Migrate from The Attorney Case File to Mailchimp

Client records in The Attorney Case File map directly to Mailchimp contacts. Email address is the primary key for deduplication. Clients without email addresses are flagged for manual review — Mailchimp requires an email address to create a subscriber. During migration, each contact's intake date and assigned attorney are preserved as custom merge fields, enabling segmentation by case origin and responsible lawyer. The source ID field allows reconciliation of updates.

Matters do not have a direct Mailchimp equivalent. We map the matter name or case number to a custom merge field (CASE_NAME) and tag each contact with the practice area. Multiple matters per client become multiple tags on a single contact.

Attorney names from The Attorney Case File migrate as a custom merge field on each contact. We do not create Mailchimp users — only contact-level attribution. If attorney contact info is available, it maps as a second contact record. If multiple attorneys are assigned to a client, each name appears as a separate tag or merge field, allowing segmentation by responsible counsel.

Billing balances and invoice amounts cannot map to Mailchimp's transactional model. We preserve them as numeric merge fields for reference in email personalization. Any open balance becomes a custom field value; paid invoices are logged as a date field. These fields can be used in merge tags to personalize billing reminders or thank‑you messages, though they do not trigger any Mailchimp payment processing.

Documents attached to client records in The Attorney Case File are downloaded and re-uploaded to Mailchimp's Content Studio. Files are linked to the contact record via Mailchimp's file-to-subscriber association. File size limits (25MB per file) and unsupported formats (certain court-specific file types) are flagged.

Billable hours are aggregated by client and stored as numeric merge fields in Mailchimp. The granular time-entry descriptions (task-level detail) do not transfer — only cumulative totals per attorney per client are preserved as reference data. This allows you to include total hours in client communications or reports, but Mailchimp does not support time tracking or billing workflows.

Court dates and task due dates have no Mailchimp equivalent — Mailchimp's Customer Journeys support date-based automation but not case-calendar synchronization. We export the calendar data for manual entry into Mailchimp Journeys or a connected calendar tool. This exported file can be imported into Google Calendar, Outlook, or a practice‑management system to maintain reminders and deadlines after migration.

Practice areas from The Attorney Case File (Family Law, Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, etc.) map to Mailchimp tags. Each unique practice area becomes a tag name. If your firm uses more than 50 distinct case types, tags are collapsed to top-level categories.

Client phone numbers from The Attorney Case File map to Mailchimp's standard phone number merge field. Formatting is preserved as entered (no country code normalization unless specified). Mobile and office numbers are combined into one field. If you need separate mobile and office fields, we can create two custom merge fields and populate them based on the source phone type.

Full client address from The Attorney Case File maps to Mailchimp's structured address merge fields. If the source stores address as a single text field, we split it into the five-field address schema Mailchimp requires for geolocation and address validation.

Trust account balances per client have no Mailchimp equivalent and must be stored as a custom numeric merge field for reference only. Mailchimp cannot enforce trust accounting rules — this data is informational post-migration. You can use this field in email personalization to remind clients of their trust balance, but any accounting actions must be performed in a dedicated legal accounting platform.

Conflict check data in The Attorney Case File is sensitive legal-administration metadata with no Mailchimp equivalent. We do not migrate conflict records. The conflict-check system must remain in your legal software or a dedicated conflicts database. Maintaining conflict checks in your practice‑management system ensures compliance with bar rules and protects client confidentiality throughout the migration process.