Conflion Information Sheet

01Overview

Conflion is a conflicts-checking and new business intake system for law firms. It replaces email and PDF intake with one place where a request is entered, every party is searched, each hit is decided by the conflicts team, approvals go to the right people, waivers and ethical walls are recorded, and the matter is opened.

Key facts

02How a matter moves

A new matter goes from a lawyer's first question to an open, billable matter in eight steps, and Conflion shows everyone what it is waiting on at each one.

1. Quick checkoptional, names only
2. New intakethe full request
3. Conflicts searchevery party
4. Conflicts revieweach hit decided
5. Approvalsthe firm's routing
6. Matter openednumber, billing, folders
7. Billing on holduntil signed copies
8. Billablepaperwork complete

1. Quick check (optional). A lawyer or secretary sends just the party names, or pastes an email and lets Conflion find the parties in it. The check gets its own number and is searched at once. If the work goes ahead, the same record becomes a full intake, keeping every decision already made.
2. New business intake. The requester fills in the client, matter, parties and roles, practice area and records area, offices, lawyers, fee estimate and billing details, plus the firm's own questions. A live preview shows possible conflicts for each party as it is typed. Pro bono matters have their own intake with eligibility questions and no fee fields.
3. Conflicts search. Every party is searched against clients, adverse parties, related companies, former and prospective clients, declined matters, pending requests and lawyers' declared relationships. Each search gets a permanent number (S-2026-000123) that can be cited. New parties are also screened against sanctions lists.
4. Conflicts review. The conflicts team sees hits grouped by party and ranked by risk, with the reason and any earlier decisions on the same party. They decide each hit, ask responsible lawyers for clearance, record waivers and put up ethical walls. A conflicts summary goes back to the lawyer.
5. Approvals. The request follows the firm's route: for example the practice group leader, finance, and the general counsel for restricted, high-fee or high-risk work. Approvers approve, approve with conditions, or send it back. An approver with a declared interest in a party is routed around, and an alternate approves instead.
6. Matter opening. The conflicts team opens the matter. It gets its client.matter number (for example 011072.0001), new parties join the database, the billing record is prepared, and the matter's folders can be created in the document system.
7. Billing hold. Opening does not wait for paperwork, but billing does. Until the signed engagement letter, signed waivers and any required documents are uploaded and every conflicts item is closed, the matter shows Open · billing on hold.
8. After opening. The matter workspace holds the team's tasks, notes and timeline. Change monitoring re-checks the matter's parties when the firm's data changes and lists any new hit nobody has reviewed. When the matter ends it is closed with a retention date.

Who does what

Every request shows a next-step line that says in plain words what it is waiting on and who has it. Lawyers get a task list on their home page, and emails go out for approvals, walls and conflicts summaries.

03Features

Conflicts, intake, approvals, waivers, walls, laterals, matter opening and the matter workspace live in one system. NEW marks what arrived in this release.

04AI assistance

Conflion's AI is optional, runs on the firm's own hardware by default, and only suggests or helps draft. A conflicts analyst or lawyer reviews everything and makes every decision.

Search results, risk levels, reports, approvals, walls and signed documents never depend on the AI. With no model connected, Conflion works fully.

Where it runs

• On the firm's own hardware (default). The model runs on a server or workstation inside the firm through standard local model software such as Ollama or LM Studio. Client names stay on the firm's network.
• One-click model setup. NEW An administrator picks the model from a list of the ones installed, and Conflion checks it before using it.
• A backup model. NEW A second local model can take over only when the main one can't be reached. It is never an outside provider.
• The server decides where AI calls go. Every call goes to one address the firm sets, and a model outside the firm's private network is refused unless an administrator deliberately allows it.

An outside provider, only if the firm chooses

A firm can choose its own account with an outside provider instead, such as Anthropic directly, Claude through its AWS or Google Cloud account, or any provider with a standard chat interface. It takes two separate steps, IT configuring it on the server and an administrator accepting a written data-handling notice, and both are recorded. Even then, Conflion never sends:

• restricted or highly confidential requests, or confidential ones unless an administrator allows it;
• requests someone marked "Keep this request away from outside AI services";
• anything with a hit behind an ethical wall;
• anything for a client whose outside counsel guidelines bar AI use, or its corporate family;
• health information requests and matters, or import files.

Each task sends a fixed, minimal set of fields, and the server writes "Sent to external AI" with the fields sent to the audit trail before anything leaves.

Safeguards

• Documents and emails are treated as untrusted text, so instructions hidden in them are not followed.
• The model has no internet access, and its answers must fit a fixed format or they are discarded.
• AI notes follow the same walls and confidentiality rules as everything else.
• Every AI use is recorded with the task and model name, and every suggestion is marked ✦ on screen.
• Optional add-on tools, such as Party Finder for listing every party to search and Guideline Guard for checking a prebill against a client's guidelines, each stay off until an administrator turns them on.

05Security and confidentiality

Conflion is built around one rule: a person screened from a matter must never receive it. The server decides what each person is sent, every change is recorded in a tamper-evident log, and the firm keeps its data on systems it controls.

NEWTONHiding isn't done by the screen. If you're walled from a matter, your browser never gets it, so there's nothing to peek at.

Who can see what

• Each person gets only their own view. Lawyers, secretaries and approvers get their own requests, the matters they work on and the records their tasks need. The conflicts team and administrators see what their work needs, still subject to confidentiality levels.
• Walls are enforced before data leaves the server, in every screen, search, export, timeline and AI note.
• Confidentiality levels. Any client, matter or request can be normal, confidential or highly confidential, with named people allowed in. A matter takes the higher of its own level and its client's.
• What others see of a hidden record is only "Match on a confidential record. Contact the conflicts team," with no name, matter or count.
• Every opening of a walled or confidential record is logged, including blocked attempts.
• Losing access takes effect at once. Disabling an account or changing a role ends that person's sessions and live updates immediately.

Sign-in and the audit trail

• Sign-in through Entra ID, so multi-factor and conditional access follow the firm's policy. Accounts are created by an administrator.
• Sessions end after 30 minutes idle and 12 hours in total (both adjustable).
• Every change is appended to a log the database itself refuses to edit or delete. Each entry is linked to the one before by a keyed fingerprint, checked at start-up and every 15 minutes, and the log alone can rebuild all of the firm's data.

Protecting the data

Support without client data

An administrator can produce a support bundle in which every name, email, id and piece of free text is replaced by a placeholder. Conflion checks it against every name in the firm's records before it can be saved, and nothing is sent automatically. When support needs to see a problem happen, Conflion can build a test firm of made-up records the same size and shape as the firm's data.

How it is tested

• Over 1,000 automated tests, including tests that inspect everything each kind of user is sent and check that no walled or highly confidential name, number or file appears in it.
• Tests that feed the AI hostile documents designed to trick it, and confirm nothing but the advisory note changes.
• Security testing of a production-mode install covering walls, confidentiality, sign-in, file handling and attempts to act as another user.

06Data and integrations

A firm's existing conflicts records come in through a checked import, the billing system stays the system of record, and the document system can receive matter folders and walls.

Bringing in existing records

1. Choose the file. Presets recognise Aderant and Clio layouts; any other CSV or Excel export is matched by its column headings.
2. Match the columns. Conflion suggests which column feeds each field, and a person confirms each one.
3. Match the role values. The old system's words for client, adverse party and so on are mapped to Conflion's roles.
4. Dry run. Before anything is saved, Conflion shows the new parties, the matches to existing records, possible duplicates and any warnings.
5. Import, with undo. A recent import can be undone while nothing else depends on it, and an import can be tried first in the test firm.

The billing system

Conflion never changes billing data. With Aderant it can work from uploaded reports, a shared folder read each night, or a live connection. Client, matter and entity names come in, along with each matter's billing status, which only the conflicts team sees. Newly opened matters go back with their client, matter number, office and lawyers, and whether they are on billing hold. A nightly pull never merges records on its own; a close name is listed for review.

Document management and Microsoft 365

• Matter folders. When a matter opens, Conflion can create its workspace and the folders its records area calls for in iManage or SharePoint. It is off until an administrator turns it on.
• Filing. Documents attached in Conflion can be filed to iManage or SharePoint. Confidential and walled records are not filed unless an administrator allows each case.
• Walls in other systems. Conflion can apply its walls to iManage workspaces, SharePoint folders and Microsoft 365 groups, in plan, read-only or enforce mode.
• Outlook. An add-in can start an intake from an open email, sending it only to the firm's own Conflion server.
• Email goes through the firm's own mail server. Emails about sensitive requests name them by number only.

07Running it

Conflion runs on one server inside the firm, alongside a PostgreSQL database and, if wanted, a local AI model. A firm of 200 lawyers was load-tested on a modest four-core, 15 GB machine.

System status and one-click setup NEW

Administrators get one System status page that puts every part of Conflion, and every system it talks to, on one map marked Working, Needs attention, Down or Not set up, checked again every 30 seconds. Each part has its own setup block: one click where Conflion can do the job itself (the AI model, the backup model, virus scanning), the right settings page where a person must choose, or a ready-made request to copy for IT. "Set up what I can" does every one-click step at once. A trace follows any request, search or matter through every step and out to each connected system.

What firm IT provides

• A Linux server or virtual machine with Docker, behind an HTTPS reverse proxy with a certificate.
• An Entra ID app registration for sign-in, a mail relay, and encrypted backup storage off the server.
• If AI is wanted, a machine for the local model. As an estimate, one modern desktop-class machine with a capable graphics processor or Apple silicon keeps up with a firm of about 200 lawyers, because triage runs in the background.

Performance at size

The load test played all 229 people of a simulated 200-lawyer firm at once, each with their own sign-in and live screen.

One change a second is about 29,000 changes in an eight-hour day. Every run had no failed requests, every simultaneous edit was resolved correctly, and the audit log rebuilt the data exactly.

Day to day

Trying changes safely

A separate test firm with made-up data lets the conflicts team and administrators try approval routes, intake questions, imports, templates and AI settings without touching real records. Test data never reaches live data, never sends email and never calls an outside AI. When a change works, an administrator reviews the differences and promotes it, and the promotion is recorded.

08Rollout and FAQ

The safest path is a pilot that shows Conflion finds what the firm's current process finds, on the firm's own past searches, before anyone relies on it.

1. IT and security review. Firm IT reviews this sheet and the security documentation, and installs Conflion on a test server inside the firm.
2. Load a copy of the records through the checked import, and connect the billing system by report upload.
3. Side-by-side test on past searches. Past searches with known outcomes are run again in Conflion, and the conflicts team labels each hit without knowing which system found it. A built-in pilot page measures the time from intake to cleared and the hits each system found that the other missed.
4. Parallel running. For a set period, new requests go through both the current process and Conflion.
5. Go-live decision. Leadership decides on go-live, which features to switch on, and the firm's approval routes and templates.

A pilot can also start with names only, or entirely on made-up data in the test firm.

Frequently asked questions