Custom matter attributes are the fields an organization adds to its matter management platform, beyond the standard fields it ships with, to capture information specific to its practice areas, entities, and reporting. Matter name and matter lead come built in. Claim value, regulator, court, and renewal date usually do not, so they become custom fields. How you structure them decides whether your matter data can answer the questions leadership asks.
The examples here use SimpleLegal, and SimpleLegal is Onit’s mid-market ELM platform.
What are custom matter attributes in a matter management system?
Custom matter attributes in a matter management system are organization-defined fields that sit alongside the platform’s general attributes and record what the standard model cannot. In SimpleLegal, each one has a name, a label, an input type, and a set of accepted values, and all four are specific to your environment.
Two departments on the same platform can build completely different data models. One tracks jurisdiction as a controlled list of 40 countries. Another uses free text and finds 11 spellings of the United Kingdom two years later. The structure you choose in the first six to eight weeks of the implementation is what separates them.
Custom fields also reach well past the matter record. They feed spend reports, drive routing rules, populate dashboards, and pass values to the document management system. That reporting role matters, because a 2025 survey of in-house legal teams found 77 percent still handle all or part of their reporting manually.
Why should custom matter attributes start from the reporting model?
Custom matter attributes should start from the reporting model because every field exists to answer a question someone will ask of the data. Design the reports and dashboards first, then create only the fields they need.
Two or three workshop sessions with legal operations, finance, and a couple of practice leads usually produce the list:
- Name the decisions. List the 10 to 15 questions leadership asks of matter data, such as open litigation exposure by entity.
- Trace each question to a field. A question with no field behind it is a gap. A field that answers no question is a candidate for removal.
- Check the standard model first. Confirm a general attribute does not already hold the value. Duplicate fields split the data and confuse users.
Most departments end up with 20 to 40 custom fields across all practice areas. A model with 150 usually means requests were approved with no reporting reason. Legal analytics dashboards are only as reliable as the matter fields underneath them.
Which matter fields should be standard and which should be custom?
Matter fields should be standard whenever the platform already provides the attribute, and custom only where the value is specific to your practice areas or reporting.
- Universal fields. Matter name, matter ID, matter lead, matter type, entity, and currency apply to every matter. Use standard fields for these.
- Practice-area fields. Claim amount, court, regulator, and lease date apply only to some matters. These belong on practice-area templates.
- Controlled lists. Country, business unit, and forum need an approved set of options. Free text here is the most common reason a report undercounts.
- Hierarchical fields. Region to country to entity follows a parent-child pattern that suits conditional relationships.
- Financial and date fields. Claim value, budget, and hearing date need rules for currency, precision, and date format before the first record goes in.
If a proposed field would appear on every template, check the standard model again before creating it.
How do matter templates control which custom fields appear?
Matter templates control which custom fields appear by attaching a defined set of attributes to each matter type. In SimpleLegal, administrators add custom attributes to a template or remove them, so a litigation matter shows court and claim value while a real estate matter shows lease date.
This keeps forms short. A user opening an employment matter sees the eight or ten fields relevant to employment work, and the 30 other custom fields stay out of view. The template selected for a new matter also determines which custom attributes can be populated during a CSV import.
In SimpleLegal, custom attributes appear on matters only after being added to a matter template, and cannot be added to individual matters directly. Most departments need five to eight templates at launch: litigation, commercial, employment, regulatory, real estate, intellectual property, and a general template.
How do conditional custom attributes keep matter data accurate?
Conditional custom attributes keep matter data accurate by limiting the values a user can choose based on an earlier selection. Select a region, and the country list shows only countries in that region.
SimpleLegal supports conditional relationships of up to three levels, and the attributes in a relationship must be scoped to matters at a minimum. Administrators build them in the Custom Attributes area, through the interface or a CSV file setting out Level 1, Level 2, and optional Level 3 values.
Three levels covers most real hierarchies: region, country, and entity, or practice area, category, and subcategory. When a hierarchy seems to need a fourth level, one level is usually doing two jobs and should become a separate attribute.
A German entity under an Asia-Pacific region becomes impossible to enter, and every report grouped by region inherits that accuracy.
Which field types suit each custom matter field?
The right field type for each custom matter field is the most restrictive type that still captures the value. SimpleLegal’s CSV import supports list, Yes/No, date, and text types.
- List. Use a list for anything you filter or group by, such as jurisdiction, forum, and outcome.
- Yes/No. Use this for binary flags such as litigation hold issued. It reports cleanly.
- Date. Use a date type for every value behind a deadline or aging report. Dates stored as text cannot be sorted or measured.
- Text. Reserve free text for notes and values unique to one matter. A text field should never sit behind a KPI.
A practical target is that at least 95 percent of reporting fields are lists or validated values.
How do you load and update matter attributes in bulk?
Matter attributes are loaded and updated in bulk through CSV import, with one row per matter and one column per attribute. In SimpleLegal, the bulk template includes the Client Matter ID and columns mapped to general and custom attributes, and dates must use the YYYY-MM-DD format.
Most load failures trace back to three causes:
- List spelling. A value that differs from the configured list by one character or a trailing space is rejected. Validate against an export of current list values.
- Date format. Spreadsheet dates often arrive as MM/DD/YYYY or serial numbers. Convert them and spot-check 20 rows.
- Template mismatch. A column for an attribute missing from the selected template has nowhere to land. Load each template group separately.
Run a test load of 50 to 100 rows in the sandbox first. A clean production load should see fewer than 1 percent of rows fail.
How should matter attributes map to NetDocuments profile attributes?
Matter attributes should map to NetDocuments profile attributes through a written mapping that pairs each matter field with a controlled profile attribute. Profile attributes are the metadata fields NetDocuments uses to organize and search documents, and text attributes can use lookup tables to restrict users to approved values.
The mapping matters because client and matter values usually decide where documents live. NetDocuments supports parent-child relationships, such as several matters under one client, and can build workspaces from a profile attribute with a lookup table. When the two systems disagree on a matter value, documents land in the wrong workspace.
Map client and matter first, then practice area, then anything the document side uses for filing or security. Confirm every client and matter combination is valid before workspaces are created. NetDocuments profile attributes scale best when the schema is planned up front.
Who should govern matter custom fields after go-live?
Matter custom fields need a named owner for each field after go-live, a shared data dictionary, and a regular change process. Without them, the model drifts within a year.
- Data dictionary. Record each field’s label, type, required status, allowed values, source, owner, and downstream mapping.
- Ownership. Give every attribute a business owner who decides its values and a system owner who configures it.
- Change control. Route new fields and list changes through sandbox testing, since configuration changes on legal platforms belong in a planned release cycle.
- Quality checks. Review completeness quarterly, with a target of 95 percent or more of active matters holding every mandatory attribute.
Retire fields carefully. Deactivate them and keep historical values, so reports on closed matters still run.
Conclusion
Custom matter attributes are where a matter management platform becomes specific to your department, and their structure decides how useful your matter data stays. Start from the reports, keep standard fields standard, use a small set of templates, and apply conditional lists and restrictive field types wherever reporting depends on the value. Test bulk loads and DMS mapping like any other deliverable, and put every field under an owner. The result stays short for the people entering data and reliable for the people reading it.
How Basla can help
Basla provides delivery teams for enterprise legal management and eBilling software implementation, covering legal technology consulting, business analysis, matter template and custom field design, conditional list configuration, data preparation and CSV loading, testing, documentation, and post-go-live support. Basla business analysts run the reporting workshops and build the data dictionary.
Basla teams have delivered matter management and eBilling across more than 10 global jurisdictions, and have supported legal technology deployed for a global retail organization across more than 100 jurisdictions.
Frequently asked questions
What are custom matter attributes?
Custom matter attributes are fields an organization adds to its matter management platform to capture information the standard fields do not hold, such as claim value, court, or regulator. They are applied through matter templates.
How many custom matter fields should a legal department have?
A legal department should have only as many custom matter fields as its reporting model requires. Most land between 20 and 40 across all practice areas.
What is a matter template in SimpleLegal?
A matter template in SimpleLegal decides which custom attributes appear on a given type of matter. It also controls which attributes can be filled during a CSV import.
How many levels can conditional custom attributes have in SimpleLegal?
Conditional custom attributes in SimpleLegal can have up to three levels in one relationship, such as region, country, and entity. The attributes must be scoped to matters at a minimum.
What date format does SimpleLegal require for matter imports?
SimpleLegal requires dates in the YYYY-MM-DD format for CSV matter imports. Convert any other format before loading.
Do matter attributes sync automatically to NetDocuments?
Matter attributes reach NetDocuments through whatever integration the program configures, so the field mapping is designed and tested during implementation. In NetDocuments, the values live in profile attributes with lookup tables.
*This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Basla Solutions provides legal technology implementation and support services and does not practice law.*