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Leads

Business development is tracked in the same system as the legal work, so a prospect becomes a client without anything being re-entered.

Pipeline management for law firms

Leads in the left sidebar. The module tracks every prospective client from first contact to engagement. Six stages carry a lead from a name somebody met to a signed matter, and filtering by stage is how you find where the pipeline is stuck.

The Leads pipeline in eFirm, showing the six stage views and a grid of prospects with value, probability, expected close date, and stage, including one that converted to a matter.
  1. Business development is tracked in the same system as the legal work, so a prospect becomes a client without anything being re-entered.
  2. Six stages from first contact to signed engagement. Filtering by stage is how you find where the pipeline is stuck.
  3. Value and probability together give the weighted pipeline. Expected close dates are what turn it into a forecast rather than a guess.
  4. Converting a lead creates the contact and the matter and carries the history across, once KYC and the conflict check have cleared.

The six stages

Lead pipeline stages
StageDescription
New LeadsJust entered the pipeline. No contact made yet.
Contacted LeadsInitial outreach completed.
Qualified LeadsConfirmed as a genuine opportunity.
Proposal / NegotiationEngagement terms being discussed.
Converted LeadsSigned engagement. The lead becomes a matter.
Lost / DisqualifiedDid not convert. Reason documented.

What a lead record carries

Lead fields
FieldDescription
TitleDescriptive name for the opportunity.
ContactLinked to an existing or new contact.
OrganizationThe company or entity.
Currency & ValueEstimated value of the engagement.
Pipeline StageCurrent stage, shown as a coloured badge.
Assigned Team MemberWho is responsible for follow-up.
NotesContext, meeting notes, next steps.

Turning a list into a forecast

Value on its own is a wish list. Value and probability together give the weighted pipeline, and expected close dates are what turn it into a forecast rather than a guess — which quarter the work is expected to land in, not just that it might. The grid shows all three alongside stage, so a partner can read the pipeline without opening anything.

Converting a lead

Converting a lead creates the contact and the matter and carries the history across, once KYC and the conflict check have cleared. Nothing is retyped and nothing is lost: the lead record keeps the full journey from first contact to conversion.

Converting a qualified M&A lead

A potential M&A client has signed the engagement letter. Open the lead, update its stage to Converted, complete the KYC compliance forms, run the conflict check, then click "Convert to Matter", select or create the Contact, fill in the matter details and save.

The result is a clean handoff from business development to active legal work, with the lead record still showing how the client arrived.

Why firms need this

Six questions the module answers that a spreadsheet does not:

  • How many prospects sit in each stage right now.
  • What the pipeline is worth in total, and what it is worth weighted by probability.
  • Where conversion is stalling — which stage prospects go into and stop moving.
  • Who owns each follow-up, and which follow-ups are overdue.
  • How conversion rates move over time, not just where the pipeline stands today.
  • Any slice of the above: filter by stage, value, assigned member or date, then export.

The Leads module carries View, Create, Edit, Delete and Export permissions, granted per role in Roles & Permissions. Export in particular is worth setting deliberately — a full pipeline export is the firm's business-development plan in one file.

Where to go next

Clear compliance in KYC, label the new client in Contacts, and open the engagement in Legal Matters.

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