Matters & Expert Pipeline

Matters help you organize expert research across the cases you're working on. Each matter tracks experts through a pipeline that runs from initial shortlisting to a completed engagement.

#Matters

A matter represents a legal case you're working on. You can create as many matters as you need.

#Creating a Matter

Matters can be created by Org Admins, Members and solo attorneys. A firm matter is a firm-wide record — it appears on every colleague's list — so Viewers and Restricted Viewers can read the matters they have access to but can't create their own: the New Matter button, the + New → New matter entry and the dashboard's New matter shortcut don't appear for them, and their empty Matters page says what will show up there instead. See Roles.

1. Go to Dashboard → Matters (or click New matter in the dashboard's Shortcuts card, or + New → New matter from any page)
2. Click New Matter
3. Fill in the matter details:
   • Title — descriptive name for the matter (the only required field)
   • Matter Number — your internal reference number (optional)
   • Case Type — Civil Litigation, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, Intellectual Property, Corporate, Employment, Family Law, Real Estate, Environmental, or Other
   • Jurisdiction — the applicable jurisdiction
   • Court — the court where the case is filed (optional)
   • Description — brief summary of the matter
   • Trial Date — expected trial date (optional)
4. Click Create

#The Matters List

The list has status tabs — All, Active, Closed, Archived — plus a search box. On desktop it's a sortable table; on mobile it collapses to cards. Long lists paginate.

#Matter Detail View

Click any matter to open its detail page. The header shows:

• Matter title and back navigation
• Badges for matter number, case type, and status
• Trial date with a countdown indicator (red if under 30 days, yellow if under 90 days)

The tabs you see depend on your role. Most people get four — Experts, Details, Inquiries, and Atlas Research. Firm admins (anyone whose role can manage people) get a fifth, Access. A Restricted Viewer opening a matter someone else created and gave them access to sees only Details and Atlas Research; a matter they created themselves keeps the full set.

#Experts Tab — The Pipeline

The Experts tab is the core of matter management. It shows all experts assigned to this matter in a Kanban pipeline with six active columns:

Two further states sit outside the board:

• Completed — engagement finished
• Declined — expert declined, or you removed them from consideration

#Moving experts through the pipeline

The pipeline only moves forward one stage at a time — you can't jump an expert from Shortlisted straight to Retained. From any stage you can always mark an expert Declined, and only Completed and Declined are terminal.

Drag expert cards between columns to update their progress. You can also switch to a table view for a spreadsheet-style layout of the same pipeline data.

#Adding Experts to a Matter

From search results or an expert profile, click Add to Matter and select the target matter. The expert appears in the "Shortlisted" stage of the pipeline.

#Details Tab

The Details tab lets you edit all matter fields:

• Title, matter number, case type
• Jurisdiction and court
• Description
• Trial date

Click Edit to modify fields, then Save to persist changes. You can also Archive a matter when it's resolved — archived matters are hidden from the default list but stay available under the Archived tab.

An Org Admin can edit or archive any matter in the firm; everyone else can only edit or archive the matters they created themselves. On a colleague's matter the Edit and Archive buttons simply don't appear, and the Details tab is read-only.

#Inquiries Tab

The Inquiries tab shows all inquiries sent to experts from this matter. See Messaging & Inquiries for details on creating and managing inquiries.

#Atlas Research Tab

If Expert Atlas is enabled for your account, this tab collects the Expert Atlas Reports ordered against this matter, so the deep research on your candidates sits alongside the pipeline rather than in a separate list.

#Access Tab

Firm admins see an Access tab on every matter. It answers one question — who can see this matter's research — and lets you widen that circle without leaving the matter.

Matter access covers every report on this matter, including ones ordered later. To share just one report, use the Share button on that report in the Atlas Research tab instead — see Sharing a report.

#Who can see this matter's research

The first card lists everyone with access, grouped by why they have it:

• Everyone with firm-wide access — colleagues whose role already sees all firm research. Expand the group to see names and roles; roles are changed from the Firm console, not here.
• Matter access — colleagues holding a standing grant on this matter. Revoke removes it.
• Shared individual reports — anyone who has had one or more of this matter's reports shared with them, with a count of how many. Those shares are managed from the Atlas Research tab.
• Pending invitations — invitations sent from this matter that haven't been accepted yet. You can resend or revoke each one.

Until someone outside the firm-wide group has been added, the card says so plainly.

#Add people

The second card offers two routes in:

• Invite by email — enter an email address, pick a role, and click Send invitation. The role defaults to Restricted Viewer: they'll get an email to join your firm, and when they accept they land on this matter and can see all its research — nothing else. Choose a firm-wide role instead and the invitation only sets where they land after joining, because that role already sees everything.
• Grant an existing member — choose a teammate from the list. People who already see all firm research, or who already hold access to this matter, are listed but can't be selected, with the reason shown beside their name.

Inviting from the People tab of the Organization Console still works and remains the right place for firm-wide roles — see Firm Management. The Access tab is the shorter path when the point is "let this person see this matter".

#Shortlists

A shortlist is a standalone curated list of expert candidates, independent of matters.

#Creating a Shortlist

1. Go to Dashboard → Shortlists
2. Click New Shortlist
3. Enter a name and optional description
4. Click Create

#Managing Shortlists

• Search — filter your shortlists by name using the search input
• View — click a shortlist card to see all experts in it
• Delete — hover over a card and click the delete icon (cannot delete the default shortlist)

Shortlists display in a responsive grid: 1 column on mobile, 2 on tablet, 3 on desktop. The list paginates at 12 items per page.

#Organizing Your Work

Best practice for a typical matter:

1. Create a matter with the case name and details
2. Run several searches and add promising experts to the matter
3. Send inquiries to top candidates directly from the pipeline
4. Move experts forward through the pipeline as they respond and you evaluate them
5. Create shortlists for quick reference across multiple matters
6. Archive the matter when the engagement is complete