Advanced Clio: Automating Workflows and Managing the Full Matter Lifecycle

Jeffrey Schoenberger, Senior Consultant | Affinity Consulting Group

Jeffrey Schoenberger advises law firms on practice management software, with Clio and document automation among his core areas of expertise. A former practicing attorney, he has been a legal technology consultant with Affinity Consulting Group since 2012, centering his work on workflow design and on helping firms get more value from the tools they already own  delivered through CLE teaching, writing, and one-on-one consulting. He is known for breaking complex technology concepts into manageable pieces that lawyers can put to work in their practices right away.

• Education & Credentials

Jeffrey earned his B.A. in History from Yale University in 2002 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2008.

• Recognition & Leadership

At Affinity, Jeffrey leads the Practice Management Advisory program, the group’s advisory practice for firm management software, where his title is Senior Consultant / Mac Specialist. He also serves as a business coach and Lab Business Strategist for Lawyerist, where colleagues point to his knack for producing the moment a technology concept finally clicks for an attorney mid-training.

• Professional Involvement

Jeffrey is a frequent CLE presenter, writer, and podcaster whose programs center on workflow design, document creation and automation tools, AI, and making smarter technology decisions in everyday practice. His speaking catalog includes Small Firm Tech in Your Firm Flying High, and Together at Last: Practical Collaboration Tools in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, along with practical cybersecurity and digital-signature programs for solo and small-firm practitioners; his podcasting includes the document-management series Docs on the Rocks.

• Experience

Clio among his named areas of expertise processes work effectively, supported by depth across Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, and the Apple ecosystem for law practice.

Before joining Affinity, Jeffrey practiced from 2009 to 2012 as an Equal Justice Works / AmeriCorps Legal Fellow with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, defending homeowners in foreclosure litigation  discovery, mortgage-document analysis, and summary judgment motion practice  and counseling more than 130 distressed homeowners on rapidly evolving government and bank loss-mitigation and loanmodification programs. He represented 40 tenants in eviction cases through winning bench trials and favorable settlements, handled more than 50 housing-conditions matters, and personally represented divorce clients in Hamilton and Butler Counties, and led seminars training non-profit housing counselors on foreclosure prevention programs.

SESSION 1 – Building Workflows and Automating Routine Tasks | Jeff Schoenberger | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

Most law firms use Clio to track matters, calendar events, and billable time. But Clio can do considerably more to reduce repetitive work and help ensure that important steps are not overlooked. Taking advantage of those capabilities requires understanding how Clio’s task lists, matter templates, matter stages, and automated workflows work together. This session will demonstrate how to configure Clio Manage to support repeatable processes and automate routine activities. Attendees will learn to build reusable task lists, configure matter templates, organize matters into stages, and create automations that respond to matter creation or changes in matter stages. We will also examine how these features can work together to standardize recurring work without unnecessarily complicating everyday operations. Rather than simply reviewing available features, the session will walk through practical examples of configuring workflows.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Managing Matters from Opening to Closing | Jeff Schoenberger | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

Opening a matter in Clio is easy. Keeping that matter organized, tracking its progress, and ensuring that work gets completed efficiently requires more thoughtful use of the software. Many firms rely on Clio as a central repository for matter information without fully taking advantage of its tools for managing the matter lifecycle. This session will demonstrate techniques for using Clio to organize and manage matters from opening through closing. Attendees will learn how to configure matter details, use custom fields to capture important information, organize documents and communications, track matter progress, and manage tasks and deadlines. We will also examine how to use Clio’s matter stages to identify where work stands and how to develop a consistent matter-closing process. Through practical demonstrations, attendees will see how to make Clio a more effective tool for managing active matters, maintaining consistent records, and identifying work that needs attention.