Achieving Seamless Case Management Consolidation with Zero Disruption to Client Matters

At a Glance

• Client: A top 20 Global Law firm with offices across 50+ countries
• Requirement: Deliver the end-to-end migration of legal cases from various disparate case-management platforms operating across the UK and Ireland into the consolidated LexisNexis VisualFile/EveryFile environment, while also securely migrating thousands of case-related files and documents from multiple document-management systems into the iManage platform.
• Solution: 3rive Technologies implemented a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool using Power Automate to automate the migration of all case data and iManage API-driven solution for migrating documents including a comprehensive end-to-end verification and reconciliation process to ensure a zero-error migration.
• Results: Successful migration of legal cases and documents in just 1 month, delivering a single unified case management platform with zero disruption.

The Challenge

As Clyde & Co grew through acquisitions and mergers, its case data became fragmented across different platforms. Each office operated in its own silo, making collaboration and reporting difficult. The challenge wasn't just migrating case records, but also ensuring that associated documents moved securely into the right place — with documents stored in iManage.

Key Challenges:

• Data Uniformity Issues: Source systems use inconsistent schemas, naming conventions, taxonomies, and field structures that must be normalized prior to ingestion into EveryFile.
• Unclean or Incomplete Data: Legacy platforms contain missing fields, outdated values, malformed entries, and unvalidated user input that must be corrected, standardized, or enriched.
• Duplicate Records Across Systems: Overlapping case records—sometimes representing the same entity with slight variations—must be identified and deduplicated while preserving the authoritative version.
• Data Format Discrepancies: Case attributes are stored in varied formats (dates, numeric fields, taxonomies, enumerations), requiring robust transformation logic.
• Integrity & Referential Consistency Constraints: Parent–child relationships (case → activities → tasks → parties → documents) must be preserved, requiring careful validation and reconciliation to avoid broken links or orphan data.
• Auditability & Chain-of-Custody Requirements: Legal data must retain audit trails, ownership metadata, timestamps, and lineage, ensuring the migration meets compliance and regulatory expectations.

Document Specific Challenges:

• Preservation of Information Governance Structures: Folder hierarchies, matter workspaces, document owners, and security policies must be replicated without loss.
• Metadata Consistency & Enrichment: Metadata fields differ across DMSs (file types, authorship, versioning, matter references); harmonization is required to avoid metadata drift in iManage.
• Handling Diverse File Formats & Legacy Content: The source systems may contain old or proprietary document formats that require conversion or content validation before import.
• Scale & Performance Challenges: High-volume document repositories (millions of PDFs, Word files, emails, images) must be moved efficiently while minimizing downtime and maintaining chain-of-custody.
• Data Governance Compliance: Migration must adhere to legal and regulatory standards for data retention, defensibility, privacy, and access control.

The Turning Point

Clyde & Co engaged 3rive Technologies to manage the migration using a tailored Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution built on Power Automate and iManage API-driven solution for migrating documents.

Key priorities included:

• Consolidation of multiple case management systems into EF/VF (the firm's standard).
• Seamless migration of documents into iManage, ensuring no files were lost.
• Speed and accuracy, with minimal disruption to ongoing legal operations.
• Scalability, so future migrations could follow the same model.

The Solution

3rive's RPA and API-driven migration automated the transfer of case files and documents, eliminating manual effort and reducing risk.

Highlights:

• End-to-end migration of case data, and associated documents.
• Automatic redirection into iManage, Clyde & Co's document management system.
• A full lifecycle verification and reconciliation framework designed to deliver error-free migration outcomes.
• Completed within one month, significantly faster than traditional migration projects.

The Results

• All systems unified: VF/EF became the central case management platform across UK and Ireland.
• Every file migrated: No data lost, no disruption to client matters.
• 1-month turnaround: A project that could have taken quarters was delivered in weeks.
• Future-ready model: A repeatable framework for future acquisitions and migrations.

The Bigger Picture

For Clyde & Co, the migration wasn't just about IT systems, it was about creating a unified, efficient foundation for its global operations. With a single case management platform and iManage as the document repository, the firm can now collaborate seamlessly across regions.

For 3rive Technologies, this project highlights the power of automation in legal tech: accelerating high-risk, high-volume processes while ensuring accuracy and compliance.