Clio Intake Automation: Open Matters Directly from Your CRM

For law firms using the LeadExploder CRM alongside Clio for matter management, legal intake has two failure modes. The first is the lead that never got followed up with because no one saw the after-hours call in time. The second is the intake that was qualified and collected but never became a Clio matter because re-entering it was a low-priority task for a busy paralegal. Both problems cost firms revenue. Connect LeadExploder to Clio via Zapier and the front end of intake (answering, qualifying, booking, following up) runs automatically, and the handoff to Clio (creating the contact and opening the matter) also runs automatically when the intake meets your completion criteria.

What this integration does

LeadExploder manages the marketing and intake front end: Voice AI answers calls after hours and during high-volume periods, qualifies the caller against your intake criteria, collects contact information, books the consultation, and sends the e-signature retainer agreement. When the intake is complete (form submitted and retainer signed), a tag is applied to the LeadExploder contact. That tag fires a Zap that creates a Clio contact with all the intake data and opens a new Clio matter with the contact details, intake notes, and initial status already populated.

The reverse direction handles outcomes. When a Clio matter reaches a terminal status (won, settled, closed favorably), a Zap fires back to LeadExploder: the contact is tagged with the outcome and a post-matter sequence begins. A review request goes out 24 hours after the favorable outcome. A referral ask follows seven days later. Clients who had a good outcome are the most likely to refer, and the follow-up sequence reaches them at the highest-motivation moment.

This integration uses Zapier as the middleware connecting the two systems, with LeadExploder and Clio both configured to send and receive events via their respective APIs and webhook-compatible Zapier connections.

What you can do with Clio + LeadExploder

• Create a new Clio contact and matter automatically when an intake is tagged as complete in LeadExploder
• Pass intake form data, AI call summaries, and collected document status from LeadExploder to the Clio matter notes field
• Set the new Clio matter to a “Conflicts Check Pending” status automatically so staff know to run the check before activating the file
• Trigger LeadExploder review and referral sequences when a Clio matter status changes to a favorable outcome
• Sync client contact information updates between LeadExploder and Clio to keep records consistent in both systems
• Log Clio matter revenue back to the LeadExploder contact record for lifetime value tracking across your client base

How to set this up

1. In Clio, navigate to Settings > Developer Applications (app.clio.com/settings/developer_applications) and create a new application. Retrieve your Clio Client ID and Client Secret. These are your Clio API credentials for Zapier authentication.
2. In LeadExploder, go to Settings > Integrations > API Keys and copy your API key.
3. In your LeadExploder intake workflow, confirm that a specific tag (for example “intake-complete”) is applied to a contact only after both conditions are met: the intake form is submitted AND the e-signature retainer is captured. Configure the workflow to require both triggers before applying the tag, so Clio matters only open for prospects who have completed the full intake and signed the retainer.
4. In Zapier, create a new Zap. Set the trigger to “Webhooks by Zapier” with a Catch Hook, and configure LeadExploder to fire a webhook when the “intake-complete” tag is added to a contact. Copy the Zapier webhook URL and paste it into your LeadExploder outbound webhook settings for the tag-added trigger event.
5. Add the first Clio action step in Zapier: “Create Contact.” Authenticate with your Clio credentials. Map LeadExploder fields to Clio contact fields: first name, last name, email, phone, and any custom contact fields Clio supports.
6. Add the second Clio action step: “Create Matter.” Connect the matter to the contact created in the previous step using the contact ID returned by step 5. Map fields: matter description (constructed from intake notes and AI call summary), practice area (from the LeadExploder service type custom field), initial status (“Conflicts Check Pending” rather than “Open”), and responsible attorney (from the LeadExploder assigned user field).
7. For the reverse direction, create a second Zap: Clio “Matter Updated” as the trigger (filter to fire only when status changes to “Won” or “Settled”). Add a Webhooks by Zapier POST action to the LeadExploder inbound webhook URL. Pass the matter status, client name, and matter type. LeadExploder receives the event, tags the contact, and triggers the post-outcome sequence.
8. Test the full chain: create a test contact in LeadExploder, add the “intake-complete” tag manually, and confirm the Clio contact and matter are created with correct data and the “Conflicts Check Pending” status.

Workflows this enables

Completed intake opens a Clio matter in under 60 seconds

A personal injury prospect calls the firm’s main number at 9:30 PM. LeadExploder’s Voice AI answers, qualifies the caller (auto accident, liability question, medical treatment status), and books a consultation for the following morning. Before the consultation, the prospect completes the online intake form and signs the retainer via e-signature. The “intake-complete” tag fires. By 9:33 PM, a Clio contact exists with the prospect’s full name, phone, and email. A Clio matter is open, in “Conflicts Check Pending” status, with the AI call summary in the notes and the intake form responses accessible to the paralegal. When the attorney opens Clio at 8 AM, the case file is staged and ready for the morning consultation. The overnight process from call to open matter ran without a single human action after the prospect signed the retainer.

Won matter triggers review and referral sequence automatically

A family law matter in Clio is updated to “Won” status after a favorable settlement. The Zap fires: the LeadExploder contact is tagged “matter-won.” A 24-hour delayed message goes out: a personalized congratulations and a Google review request with a direct link. Seven days later, a follow-up message goes out: a referral ask noting that the firm is accepting new clients for family law matters and asking whether anyone the client knows could benefit from representation. Firms that automate this sequence, rather than relying on attorneys to ask manually during a wrap-up call that often does not happen, generate more referrals from their favorable outcomes. The sequence runs the same way every time without requiring attorney involvement.

Statute of limitations deadline drives automated reminders

When a Clio matter has a statute of limitations date entered in a custom field, a Zap passes that date to LeadExploder and triggers a scheduled workflow that sends reminder notifications to the client at 90 days, 30 days, and 7 days before the deadline. A parallel workflow posts a reminder to the firm’s Slack channel with the matter name, client name, and deadline date at each interval. For PI firms managing a high volume of active cases, the automated reminders serve as a safety net for the most consequential dates in the practice without requiring a manual tickler system or a calendar review process that depends on a specific person running it.

Frequently asked questions

Does Clio need to be on a specific plan to use the Zapier integration?

Yes. Clio’s Zapier integration is available on the Boutique plan and higher. It is not available on the EasyStart plan. Verify your Clio plan before starting the setup. If you are on EasyStart and cannot upgrade immediately, Clio’s REST API can be accessed directly from Make using an HTTP module with your Clio API credentials, which provides similar functionality at the cost of additional technical configuration.

What intake data can I pass from LeadExploder to a Clio matter note?

Any data field stored on the LeadExploder contact record can be passed to Clio via the Zapier data mapper. This includes standard fields (name, phone, email), custom fields (accident date, injury type, insurance carrier, treatment status, liability assessment), applied tags, and text stored in the contact notes field such as the AI call summary. The Clio matter note field accepts plain text. In Zapier’s data mapper, concatenate all the relevant fields into a formatted summary string. A well-constructed note might read: “Intake Date: [date] | Incident Type: Auto Accident | DOL: [date] | Treatment: [yes/no] | Provider: [name] | Insurance: [carrier] | AI Summary: [summary text].”

Can this integration run a conflicts check before opening a Clio matter?

Not automatically. The Zapier integration creates the Clio matter as soon as the trigger fires, without the ability to query an existing Clio matters list and check for conflicts programmatically. The recommended approach is to set the new matter status to “Conflicts Check Pending” in the Zap configuration (step 6 above). This makes it clear to staff that a conflicts check must be completed before the matter becomes active. After the check clears, staff manually update the status to “Open” in Clio. This keeps the automation running without bypassing a step that requires human judgment.

Ready to cut intake admin time in half? Book a demo and we’ll map the full intake-to-matter workflow for your practice area and volume.