Check matter links before merging law firm contacts

A law firm's contacts carry a lot of weight. The same CRM holds clients, opposing parties, their counsel, referral sources and people who signed up for a client alert. Each one matters to someone in the firm for a different reason.

When one person sits in three records under three spellings, every one of those reasons gets harder. A search finds one record and misses two, and a partner can't see the whole relationship.

In this post, you'll see why duplicates matter more in a law firm and where they come from. You'll also see what counts as a duplicate when people hold several roles, and how to clean up without putting linked records at risk.

Why duplicates matter more in a law firm

In many businesses, a duplicate means a wasted call or a report that counts someone twice. In a law firm, it can also mean a search that comes back incomplete.

Conflict searches depend on finding one person once

If your firm's conflict searches draw on CRM contacts, they rely on each person being findable. A search on one spelling can miss a record saved under another, along with whatever role that record holds. Your conflict process and its rules come first, and this post isn't legal advice.

Relationships and credit get split

Firms track who brought a client in and who manages the relationship. When a client sits in two records with two owners, that history and credit split with them.

Client communications reach people twice

Client alerts, newsletters and event invitations go to every record. One person can receive the same alert twice, or keep getting it after opting out on the other record.

Where law firm duplicates come from

The causes depend on how each firm takes in people and data. These come up often.

Intake from several doors

A prospective client can call, fill in a web inquiry, come through a referral and attend a seminar. Each door can create its own record, often with a different email or phone.

Names saved in several spellings

Names get typed with and without a middle initial, with and without accents, or with a nickname. Each version can become its own record, and a search on one won't always show the others.

Lawyers adding their own contacts

Partners and associates often add contacts from their own address books. Two lawyers who know the same general counsel create two records, each with its own notes.

Lateral hires and firm combinations

A lateral partner brings a book of contacts, and a firm that combines with another brings a whole database. Many of those people are already in your CRM. Deduplicating before, during and after a migration applies here, since bringing in another firm's data is a migration of its own.

Companies under several names

Corporate clients and opposing companies appear with and without "LLC", "Inc." or "LLP", and under former names. Company suffixes like Inc. and LLC hide many of these duplicates from an exact name search.

What counts as a duplicate in a law firm

What counts as a duplicate is case by case. What one firm considers a duplicate, another may not, and roles make the question harder.

One person, several spellings

The same person saved as "Jose Garcia" and "José García" is a duplicate. So is a record with a middle initial and one without, once you've confirmed it's the same person.

One person, several roles

A former opposing party can become a client, and a referral source can become a client too. Many firms want one record per person, with every role still visible after the merge. If roles are stored on linked records, check how those links move before merging.

Different people with the same name

Two people who share a common name are still two people. Match on more than the name, like name with email, phone or company, and reject a match only when you're certain they're different.

Companies, subsidiaries and their people

A parent company and its subsidiary can share an address and a domain while being separate clients. They're related records that look like duplicates, and merging them mixes two relationships.

Law firm contacts at a glance

Protect what's linked before you merge

Ask the firm's authorized reviewer to check confidentiality, matter access and conflict procedures before combining roles. Merging a client and opposing-party record can expose information even when both refer to the same person.

A contact in a law firm CRM is often tied to other records, like cases, matters or engagements. A merge that moves those links the wrong way is hard to fix.

Check how your CRM moves linked records when two contacts merge. Merge a handful of test sets first and look at the surviving record. Export the original values before a large merge, since many CRM merges can't be undone.

Expect a vendor review too. Firms often vet any tool that connects to client data, and what security teams ask about a deduplication tool covers the usual questions.

Where to start the cleanup

Start with the matches nobody will argue about, then work toward the ones that need a lawyer's judgment.

Merge exact email matches first

Contacts with the same email are the safest place to begin. Review shared inboxes, like a company's general legal address, before merging them.

Then look for spelling variations

Match name with company or phone, and allow for typos, accents and nicknames. Review these sets before merging, since common names produce false matches.

Reject only what you're certain of

Two people who share a name will keep showing up as matches. Reject a match only when you're certain they're different people, since it won't come back in later searches.

One person, findable once

Law firm duplicates come from intake, lawyers' own contacts, firm combinations and names that can be written many ways. In many businesses, they cost time. In a law firm, they can also leave a search incomplete.

Deciding what counts as a duplicate, protecting linked records and merging the clearest cases first gives every lawyer the same view of each person. That makes the next search, alert or introduction start from one record.

Frequently asked questions