Setting Up Matter Templates in ProLaw^®

Adding a new matter in ProLaw^® involves a lot of fields — assigned professionals, practice area, billing arrangements, task codes, and more. If your staff fills these in from scratch every time, mistakes are inevitable. The good news is that ProLaw^® gives you a practical way to template your matter setup: create a model matter with the right defaults, then use Copy Matter to spin up new matters from it. Every new engagement starts with the correct configuration, and your team only needs to fill in the details that are unique to that matter.

What Is a Model Matter?

A model matter is simply a regular matter that you set up with the standard defaults for a given client. It serves as a blueprint. Instead of configuring billing frequency, rate schedules, task codes, and other settings from scratch on every new matter, your staff copies the model matter and adjusts only what's different — like the matter name, opposing party, or assigned professionals.

This approach is especially valuable for clients with multiple engagements. A firm handling ongoing litigation for a single client might add dozens of matters over the course of a year. If each one requires the same billing arrangement, statement format, and rate schedule, copying from a model matter eliminates repetitive data entry and ensures consistency.

Setting Up a Model Matter

Creating a model matter is straightforward — you're just adding a matter and configuring it the way you want all future copies to look:

1. Add a new matter for the client (or use an existing matter that already has the right settings).
2. Fill in all the fields that should carry over to future matters for that client — billing frequency, rate schedule, fee arrangement, statement format, and task and activity codes.
3. Give the matter a clear name that identifies it as a model, such as "Smith Corp – Model Matter."
4. Save the matter.

Take your time with the billing section in particular. Incorrect billing defaults are often caught late — sometimes not until the first invoice goes out — and fixing them retroactively can be tedious.

Copying a Matter

Once your model matter is set up, creating new matters from it is fast:

1. Open the model matter you want to copy.
2. Go to Matter – Copy Matter.
3. ProLaw^® will create a new matter with the same field values as the original.
4. Update the fields that are unique to the new engagement — matter name, assigned professionals, dates, and any other case-specific details.
5. Save the new matter.

The key benefit here is that all the billing configuration, codes, and defaults carry over automatically. Your staff doesn't need to remember which rate schedule or statement format to select — it's already there.

Organizing Your Model Matters

As you build out model matters for different clients, keeping them organized becomes important:

• Use a clear naming convention. Prefix or suffix model matters with something obvious like "Model" or "Template" so they stand out in search results and don't get confused with active matters.
• Consider one model per client. For clients with a consistent billing arrangement, a single model matter per client is usually enough. When a new engagement comes in, copy the model and go.
• Keep model matters inactive. Since model matters aren't real engagements, mark them in a way that keeps them out of active matter reports — your firm may use a status field or a dedicated matter type for this purpose.

What Carries Over (and What Doesn't)

When you copy a matter, most of the configuration comes along — but not everything. Fields that typically carry over include:

• Practice area and matter type
• Billing frequency, rate schedule, and fee arrangement
• Statement format
• Task and activity code assignments
• Custom tab data (depending on your configuration)

Fields that generally need to be filled in fresh on the new matter include the matter name, assigned professionals, dates, and any case-specific details.

Important: Before relying on this workflow, copy your model matter once and carefully review the result. Verify which fields actually carried over in your environment — what gets copied can vary depending on your ProLaw^® version and configuration. It's better to discover a gap during setup than after someone has already started billing time to a misconfigured matter.

Tips for Keeping Your Models Maintained

Model matters aren't a set-it-and-forget-it solution. As your firm evolves, your models should too:

• Review models when rates change. After annual rate increases, update the rate schedules on your model matters so new copies pick up the current rates.
• Update models when billing requirements change. If a client changes their billing guidelines — new LEDES requirements, a different statement format, or updated task codes — reflect those changes in the model matter.
• Audit new matters periodically. Spot-check recently opened matters to confirm staff are using the Copy Matter workflow and that the defaults are flowing through correctly.
• Limit who can edit model matters. Since changes to a model affect every future matter copied from it, restrict editing to administrators or a small group of experienced staff.
• Retire outdated models. If a client relationship ends or a practice area is discontinued, close or clearly mark the old model so staff don't copy from stale configurations.

Using model matters and the Copy Matter workflow reduces data entry errors, speeds up matter creation, and ensures billing consistency across your firm. If you need help setting up model matters or refining your process, reach out to our team — we can help you build a structure that fits your firm's clients and practice areas.