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Introducing the Next Generation of Lupl

Matt Pollins

Matt Pollins

Lupl unveils the biggest feature release to date
In this article
    • Lupl’s second-generation platform delivers a revolution in legal project management. 
    • The new release is the result of 12 months of development. 
    • Key enhancements included embedded AI, automation and highly flexible workflows to enable Lupl to be used by any lawyer on any type of legal matter. 

    Welcome to the next generation of Lupl! 

    12 months ago, we sat down with our customers and partners to map out the future of the Lupl platform. Today, we’re thrilled to unveil the fruits of those efforts. 

    Building on our first-generation platform, this update unleashes the power of AI, automation, and highly flexible workflows on every type of legal matter to help lawyers and their clients get to “closed,” “won,” and “done” faster and with better outcomes. 

    So, let us show you around!

    Workstreams: The ultimate legal project management tool

    Meet Workstreams, a powerful and flexible tool to help you plan, organize, and deliver your matters.

    Lupl Workstreams are the ultimate LPM tool.

    Plan. At the start of your matter, workstreams allow you to develop a scope of work, budget, work plan, and more, using templates, a previous matter, or Lupl’s intuitive building blocks. 

    Organize. Inside each Workstream, you’ll find a comprehensive toolkit for managing and moving legal work forward, including Checklists, Steps Plans, Issues Lists, Trial Prep, Approvals, Local Counsel Trackers, and Work Allocation tools. Add as many Custom Columns as you like, making the feature endlessly flexible and scalable. 

    Deliver. You can export your Workstreams to Word and Excel in one click, allowing you to share work product with clients and stakeholders, whether they’re in the platform or not. 

    Learn more about Workstreams.

    Forms: No-code form builder for intake, counsel coordination, client feedback, and more

    Before we tell you about Forms, let us tell you about Jessica. 

    We met Jessica in November 2022. She’s an Associate at an international law firm. She spends a lot of her time managing international projects – getting fee quotes from local counsel, reviewing advice memos, and packaging it into actionable output for the client. 

    In one case, Jessica was managing 50 local counsel - 50 email threads, 50 legal memos, and everything being tracked manually in Excel. And we heard from others like Jessica across departments and practice areas who were running into the same issues.  

    It was a lightbulb moment for us. And that’s why we built Forms. 

    Forms is an automated, no-code form builder that lets you capture the information you need for your matter with zero manual effort.

    No more juggling multiple email threads or sifting through legal memos that don’t answer the question. With our new Forms feature, a few clicks is all it takes to customize, generate, and send out a Form. Then, sit back as Form responses land directly in your Workstream, organized exactly how you want them. Form respondents don’t even need to be in Lupl. 

    Forms have endless use cases, but some of our favorites are matter intake, regulatory projects, approvals, procurement, due diligence, and client feedback. 

    Say goodbye to that stack of legal memos - learn more about Forms.

    LuplAI – Your Virtual Legal Project Manager

    Did you know that 50% of legal work is work about work? All the admin that goes into moving work forward. 

    While plenty of great tools on the market are looking at AI applications in drafting, research, and review, our vision for AI is a bit different. We’re focused on the other 50%.

    And it all starts with helping you plan and scope your matters better.  

     

    🪄 Email Magic 

    You told us that your matters usually begin with an email – maybe it’s an email from the client or a request from another department or colleague. To make it totally frictionless, you can now simply forward your email to your firm’s unique matter creation email in Lupl and we’ll automatically build the matter for you. This includes helping you build a scope of work, a checklist/steps plan, a budget (coming soon), and auto-filing your documents.  

    ✍️ Scope with Prompt 

    Create a matter in Lupl with a simple text prompt. Get a plan for success in less than 60 seconds. 

    💻 Customized for Your Organization 

    LuplAI is designed to let you work your way. You can customize it by area of law or jurisdiction. You can connect your AI model of choice. You can embed your firm’s unique requirements into matter opening and closing checklists.  

     

    🔒 Secure & Compliant 

    LuplAI is designed to support your firm’s security and compliance requirements. Input will never be used to train the model, and everything is subject to our stringent SOC 2 and ISO-aligned controls.  

    Lupl’s Virtual LPM (vLPM) solution is being rolled out in beta. Want to take it for a spin? Contact success@lupl.com to request beta access.  

    Integrated Knowledge

    99% of knowledge on legal matters never gets captured for reuse. We want to change that – and we’ve added a suited of new features we call “Integrated Knowledge”.

    These include: 

    • Build a Matter from a Template
    • Import Workstreams from Templates  
    • Template Builder 
    • Save Existing Matter as a Template 
    • Clone Matter 

    Practice law your way and never reinvent the wheel again. So, if your litigation becomes a mediation or your M&A engagement expands into post-closing tasks, you can access the knowledge you need from the beginning to the end of the matter. 

    Enhanced Views

    We heard that users want a bird’s eye view of how their matters are progressing, with the ability to see real-time progress bars and sort by client or tag. 

    The new “Matters” screen has all this and more, providing all team members with better visibility of matter progress and health.

    So Much More!

    Here are just some of the other great enhancements we’re delivering in this feature release. 

    📧 Auto-Email Filing 

    Every matter in Lupl has a unique email address. Our new auto-filing feature automatically saves your email attachments to your connected DMS. You spend less time trawling through your inbox for the document you need or manually filing emails. 

    📝 Manage Signatures in Lupl 

    As part of our collaboration with the Ministry of Law in Singapore, we’ve expanded our DocuSign integration to make managing electronic signatures a breeze. Push for signatures, see who's signed and who hasn't, manage envelopes, and more, all without leaving Lupl. 

    🔗 iManage & Net Docs 

    We’ve made some major improvements to our iManage and Net Docs integrations to help you organize your documents. You can now create subfolders in Lupl and have them sync across to iManage and Net Docs – and vice versa. You can also manage versions more easily, with version history on each document. And comparing versions is easier than ever with integrated comparison. 

    🛡️ ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 

    We’ve long aligned our practices with these international standards. We’ve held SOC 2 Type 1 since our earliest days. We’ve recently completed our audits under ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2, giving our customers even more comfort that their information is secured to the highest international standards. 

    ↔️ Open API – Connect your PMS and more 

    We’ve rolled out additional endpoints in our Open API. Now, you can easily connect your Practice Management System and auto-create Lupl matters from other systems.  

    🔔 Notifications: Stay Updated 

    We've introduced a dedicated Notifications feature. All your important updates are now centralized, ensuring you never miss an update. With Notification Preferences, you control of what updates you receive and when. 

    🏃‍♂️ Performance Improvements: Smoother, Faster Lupl 

    With Lupl's growing usage, we've made significant performance improvements to keep up with the pace. Expect a smoother, faster experience, allowing you to manage your matters more efficiently. 

    What’s next?

    We're thrilled for you to experience Lupl's biggest feature release to date. With these exciting updates, we aim to make managing your matters more efficient, intuitive, and user-friendly. But we are not done! We have some more exciting improvements to come, including: 

    • Enhancements to Roles & Permissions 
    • Enhancements to Partner/Manager-Level Views 
    • Additional AI and Automation Features 
    • And more! 

    We can’t wait to hear your feedback! 

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      # Lupl Workstream Design Principles: A Practical Guide to Legal Project Management for Lawyers Legal project management works when your setup is simple, ownership is clear, and statuses are unambiguous. This guide shows how to turn existing processes and checklists into a lean, reliable Workstream. Lupl is the legal project management platform for law firms, making it easy and intuitive to apply these principles. It also supports moving your work from Excel, Word tables, or if you are transitioning from Microsoft Planner, Smartsheet, or Monday. You will learn what belongs in a Workstream, a Task, or a Step, and which columns to use. If you want practical project management for lawyers, start here. **Excerpt:** Legal project management works when ownership, dates, and statuses are clear. This guide shows lawyers how to turn checklists into Lupl Workstreams with the right columns, Tasks, and Steps. Use it to standardize project management for lawyers, reduce follow ups, and move matters to done. --- ## How to organize your work with Workstreams, Tasks, and Steps Workstreams, Tasks, and Steps are three different types of objects in Lupl. They form a simple hierarchy. Workstreams contain Tasks. Tasks may contain optional Steps. This hierarchy aligns with standard project management. In project management, you break work into projects, deliverables, and subtasks. Lupl adapts this for lawyers by using Workstreams, Tasks, and Steps. This makes it easier to map legal processes to a structure that teams can track and manage. * **Workstream.** Use when you have many similar or related items to track over time. Think of the Workstream as the table. * Examples: closing checklist, court deadlines, pretrial preparation, regulatory obligations, due diligence, local counsel management. * **Task.** A high level unit of legal work. A key deliverable with an owner and a due date. Tasks are the rows. * Examples: File motion. Prepare Shareholder Agreement. Submit Q3 report. * **Step.** An optional short checklist inside a single Task. Steps roll up to the parent Task. * Examples: Draft. QC. Partner review. E file. Serve. ### Quick test * If it can be overdue by itself, make it a Task. * If it only helps complete a Task, make it a Step. * If you need different columns or owners, create a separate Workstream. --- ## Do you need to track everything in Lupl Not every detail needs to be tracked in a project management system. The principle is to capture what drives accountability and progress. In Lupl, that means focusing on deliverables, not every micro action. * Use the level of detail you would bring to a weekly team meeting agenda. * Position Tasks as key deliverables. Treat Steps as optional micro tasks to show progress. * Example: You need client instructions. Do not add a Task for "Email client to request a call." Just make the call. If the client approves a key deliverable on the call, mark that item Approved in Lupl so the team has visibility. --- ## Start with the Core 5 columns Columns are the backbone of a Workstream. They define what information is tracked for each Task. In project management terms, these are your core metadata fields. They keep everyone aligned without overcomplicating the table. Keep the table narrow. You can add later. These five work across most legal project management use cases. 1. **Title.** Start with a verb. Example: File answer to complaint. 2. **Status.** Five to seven clear choices. Example: Not started, In progress, For review, For approval, Done. 3. **Assignee.** One named owner per row. If you add multiple assignees for collaboration, still name a primary owner. 4. **Due date.** One date per row. 5. **Type or Category.** Show different kinds of work in one table. Example: Filing, Discovery, Signature, Approval. **Priority.** Add only if you actively triage by priority each week. If added, keep it simple: High, Medium, Low. --- ## Add up to three Helper columns Lupl includes a set of pre made columns you can use out of the box. These allow you to customize Workstreams around different phases or stages of a matter. They also let you map how you already track transactional work, litigation, or other processes. Helper columns are optional fields that add context. In task management, these are similar to tags or attributes you use to sort and filter work. The key is to only add what you will update and use. Pick only what you will use. Stop when you reach three. * Party or Counterparty * Jurisdiction or Court * Phase * Approver * Approval, status or yes or no * Signature status * Risk, RAG * Amount or Number * External ID or Client ID * Document or Link * Docket number * Client entity **Guidance** * For Task Workstreams, prefer Approver, Approval, Risk. The rest are more common in Custom Workstreams. * Aim for eight columns or fewer in your main table. Put detail in the Task description, attachments, or Steps. --- ## Simple rules that keep your table clean Consistency is critical in project management. A cluttered or inconsistent table slows teams down. These rules ensure your Workstream remains usable and clear. * Only add a column people will update during the matter. If it never changes, set a default at the Workstream level or set a default value in the column. * Only add a column you will sort or filter on. If you will not use it to find or group work, leave it out. * If a value changes inside one Task, use Steps. Steps show progress without widening the table. * Keep columns short and structured. Use Description for brief context or instructions. Use Task comments for discussion and decisions. Link to work product in your DMS as the source of truth. * One accountable owner per Task and one due date. You can add collaborators, but always name a primary owner who moves the Task. If different people or dates apply to different parts, split into separate Tasks or capture the handoff as Steps. * Add automations after you lock the design. Finalize columns and status definitions first. Then add simple reminders and escalations that read those fields. --- ## Status hygiene that everyone understands Status is the single most important column in project management. It tells the team where the work stands. Too many options cause confusion. Too few cause misalignment. In Lupl, keep it simple and consistent. * Five to seven statuses are enough. * Use one review gate, For review or For approval. Use both only if your process needs two gates. * One terminal status, Done. This is the end state of the Task. Use Archived only if you report on it or need it for retention workflows. --- ## When to split into multiple Workstreams In project management, it is best practice to separate workstreams when workflows, owners, or audiences diverge. Lupl makes this easy by letting you create multiple Workstreams for one matter. Create a new Workstream if any of the following are true. * You need a different set of columns for a chunk of work. * Ownership or cadence is different, for example daily docketing vs monthly reporting. * The audience or confidentiality needs are different. **Signal** * If half your rows leave several columns blank, you are mixing processes. Split the table. --- ## Decision tree, three quick questions Use this quick framework to decide where an item belongs. This is the same principle used in task management software, adapted for legal workflows. 1. Is this a list of similar items over time, or a discrete phase of the matter * Yes. Create a Workstream. 2. Can it be overdue by itself, and does it need an owner * Yes. Create a Task. 3. Is it a step to finish a Task and not tracked on its own * Yes. Create a Step. --- ## Common mistakes to avoid Many project management failures come from overdesigning or misusing the structure. Avoid these mistakes to keep your Workstreams lean and effective. * Wide tables with many optional columns. Keep it to eight or fewer. * Two columns for the same idea, for example Status and Phase that overlap. Merge or define clearly. * More than one approval gate when one would do. It slows work and confuses owners. * Mixing unrelated processes in one table, for example signatures and invoice approvals. --- ## Build your first Workstream Building a Workstream is like setting up a project board. Keep it light, pilot it, then refine. Lupl is designed to let you do this quickly without heavy admin work. 1. Write the Workstream purpose in one sentence. 2. Add the Core 5 columns. 3. Add at most three Helpers you will use. 4. Define clear Status meanings in plain words. 5. Set defaults for any value that repeats on most rows, for example Jurisdiction. 6. Add two light automations, a due soon reminder and an overdue nudge. 7. Pilot for one week and adjust. --- ## Where this fits in legal project management Use these principles to standardize project management for lawyers across matters. Keep structures consistent. Reuse column sets and status definitions. Your team will find work faster, reduce follow ups, and close loops on time. --- ### On page SEO helpers * Suggested title tag. Lupl Workstream Design Principles, Practical Legal Project Management for Lawyers * Suggested meta description. Learn how to design lean Lupl Workstreams for legal project management. Get clear rules for Tasks, Steps, statuses, and columns to run matters with confidence. * Suggested URL slug. legal-project-management-for-lawyers-workstream-design

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