Templates & Automation

Authors upload base documents — retainer letters, standard pleadings, demand notices, settlement agreements, powers of attorney — and mark the variable fields: client name, matter reference, parties, dates, court details. The library is organised by practice area and document type so the right template is found quickly.

From a matter, the lawyer selects the template and Law360 produces a populated draft with the client name, matter reference, party details, and today’s date already in place. The draft is saved to the matter’s document store as a new file — version-tracked from the first keystroke.

Build standard task lists for each matter type — a litigation checklist, a conveyancing process, a company incorporation workflow — and attach them to the matter type template. When a matter is opened, the full checklist is created automatically with owners and due-date rules already set.

Configure workflow rules that fire when a matter status changes — send a welcome email when a matter moves to Active, notify the supervisor when a matter is Pending for more than seven days. Rules reduce the administrative burden of keeping everyone informed and nothing falls through a status transition.

For practice areas with predictable deadline chains — the filing deadline is thirty days after service, the reply is due fourteen days after that — encode the rules once in a deadline template. When the trigger event is logged on a matter, Law360 calculates and creates the downstream deadlines automatically.

A well-run matter is worth repeating. Clone an existing closed matter as a template — stripping the client-specific data but keeping the task list, timeline structure, and document categories — so the next similar matter starts from a proven pattern rather than a blank slate.

The firm can import pre-built checklists for common transaction types and court rules, then customise them to its own practice. Standard checklists accelerate onboarding for new fee earners and ensure that the firm’s compliance obligations for each matter type are not left to individual memory.