remove, first select the associated name. Then select the email address as it appears under that name.
   
   Repeat this step as needed.
   

   Tip

   When reviewing email addresses and name pairings, it may be helpful to open a results table with the associated email documents. To do this, select the document count button listed in the table under Documents with this pairing.

7. Select Next.
   This opens the Summary page of the edit wizard.
8. Review your edits. When ready, select Submit.
   It may take a few minutes for changes to propagate throughout all projects in the database.

Mark an email as shared by multiple entities

Marking an email address as shared identifies that email address as being shared across multiple entities. The email address is then excluded from results when searching documents by entity with any of the email search terms (e.g. To, From, Cc, Bcc, Recipients, Parties).  

Example use case: While searching a set of documents by entity using the Parties search term, a user finds multiple emails sent to or from an email distribution list. To the user, this is clutter, as they are not interested in viewing emails associated with the broader distribution list. 

To mark one or more emails as shared:

1. Go to Project Management > Database Settings.
2. Select Entities to open the Entities page.
3. Find the entity you want to edit, and select the associated Edit button.
   
   This opens the Mark emails as shared page of the edit wizard.
4. Select the email addresses that you would like to mark as shared. 
5. Select Next.
   This opens the optional Remove incorrect email page of the edit wizard.
6. [Optional] If you would like to remove an email from an entity, first select the associated name. Then select the email address as it appears under that name.
   Repeat this step as needed.
7. If you opted out of the previous step, select Skip. Otherwise, select Next.
   This opens the Summary page of the edit wizard.
8. Review your edits. When ready, select Submit.
   It may take a few minutes for changes to propagate throughout all projects in the database.

Once the edits are propagated:

• Shared email addresses are listed on the Shared emails tab of the Entities page.
• While email documents associated with shared email addresses are excluded from searches, they remain listed under Shared emails when viewing an associated entity elsewhere in Everlaw.
  

View past entity activity

All edits previously made to entities in a database, including those that have since been undone, are listed on Entities page’s Activity tab. 

View your complete entity management history

To view a detailed history of edits made to entities in your database:

1. Go to Project Management > Database Settings.
2. Select Entities to open the Entities page.
3. Select the Activity tab.
   
   Each edit made to one or more entities is listed in the table.
   Using the table’s column headers, you can sort this table by date and filter by date and description. You can also undo past edits.

View an individual entity’s edits

Sometimes you may want to view only edits made to a specific entity. This can be accomplished from the Entities page’s Entities tab:

1. Go to Project Management > Database Settings.
2. Select Entities to open the Entities page.
3. Find the entity for which you want to view activity. and select the associated edit history button.
   
   This opens the Activity tab filtered to only include activity related to the specified entity.

   Note

   The edit history button is only visible if edits have previously been made to the entity.

Undo past edits

To view a detailed history of edits made to entities in your database:

1. Find the activity entry for the action you want to undo. This can be done by either searching from the Entity page’s Activity tab or by viewing an individual entity’s edits.
2. Select the Undo button associated with the action you want to undo.
   
   A new row identifying the undo action appears at the top of the table, and the Undo button associated with the undone action becomes disabled.

Unmark an email as shared

If an email address was previously marked as shared, and you would like to remove this declaration, you can do so from the Entity page’s Shared emails tab:

1. Go to Project Management > Database Settings.
2. Select Entities to open the Entities page.
3. Select the Shared emails tab.
4. Find the email address you want to edit, and select the associated Unmark as shared button.
   
   

   Tip

   When reviewing email addresses previously marked as shared, it may be helpful to open a search results table for all emails sent or received by the email address.
   To do this, select the document count button associated with the email address.
   
   To see a full list of associated entities, select the expand button.