Clio practice management setup
You should not need a scavenger hunt to open a file.
Clio only pays for itself when intake, the matter, the documents, and the invoice live in one place. I set that up for solo attorneys and boutique firms — family law and DWI especially — then hand you a map you can run on Monday.
$495 flat · Diagnostic week + 60-minute walkthrough · Organizational setup only, not legal advice.
This is for you if
- You pay for Clio and still open matters from email.
- Templates exist, but nobody uses the same caption twice.
- The person who “knows how we do Clio” is also the person whose billable time you cannot spend on it.
- Intake, documents, and invoices live in three different places.
What I set up
Same order I use when a docket is already moving and nobody has time for a “rebuild.” We change what is blocking the next matter. We do not redecorate Clio for sport.
01
Access & boundaries
You invite Crystal as a firm user. Permissions stay under the attorney. She does not give legal advice, set strategy, or appear as counsel. UPL language is written into the workspace notes from day one.
02
Matters that match how you actually file
Practice areas, matter types, and custom fields for parish, court, division, docket, opposing counsel, and hearing dates — especially family law and DWI. Numbering that a human can find six months later.
03
Contacts & conflict check
Contact types, relationships to the matter, and a conflict-check step that happens before a file is opened — not after the first pleading goes out.
04
Intake that becomes a matter
Map ClientFlow™ stages onto Clio: new inquiry → contact → consult → opened matter. Missing documents stop living in the inbox. If you use Clio Grow, we connect it; if you don’t, we still make Manage catch the work.
05
Documents, names, folders
Pleading and correspondence templates with Louisiana captions. File naming: YYYY-MM-DD_DocumentType_CaseCaption_v1. Google Drive folder architecture that matches the matter, not a pile called “scans.”
06
Tasks, calendar, billing
Urgent / High / Standard priorities, court dates on the calendar, timekeeping that actually hits the invoice. Clio Payments or Stripe retainers — whichever you already use — with a first-of-month rhythm.
What you leave with
- Written system roadmap (what to change, in what order, and what to leave alone)
- Matter-type and custom-field map for your practice areas
- Intake field list mapped to Clio contacts and matters
- 3–5 document templates (intake letter, engagement follow-up, caption shell, or the ones you actually use)
- Google Workspace folder architecture + naming rules
- 60-minute walkthrough with the attorney and whoever touches the file
What this is not
- Legal advice, legal strategy, or court filings
- Migrating a decade of old files (that is implementation, scoped separately)
- Building a custom integration or rewriting Clio itself
- Ongoing daily paralegal work (that is the monthly retainer)
If the file needs to be built inside Clio after the map exists, that is full system implementation ($1,500–$2,500). If you want me on the docket after that, we talk retainer.
How it runs
- 1. Discovery. Fifteen minutes. I confirm Clio Manage vs Grow, who logs in, and where intake dies.
- 2. Access. You add Crystal as a user. Work stays in your account, under attorney direction.
- 3. Audit week. I review matters, templates, folders, billing, and the last ten intakes. You get the roadmap and templates — not a 40-page deck.
- 4. Walkthrough. Sixty minutes. We open a real matter together so the next inquiry does not go back to email.
Clio® is a registered trademark of Themis Solutions Inc. LexOp Virtual is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Clio. Setup is organizational support under attorney supervision — not the practice of law. Pearl River, Louisiana.