An AI agent for the matter admin in Actionstep
Someone in the firm feeds every step of an Actionstep workflow: the participants keyed in at intake, the file note after a call, the document a client has not returned. An AI agent can do that feeding, and a solicitor approves anything that goes out.
Enquiries, each matter's participants, the workflow step it sits at and the documents on file.
Matters prepared with their parties, file notes, and chased documents filed in the matter's folder.
What Actionstep is and who runs it
Actionstep is law firm management software for mid-sized firms. It covers matters and workflow, documents, time recording, billing and legal accounting, including client money (which Actionstep calls trust accounting). Actionstep says its own AI, Actionstep Intelligence, codes time to matters and drafts bill narratives.
Fee earners, paralegals and legal secretaries work their matters in it. A practice manager or systems administrator designs its workflows and permissions, and the accounts team runs its billing and client ledgers.
Matter admin an AI agent can do around Actionstep
Matters opened with their participants
Actionstep records the people on a matter as participants, each with a type. The agent takes the enquiry's details and prepares the matter with its client and other parties. The conflict search itself is run in Actionstep, and whether to act is the solicitor's decision.
File notes written after each contact
The agent writes the file note from an email exchange or the fee earner's dictated summary and puts it on the right matter, so the file shows what was said and when. Advice is never the agent's to give.
Documents and data fields chased
A workflow step often waits on a document or a field the client has not supplied. The agent asks for it, chases it and files what arrives in the matter's folder. The fee earner judges whether it is right.
Steps flagged when they stall
The agent lists matters that have sat at one workflow step longer than the days you set and tells the fee earner what each waits for. Moving a matter to its next step stays with the person responsible for it.
Roles that work in Actionstep
Matter intake and engagement letters
Prepares the matter and its participants from each enquiry and drafts the client care letter.
Client onboarding and KYC
Collects ID and source-of-funds evidence from the client and files it on the matter for sign-off.
Chasing clients for documents
Chases the forms and replies a workflow step waits for and reports what is outstanding.
Enquiry and inbox triage
Sorts the firm's inbox and sends emails on open matters to the right fee earner.
Sectors that run Actionstep
How the connection is set up
Actionstep publishes a REST API, reached through OAuth 2.0, and asks any company building on it to apply as an integrator first. Its support team issues the credentials, and an integration is assessed against Actionstep's development guidelines before it goes live. Which route your firm uses is settled with you first.
Actionstep's API works as a user: it sees only what the authorising user may see, so a restricted-access matter stays closed unless that user is on it. Every action is written to the Session Activity Log under that user.
Questions owners ask
We mark some matters restricted. Could the agent open them?
Only if the user it works as can. Actionstep's documentation says an application has the same access as the user who authorised it, and that the API applies the restricted access model in full. The role is set up under a user with the access it needs.
Is there a record of what it did in Actionstep?
Yes, in two places. Actionstep says activity through its API is captured in the Session Activity Log under the authorising user, in the same log as what people do. The agent also keeps its own log of each step and the reason for it.
Actionstep Intelligence already codes our time. What would this add?
Actionstep says its AI codes time, drafts bill narratives and answers questions about firm data, with workflow agents to come. The agent, an Agent Resource managed much as staff are, leaves that to it, in a role you define: chasing clients by email and telling fee earners what a step waits for.
Does it work in trust or client accounting?
No. Client money stays with your accounts team and your cashier. The agent can remind a client that a bill is unpaid and log the reply, and it passes any query, payment plan or transfer to a person.