See the whole floor on one screen.
Weekly reports describe a business that has already moved on.
Est. deploy 4–6 weeksSee the walkthrough
Operations & Reporting · Legal
Open matters with a complete reviewed packet.
Engagement documents and intake details live in separate inboxes.
For: Legal operations managers and the team responsible for operations & reporting in legal.
01 · The outcome
What good looks like.
The team has a matter-opening checklist ready for attorney approval, with source evidence and an explicit approval before any external action. Track matters opened without missing documents against a baseline; do not assume automation improves it.
A connected workflow that uses approved engagement terms, client identifiers, and matter-opening checklist to assemble the opening packet and flag missing signatures or inconsistent entity names. It produces a matter-opening checklist ready for attorney approval.
Where AI helps, and where a person decides.
AI can assemble the opening packet and flag missing signatures or inconsistent entity names. It drafts and organizes; it does not authorize spending, commitments, clinical decisions or customer communication. The legal operations manager verifies the source facts and approves the final action.
Legal operations manager is accountable. People approve customer-facing, sensitive, financial, and legally binding actions.
- Legal operations manager: Capture the source and scope
- Legal operations manager: Review the proposed outcome
- Legal operations manager: Release only the approved version
- Legal operations manager: Check the result and exceptions
A named person approves customer-facing messages, spending, record changes and binding commitments before release. Pre-approved scripts are versioned; exceptions stop for review.
02 · The handoffs
How the work moves.
Every handoff has an owner. Select a step to open or close its detail.
Start when: An attorney clears intake and authorizes a new matter. Connect only approved engagement terms, client identifiers, and matter-opening checklist. The legal operations manager confirms the request is authorized and in scope.
Ready when: The source reference, permissions and accountable owner are recorded.
Use the authorized records to assemble the opening packet and flag missing signatures or inconsistent entity names. Preserve the original language alongside the draft and label uncertain fields.
Ready when: Each proposed fact links back to a source, and missing information is visible.
Check a matter-opening checklist ready for attorney approval against the original records and current policy. Correct errors and escalate exceptions to the qualified specialist; do not auto-approve.
Ready when: Legal operations manager has recorded approval or a reason to hold the item.
After explicit approval, save a matter-opening checklist ready for attorney approval in the system of record. Send only approved messages to verified recipients. Record the version and prevent duplicate delivery.
Ready when: The approved record is saved; any delivery is confirmed or placed in the retry queue.
Review matters opened without missing documents each week, sample completed records for quality, and resolve held items. Change the rules only after reviewing actual errors and staff feedback.
Ready when: Exceptions have owners, the metric has a baseline, and corrective actions are assigned.
Sample record.
$ david run --workflow=legal-matter-opening
ILLUSTRATIVE RECORD / NOT LIVE CUSTOMER DATA
- Example
- Illustrative only — not a real client record
- Reference
- LEGAL-MATTER-OPENING-DEMO-001
- Trigger
- An attorney clears intake and authorizes a new matter.
- Owner
- Legal operations manager
- Prepared output
- a matter-opening checklist ready for attorney approval
- Review status
- Awaiting human approval — no external action taken
- Missing information
- Owner to verify source completeness
- Measure
- Matters opened without missing documents
Start with your tools.
Connect Clio, Microsoft 365, Document management system through approved APIs or controlled exports. Map record identifiers first; test permissions and field updates in a sandbox. Vendor names describe possible connections, not a guarantee of an available integration or license.
When things go wrong.
- A named person approves customer-facing messages, spending, record changes and binding commitments before release. Pre-approved scripts are versioned; exceptions stop for review.
- Use only authorized sources and role-based access. Keep an audit trail of source records, drafts, approvals and delivery status; deduplicate retries.
- If an integration fails, a source is missing or confidence is low, pause the action and assign the original request to the accountable owner.
- For legal work, preserve privilege and confidentiality, check conflicts before substantive intake, and require a licensed attorney to approve legal advice, filings and engagement terms.
Try this week / no DAVID required
A useful first step.
This week, have your legal operations manager time five examples of this work. Use redacted copies of approved engagement terms, client identifiers, and matter-opening checklist to make a matter-opening checklist ready for attorney approval manually, then list which fields required judgment.
What to measure.
- Matters opened without missing documents
- Minutes of human handling per completed item
- Drafts needing substantive correction
- Exceptions unresolved beyond the agreed review window
Estimate your time back.
20.8
$11,232
03 · More workflows to consider
Related workflows.
Spot chair-time gaps before the week starts.
Short gaps in the schedule go unused.
Est. deploy 4–6 weeksSee the walkthrough
Track every lab case to the right visit.
Lab work and appointment dates slip out of sync.
Est. deploy 4–6 weeksSee the walkthrough
Want this running in your business in 4–6 weeks?
Free 30-minute call. We'll tell you honestly whether AI fits, and where.