Migrate from LegalEdge to Mailchimp

LegalEdge contacts (clients or students) migrate as Mailchimp subscribers. Email address is the primary key — records without a valid email are flagged for manual review before import, as Mailchimp requires an email for each subscriber. We validate email format and flag duplicates; contacts without a valid email are placed in a review file for your team to correct before a follow‑up import.

Email address maps directly to Mailchimp's required EMAIL field. We validate format (RFC 5322) and suppress duplicates at the audience level before import to avoid Mailchimp's duplicate-contact warnings. If the same email appears on multiple LegalEdge records (e.g., one contact linked to several matters), we merge them into a single subscriber and preserve all associated tags, preventing duplicate subscriber creation.

First name from LegalEdge maps to Mailchimp's FNAME merge field. Blank first-name fields are preserved as-is; Mailchimp's default 'there' substitution handles display in campaigns. If a contact lacks a first name, we leave the FNAME field empty; Mailchimp will use its default placeholder or skip personalization tokens. We recommend populating at least a generic name in LegalEdge before export to improve email subject-line customization.

Last name maps to Mailchimp's LNAME merge field. LegalEdge records with only a full-name single field are split on first space as the fallback; flagged for admin review. If the full-name field contains multiple spaces, hyphens, or suffixes (e.g., 'Mary‑Jane Smith‑Jr.'), our splitter takes the first token as the last name and flags the record for manual verification to prevent incorrect assignment.

Phone numbers migrate to Mailchimp's Phone merge field. We preserve original formatting; no E.164 normalization is applied unless the Mailchimp account has phone-number validation enabled. If a contact has multiple phone numbers in LegalEdge (e.g., office and mobile), we map the primary number to the Phone merge field and store additional numbers in a custom text field. International numbers retain their original formatting to avoid misinterpretation by Mailchimp's validation.

Firm or organization name from LegalEdge maps to Mailchimp's COMPANY merge field. This appears in merge-tag personalized subject lines and segmentation criteria. If a contact has both a law‑firm name and a client organization, we map the firm name to COMPANY and store the client name in a custom merge field. Empty firm names are left blank.

LegalEdge matter names or case IDs become Mailchimp tags prefixed by the practice area (e.g., 'Matter-Type:Family-Law', 'Case-Status:Active'). This enables segmentation by legal specialty without creating custom fields for every matter type. Each distinct matter type or case status generates a separate tag; contacts with multiple matters acquire multiple tags. Tags are applied at import time and can be used as triggers in Mailchimp automation flows for targeted campaigns.

LegalEdge contact status maps to a tag and a custom SUBSCRIBED_STATUS merge field in Mailchimp. Closed matters become 'Unsubscribed' tags; active matters retain 'Subscribed'. We do not auto-unsubscribe records — the migration preserves the contact; your team decides opt-in status post-migration.

LegalEdge custom numeric fields (billing rate, retainer amount) migrate as Mailchimp custom merge fields. The merge field must be created in Mailchimp before import; we include field-creation instructions in the pre-migration plan. We map LegalEdge NUMBER fields to Mailchimp NUMBER‑typed merge fields, stripping currency symbols and preserving decimals. A setup guide for your Mailchimp admin is provided before import.

Date fields from LegalEdge matter records become DATE-typed merge fields in Mailchimp. Date formats are normalized to ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) for Mailchimp compatibility. LegalEdge's date-only fields are preserved; datetime fields are truncated to date. If a date field is empty or invalid, we leave the merge field blank to avoid Mailchimp validation errors. Timezone information is not transferred; all dates are treated as the local date from LegalEdge.

LegalEdge user assignments (attorney, paralegal, case manager) do not map to a Mailchimp owner field. We store the owner name as a tag (e.g., 'Owner:Jane-Smith') and in a custom ADMIN_NOTES merge field for reference. The owner tag enables you to filter subscribers by responsible attorney or paralegal in Mailchimp campaigns. If multiple owners are assigned, each name appears as a separate tag on the subscriber.

LegalEdge documents and attachments (contracts, court filings, student records) do not migrate to Mailchimp. Mailchimp is an email-marketing platform; attachments are sent via campaigns, not stored as library assets. We can export documents to a separate file archive for your team to manage outside Mailchimp.

LegalEdge billing records, invoices, and payment history have no Mailchimp equivalent. These remain in LegalEdge or are exported as a CSV to your billing archive. Mailchimp's financial data is limited to paid-plan subscription billing. The CSV export preserves all invoice amounts, dates, and status fields so your finance team can continue reconciliations in a spreadsheet or accounting tool. This export does not affect the Mailchimp subscriber profile.

If LegalEdge contains client-communication templates (intake forms, case-update letters), they do not migrate. Mailchimp templates are HTML email designs; we can import raw HTML templates if your team has exported them, but template logic (mail-merge, conditional content) requires rebuild in Mailchimp's template editor.