Migrate from The Legal Assistant to Odoo CRM

Attorney contact records map to Odoo res.partner with type='contact'. Email, phone, and address fields transfer directly. Attorney role (e.g., 'Personal Injury', 'Family Law') migrates as a custom selection field. The role field is defined as a custom selection list in Odoo Studio, allowing reporting by specialty and filtering in kanban views.

Client records map to Odoo res.partner contacts. Primary matter assignment is linked via a many2one to the matter record on the contact's chatter. Multi-contact households collapse to one partner record per individual client. Each partner record can be linked to multiple matter leads, enabling a consolidated view of the client's case history.

Law firm or corporate client organization maps to res.partner with type='company'. Client contacts nested under the company partner via child_ids. Firm billing address maps to company partner address fields. The company record also stores the firm’s main contact details, enabling direct routing of invoices and statements to the correct department.

Each matter becomes an Odoo crm.lead record. The Legal Assistant's case number migrates as a custom Char field (x_case_number) on crm.lead. Practice area (personal injury, criminal, family law) becomes a custom selection field (x_practice_area) since Odoo has no native legal-case-type concept.

The Legal Assistant's matter statuses (open, pending, closed, billed) map to Odoo CRM stage records created in the default pipeline. Stage mapping is defined value-by-value: 'open' → 'New', 'pending' → 'Pending', 'closed' → 'Won', 'billed' → 'Won + invoiced flag'.

Odoo CRM has no native statute-of-limitations field. We create a custom date field (x_statute_date) on crm.lead and migrate every matter's SOL date preserving the original value. This field can be used in Odoo filters for deadline alerts via scheduled actions.

Matter attachments re-uploaded as ir.attachment records linked to the target crm.lead ID. File size limits apply (Odoo default 25MB per file). Inline images in templates are downloaded and rehosted in Odoo's filestore. We preserve original file names and set the res_model to 'crm.lead' to maintain traceability in Odoo's document management.

Matter-level notes map to Odoo mail.message records posted on the crm.lead chatter. Original timestamps and author names preserved. Rich-text formatting is converted to Odoo's HTML note format. Each note appears in the lead’s chatter timeline, allowing team members to view the full case history without leaving the record.

Billed amounts and invoice numbers from The Legal Assistant become custom fields on crm.lead (x_invoice_number, x_billed_amount, x_billing_date). Full invoice records require Odoo Accounting module activation and are linked via a Char reference field. These fields enable reporting on historical billing while the Accounting module handles live invoicing post-migration.

Court dates and scheduled appearances migrate as Odoo calendar.event records linked to the matter's crm.lead. Original datetime, duration, and attendee list preserved. Alert reminders map to calendar.event alarm_ids. Each event can be set with multiple alarm types (email, popup) to ensure timely notification of court deadlines.

Attorney and staff logins resolve by email match against Odoo users. Unmatched attorneys are flagged before migration — your Odoo admin either creates their user account first or assigns records to a fallback user. User IDs are recorded in the migration log for audit traceability.

The Legal Assistant's prewritten letter templates with merge fields have no Odoo CRM equivalent. Templates are exported as a PDF/ODT reference library. Odoo's document template features require separate configuration post-migration. Firms should plan for a rebuild effort in Odoo Studio or the Documents app to restore automated letter generation.