A client portal for law firms that keeps the matter file in one place
Privileged material should not be an email attachment, and a client should not have to ask you what stage their matter is at. FirmHello fixes both with one link per matter.
Free for 14 days, no credit card. Your portal carries your firm's name from the first client you add.
Lease assignment — document bundle
7 of 11 received1 item overdue — FirmHello is chasing
- Certificate of incorporation Received 4 Mar
- Photo ID — both directors Received 4 Mar
- Proof of business address Received 5 Mar
- ! Existing lease — executed copy Overdue
- Source of funds declaration Reminder Friday
- Engagement terms and fee estimate Approved 1 Mar
Calder Whitmore LLP's portal, as their client sees it.
A matter generates documents from every direction: the client, the other side, counsel, the court. Most firms hold that together with a shared drive, a practice management system nobody enjoys, and a great deal of email.
FirmHello sits at the client-facing edge of that. Each matter gets a space on your own domain where the client uploads what you have asked for, approves what needs approving, reads where things stand, and stops phoning to ask.
Where matters lose time
Privileged material sitting in inboxes
Every attachment is a copy you no longer control, on a mail server you do not own, in a thread that gets forwarded. It is the weakest point in an otherwise careful practice.
Client onboarding stalls on identity checks
A matter cannot open until identity and source-of-funds evidence arrives, and that evidence is exactly what clients are slowest and most nervous about sending.
"Any update?" as a recurring interruption
Clients call because they have no other way to see progress. Each call costs a lawyer ten minutes and produces no billable work.
Version confusion on documents that matter
Three copies of an agreement with similar filenames, and the only way to identify the executed one is to open all three.
One space per matter
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Step 1
Open the matter and list what you need
Identity documents, corporate records, prior agreements, the approved engagement terms. Save it as a template per matter type so conveyancing and commercial work each start from the right list.
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Step 2
The client sends it straight into the matter
Uploads land against the matter, not in an inbox. Sensitive items can be set to require a one-time code, and nothing is ever delivered as an attachment.
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Step 3
The file stays complete and provable
Approved documents are filed with a timestamped record of who approved them and the version they saw. When the matter closes, the client keeps a clean copy and you keep an exportable audit log.
What law firms use most
Every featureRequest lists
A list per matter, not per client, so a client with three matters running never has to work out which document belongs to which.
Client vault
The client-facing matter file: correspondence, executed agreements, identity evidence, all versioned and searchable long after closing.
Roles and per-client access
Access granted per matter as well as per client, so a paralegal on one file cannot open another, and a leaver's access ends with their account.
Approvals on the record
Engagement terms and authorities put up for approval, with the approving person, the wording they agreed to and the version fingerprint on the record. Not an electronic signature; where a matter needs one, use a qualified provider.
Audit trail
Actor, time and IP for every view and download — the record you want to have if a client's account of events changes.
Your brand, your domain
Your firm's name on the domain and on every notification. Clients are already wary of unexpected links about their legal matter.
Details that matter in legal work
Restricted items
Mark an item as restricted and only named lawyers can open it, even inside a firm where everyone else can see the matter.
Retention set per matter type
Conveyancing, litigation and estates all keep documents for different periods. Retention is set on the matter type and applied on close.
Multiple contacts, separate access
Two directors, a spouse, an accountant with a limited view. Each contact gets their own access rather than sharing one login.
Client documents are the most sensitive thing a firm holds
So the portal is built to hold them properly: encrypted, access granted one client at a time, and every action recorded. Nothing travels as an email attachment.
How FirmHello is built- Encrypted in transit and at rest
- TLS 1.3 on every connection and AES-256 encryption for stored documents, with keys managed separately from the data they protect.
- Access is per client, not per firm
- A client can only ever load their own space. Staff access is granted per client, so a junior can be given three files and nothing else.
- No documents in email
- Notifications tell a client that something is waiting and link them to the portal. The material itself never leaves it as an attachment.
- Complete audit trail
- Views, uploads, downloads, approvals and permission changes are all recorded with actor, time and IP, and the log is exportable.
- Retention you control
- Set how long documents live per client or per matter, and hold or purge on request, so the portal matches the retention policy you already have.
- Hosted in your region
- Choose United States, Canada, the EU or the United Kingdom, and your firm's data stays in that region.
Questions from law firms
Is FirmHello a replacement for our practice management system?
No. It is the client-facing layer. Your practice management system stays where it is for time, billing and internal workflow; FirmHello handles everything the client sees, sends and signs.
How does this help with identity and source-of-funds checks?
Those become items on the matter's list with a clear description of what is acceptable, so the client sends the right thing first time. Overdue items chase themselves, which is usually where onboarding stalls.
Can a client see documents from opposing counsel?
Only what you publish to them. Uploading a document to a matter does not make it visible to the client; you choose per document whether it is shared, and the sharing is logged.
What about privilege and confidentiality?
Material stays inside the portal instead of being copied into email. Access is per contact per matter, restricted items are limited to named lawyers, and everything is encrypted at rest.
Can we use our own domain?
Yes. Clients log in at a domain you control with your firm's branding, and notifications are sent from your firm's address.
Does it handle matters with several parties?
Each contact gets separate access with its own permissions, so a corporate client's directors, their broker and their accountant can each be given exactly the view you intend.
Related
Where to go next
Every page on the site, grouped by the question it answers.
Ready when you are
Start a free trial and move one matter type across. That is usually enough to know.
No card and no sales call. If you would rather tell us about your firm first, use the longer form.