The Lawyer Management section in the Manager Portal allows lenders to efficiently manage their list of lawyers. Key features include adding new lawyers, editing lawyer details, assigning and updating risk scores, updating lawyer statuses (i.e. Verified or Unverified, and Approved or Blocked), and deleting a lawyer.

The lawyer’s list is divided into two segments: Verified and Unverified. Verified Lawyers are those that are already entered into the system and confirmed as valid. These lawyers can have a status of either Approved or Blocked. On the flip side, Unverified Lawyers are those not currently in the system but have been associated with a previous deal. The system automatically adds them to the unverified list, flags their name in the application, and updates the unverified list count in the Lawyer Management section. This serves as a visual cue for the lender to verify and approve the lawyer. This will be discussed in more detail within the guide.

Lawyer approval is a manual process. Typically, when onboarding, lenders upload their list of active lawyers directly into the verified section. Subsequently, when a lawyer is added to an application, the system cross-references the lawyer’s against the Lawyer Management list. Verification status is determined by matching the lawyer’s First Name, Last Name, and Email Address. If any of these fields do not align with the records in Lawyer Management, the system adds the lawyer to the unverified list as a new entry.

Unapproved or unverified lawyers can still be linked to applications, but only through manual addition at the application level. When added this way, they are placed in the "Unverified" list in the Manager Portal and will remain unverified until their status is updated. The system will provide visual indicators to highlight the lawyer’s unverified status at the application level.

Lawyer Management can be found in the Manager Portal. To find it:

Navigate to the Manager Portal from the top menu.
In the Manager Portal, select Lawyer Management from the left sidebar.

Lawyer Management and System Permissions

Access to the Manager Portal, including the Lawyer Management section, is determined by user permissions. Permissions can be customized in the Roles and Permissions Management section to provide specific access to users based on their roles and responsibilities, ensuring that access is tailored and secure.

Lenders can grant specific permissions to users who need to manage lawyers within the system. The "Manage Lawyers in Manager Portal" permission grants users access exclusively to the Lawyer Management section. This setup hides other sections of the Manager Portal, including history logs, from the user's view. It is designed for users who need to handle lawyer-related tasks without requiring broader access to the system. On the other hand, the "Manage System Configuration" permission provides unrestricted access to the entire Manager Portal, including all sections and features.

For instance, if a Business Development Manager (BDM) only needs to oversee the Lawyer Management section, the "Manage Lawyers in Manager Portal" permission can be activated for their role, while the "Manage System Configuration" permission is disabled. This ensures the BDM can focus solely on managing lawyers without access to unrelated system configurations.

Below is a depiction of the Manager Portal interface for a user restricted to Lawyer Management access:

Lawyer Management Items, Description & Functionality

Search Box - Located on the top left of the section just below the top header ‘Lawyer Management’. In the search box, you are able to enter text/keywords related to the previously created lawyers in either the Verified or Unverified list. All lawyers with the search criteria will appear in a list below.

Sort Functionality - You can sort the list by ascending or descending order. Simply click on the arrow icon next to the column header you wish to sort by. When the arrow points upwards, the list is sorted in ascending order; when it points downwards, it is sorted in descending order. The arrow in the sorted column will remain fixed, indicating your chosen criteria.

Ascending:	Descending:

Verified/Unverified Buttons - These tabs list the lawyers that are either verified or unverified. Selecting the Verified option will show the verified lawyers in a list view. Selecting the Unverified option will show the unverified lawyers in a list view. The orange-colored counter on the top right of the unverified tab indicates the number of unverified lawyers in the system. It serves as a visual indicator for system administrators, highlighting lawyers in the unverified list that require attention.

‘Add a New Lawyer’ Button - Enables you to add a new lawyer. When selecting this button a pop up will appear with fields to input data. The fields consist of: First Name, Last Name, Cell Phone, Email, Company, Street, City and Province. All fields are mandatory.

Scroll Bars - Depending on the size of the screen, these will be located at the bottom of the list of lawyers and to the far right of the screen. Use these to scroll horizontally or vertically to see what does not fit on the page.

Items Per Page - Depending on your list, you may have more than one page of lawyers. To navigate through pages use the ‘Items per page’ navigation at the bottom right hand side of your screen. With this functionality you can indicate how many items per page you would like to see - 10, 15, 25, 50, or 100. You can also see how many pages there are and scroll forwards and backwards through the pages.

Customize Table Button - This functionality enables users to select the specific columns they want to view in the table and arrange them in their preferred order. Here is a video demonstration of the steps outlined below: Customize Lawyer Management Table.

To customize the Lawyer Management table, follow these steps:

Click on the Customize Table icon.
A sidebar will appear on the right side of the screen.
Select which columns you want to display in the table by checking the corresponding checkboxes next to the column names.
To rearrange the order of the columns, hover to the left of the checkbox. When the drag icon appears, click and drag it to your preferred position.
Once you close the sidebar, the lawyer management table will automatically update to reflect your selections and column arrangement.

Note: If any of the Lawyer Management fields discussed below is not visible, it may be due to how the table is customized.

Lawyer Management Fields - These are the key data fields used to manage and track lawyers within a system. These fields include:

First Name - The first name of the lawyer.

Last Name - The last name of the lawyer.

Cell Phone - The cell phone number of the lawyer.

Email - The email address of the lawyer.

Company - The company which the lawyer works for.

Risk Score - The risk score of the lawyer. This is a rating functionality completely at the discretion of the lender and is for informational purposes only. It will not impact the workflow of applications. Values range from 0 - 5 with 0 being the least risk and 5 representing the most risk. The risk score is managed in the Manager Portal and is visible within applications in the pipeline. If you do not wish to use this functionality, simply assign all lawyers with the same score i.e. 0.

This functionality was built with the original intention that lenders would use this as a scoring mechanism when they needed to indicate a mark against (strike) a lawyer for whatever reason. Lawyers would start out with a risk score of 0 and for each “incident” the risk score would be increased until the maximum of 5 was reached at which time they would most likely cut the lawyer off.

Verified Checkbox - Appears in the Unverified list only. This checkbox is used to indicate if the lawyer is verified. It is to be selected if the lawyer meets the requirements of approval by the lender. If it is not checked, it means this lawyer does not meet the requirements or has not been reviewed based on the approval requirements.

Status - Appears in the Verified list only. This field indicates the status of a verified lawyer. There are two options: approved or blocked. If a lawyer is approved, a green approved icon will appear inline with their information. On the flip side, if a lawyer is blocked, a red icon will appear inline with their information.

Approved:	Blocked:

Ellipsis - Clicking on the ellipsis opens up a dropdown menu with four options: Edit, Approve, Block, Delete.

Approve - Marks a lawyer as approved.

Block - Marks a lawyer as blocked.

Delete - This is used to remove the lawyer from the system. Selecting this option will open a pop-up window asking the user to confirm their action. Click on the Remove button to permanently delete the lawyer. Alternatively, you can click on the Cancel button to cancel the action.

Note: When a lawyer is deleted from the system via the Manager Portal, their information is removed from the Lawyer Management list, ensuring they no longer appear in any category, Verified or Unverified. If that lawyer is associated with a deal, their information will remain linked to that deal. The system will simply flag such lawyers as unverified at the application level, providing a clear indicator that their status requires attention.

Edit - Opens up an expanded view of the Lawyer Details. Within this interface, there are three tabs: Overview, Contact, and Address.

The Overview tab displays general details about the selected lawyer, including First Name, Last Name, Company, Firm Code, Client Risk Score, Source, and Notes. Except for the Firm Code, all information in this tab is editable. Any changes made are automatically saved.

The Contact tab displays the contact information for the selected lawyer, including their Email Address, Cell Phone, Work Phone, Home Phone, and Fax Number. Users are able to update this information and indicate what the lawyer’s preferred contact method is. Any changes made are automatically saved.

The Address tab displays the lawyer’s address and type of address. Within this tab, users can indicate which address is the current address in the case of multiple addresses. Users can easily search for addresses due to our integration with Google Maps, ensuring a smooth and more reliable experience. All information in this tab is editable. Any changes made are automatically saved. To delete an address from the list, simply click on the in-line ellipsis and select the Delete option.

Adding a Lawyer in Manager Portal

To add a lawyer to the list, follow these steps:

Click on the Add New Lawyer button.
Enter the relevant information in the pop-up window. This includes their First Name, Last Name, Cell Phone, Email, Company, Street, City and Province.
Once all fields are completed, select the Create Lawyer button.

Note: When adding a lawyer, the system currently does not notify users if the lawyer is already in the system. If the details entered exactly match an existing lawyer's record in the Manager Portal, the system will return an error. However, slight variations in details, such as a different email address or phone number, will result in a duplicate entry. It is the responsibility of admin-level users to periodically clean up duplicate entries in the system to maintain accurate records.

Lawyers added manually can only be added to the Verified section. The thought process here is that if the lender is manually adding a lawyer, they are already verified. The Add New Lawyer button is disabled in the Unverified section, as this section is automatically populated with the details for any new lawyer who is added to an application. The term ‘new lawyer’ refers to a lawyer that is not currently listed in lawyer Management, or one whose details do not fully match entries already in the system i.e. First Name, Last Name, and Email.

Adding a Lawyer at the Application Level

The Lawyer Management functionality includes the ability to automatically add a lawyer to the Manager Portal when a new lawyer is created within a deal. This streamlines the process of managing lawyers and ensures that lawyers, even those added at the application level, are accurately tracked within the system.

When a new lawyer is added at the application level, they are automatically added to the Unverified tab in the Lawyer Management section of the Manager Portal. The user with appropriate permissions can then navigate to this section to approve and verify the lawyer. Once the lawyer is verified and approved, their status is updated in the deal, reflecting their new verified and approved status.

The ability to add a lawyer to an application is permission-based. Users with the “Add stakeholder to application” permission are able to perform this action. It is important to note that for this permission to function, the role also needs to have the “Update application in any stage” permission enabled.

The ability to add a lawyer to an application is permission-based. Users with the “Manage stakeholders of type Lawyer and Third-Party on application” permission are able to perform this action.

You should note that for this permission to work, the user needs to have one of the application edit rights permissions enabled. The exact permission needed depends on the scenario and action being performed.

Custom Fields within the Stakeholder widget are outside of this permission and can be edited by anyone unless the field is locked.

To add a new lawyer at the application level, follow these steps:

Navigate to the application from the Pipeline View.
Go to the Stakeholder’s Details widget (by default, it is the last widget in the Dashboard).
Click on the Edit icon () in the top right corner of the widget .
Click on the Add Stakeholder button. This is signified by the green plus button.
From the dropdown menu, choose the Lawyer type.
Enter the details in the pop-up sidebar. Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
Once completed, click on the Add Stakeholder button.

This feature enhances workflow efficiency by minimizing the need for repetitive data entry.

The newly added lawyer will be flagged by the system as an Unverified Lawyer. This does not impede progress on the deal. To verify and approve this lawyer, you can refer to the Verify or Approve a Lawyer section.

Verify or Approve a Lawyer

To verify or approve an individual lawyer, follow these steps:

Navigate to the Lawyer Management section in the Manager Portal.
If the lawyer is not verified, go to the Unverified tab. Otherwise, remain in the Verified tab.
Locate the lawyer you intend to verify or approve.
Choose one of the following options:

Option 1 (Unverified Tab Only):
- Use this option to simultaneously verify and approve an unverified lawyer.
- Click the checkbox next to the lawyer’s name.
- Once selected, the Approve button at the top of the page will be enabled.
- Click the Approve button or the down arrow next to it to select “Approve” from the dropdown menu.
- Once Approved, they will automatically be moved from the Unverified list to the Verified list.

Option 2 (Both Verified and Unverified Tabs):

Use this option to approve a verified but blocked lawyer or to simultaneously verify and approve an unverified lawyer.
Click the inline ellipsis next to the lawyer’s name.
In the dropdown menu, select the “Approve” option.

If the lawyer was unverified, they will automatically be moved from the Unverified list to the Verified list.

Multi or Bulk Verification

To verify or approve several lawyers simultaneously:

Navigate to the Lawyer Management section in the Manager Portal.
Select the Unverified tab.
Click the checkbox next to the name of each lawyer you wish to verify or approve. To select all lawyers in the list, click the checkbox next to the column headers.
Once lawyers are selected, the Approve button at the top of the page will be enabled.
Click the Approve button or the down arrow next to it to select “Approve” from the dropdown menu.

All selected lawyers will be verified or approved and automatically moved from the Unverified list to the Verified list.

After successful verification:

The counter next to the Unverified button will decrease.
If all lawyers are verified in bulk, the counter may disappear entirely.

Note: Once a lawyer is verified, they cannot be moved back to the Unverified list. To handle this, we have provided functionality for a lawyer to be verified without being approved (i.e., marked as verified but blocked).

Block a Lawyer

Blocking Individual Lawyers

To block lawyers from either the verified or unverified lists:

Navigate to Lawyer Management in the Manager Portal.
Locate the lawyer you intend to block within the respective list.
On the far right-hand side of the row, click the inline ellipsis icon.
In the dropdown menu that appears, select the “Block” option.

If the lawyer was unverified, they will automatically be moved from the Unverified list to the Verified list.

Blocking Multiple or All Unverified Lawyers

To block multiple or all unverified lawyers:

Navigate to Lawyer Management in the Manager Portal.
Go to the Unverified section.
Click the checkbox next to the name of each lawyer you wish to block. If you wish to select all lawyers in the list, click the checkbox next to the column headers.
Once lawyers are selected, the Verify button will be activated. Click the down arrow next to this button.
Choose the “Block” option from the dropdown menu.

The selected lawyers will be automatically blocked in the list. If the lawyer was unverified, they will automatically be moved from the Unverified list to the Verified list.

Note: Mass blocking is only available in the Unverified list.

Edit Lawyer Details

Lawyer details can be edited inline or via an expanded view in both the Verified and Unverified lists. The system will automatically save any updates made. FundMore supports a one-way sync, meaning any updates made within the Manager Portal will reflect in active applications only. Historical applications for updated lawyers will retain the original data.

Inline Edits

Navigate to Lawyer Management in the Manager Portal.
Locate the lawyer you wish to edit within the Verified or Unverified list.
Click directly on the editable fields (e.g., name, email, or other details).
Make the necessary updates. The system will automatically save the changes.

Expanded View Edits

Navigate to Lawyer Management in the Manager Portal.
Locate the lawyer you wish to edit.
Click the inline ellipsis icon next to the lawyer’s name.
In the dropdown menu that appears, select the Edit option.
The expanded lawyer details view includes three tabs: Overview, Contact, Address.
Make the necessary updates in the relevant tabs. The system will automatically save the changes.

Delete a Lawyer

Deleting Individual Lawyers

To delete lawyers from either the verified or unverified lists, follow these steps:

Navigate to Lawyer Management in the Manager Portal.
Locate the lawyer you intend to delete within the respective list.
On the far right-hand side of the row, click the inline ellipsis icon.
In the dropdown menu that appears, select the “Delete” option.

Deleting Multiple or All Unverified Lawyers

To delete multiple or all unverified lawyers:

Navigate to Lawyer Management in the Manager Portal.
Go to the Unverified section.
Click the checkbox next to the name of each lawyer you wish to delete. If you wish to select all lawyers in the list, click the checkbox next to the column headers.
Once lawyers are selected, the Verify button will be activated. Click the down arrow next to this button.
Choose the “Delete” option from the dropdown menu.

The selected lawyers will be automatically deleted from the list.

Note: Mass deletion is only available in the Unverified list.

When a lawyer is deleted from the system via the Manager Portal, their information is removed from the Lawyer Management list, ensuring they no longer appear in any category, Verified or Unverified. If that lawyer is associated with a deal, their information will remain linked to that deal. The system will simply flag such lawyers as unverified at the application level, providing a clear indicator that their status requires attention.

Refer to this link for a video demonstration of the functionality described above.

Lawyer Management: Implementation at the Application Level

Approved Lawyers

Approved lawyers are lawyers that have been verified and validated by the lender. They are marked with a green badge at the application level, which is displayed in the Stakeholder’s Details widget within the application dashboard.

When adding a lawyer at the application level, users can search and select from a list of existing verified lawyers. Only approved lawyers are selectable. Blocked lawyers will appear grayed out and cannot be selected, while unverified lawyers will not appear in the list.

To enhance user experience, we have provided search and filter functionality when selecting a lawyer. In the example below, we have filtered the list by Status (Approved) and Company (FundMore). In addition to Status and Company, you can filter by Risk Score.

Unverified Lawyers

Unverified lawyers are those either not yet added to the system or added but not yet verified. These lawyers are flagged with an orange warning badge in the Stakeholder’s Details widget.

When a lawyer who is not yet in the system is added at the application level, they will be placed in the Unverified tab within the Lawyer Management section. The process of adding a new lawyer within the deal is detailed in the Adding a Lawyer at the Application Level section. Users with the appropriate permissions can verify and approve these lawyers, which will update their status to verified and approved within the application.

Note: If the same lawyer is added with different details (such as a different name, phone number, or email), the system will flag this as a duplicate entry. It is the responsibility of admin-level users to periodically clean up duplicate entries in the system to maintain accurate records.

Unverified lawyers can appear as stakeholders in your application. While there are no hard stops preventing the deal from progressing through the pipeline, it is recommended that lenders set up tasks in the system to ensure lawyer statuses are reviewed before approving the application.

Blocked Lawyers

A lawyer marked as blocked in the Lawyer Management system cannot be added as a stakeholder to an application. However, previously approved lawyers can have their status changed to blocked for various reasons. If such lawyers are already associated with a deal, they will not be automatically removed. Instead, the system flags them as blocked by displaying a red warning icon next to their name in the Stakeholder’s Details widget.

Note: When a lawyer with a blocked status is associated with a deal, there are no restrictions that prevent the application from moving through the pipeline. Lenders are advised to set up tasks within the system to regularly check lawyer statuses before deal approval, proceeding based on internal guidelines.

Lawyer Management

Product Feature Guide

Table of Contents

Introduction