How Jackson Lewis Built a High-Impact Matter Data Program with Litera Foundation

Jackson Lewis P.C. had been operating with a matter information infrastructure that had outlived its usefulness. A legacy system dating from the early 1990s was still nominally active, but attorneys had long since stopped contributing to it. Matter data had fragmented across personal spreadsheets, existing proposal books, and other separate repositories across the firm. There was no centralized intake process nor shared repository. This deficit was realized most directly when a high-profile pitch was missing pertinent matter experience information.

Trina diNapoli, the business lead assigned to Foundation, recognized that the challenge was more behavioral than technological. Attorneys were protective of their time and not incentivized to report matter experience.

Solution

Jackson Lewis selected Litera Foundation as the replacement for its legacy matter system, with a mandate to build an experience infrastructure for the teams that rely on matter data most. Foundation is part of the broader Litera platform, built specifically for the way law firms capture and use firm intelligence.

Strategy built around attorney behavior

The team treated the behavior as a design constraint – one around which with they needed to work and not attempt to change. Every phase of the workflow design took into consideration the need to prioritize attorney time and that principle shaped each decision that followed.

“You’ve got to work with the prevailing forces in play. You’re not going to come and say, everybody, we’re going to change this. You got to show the benefits of what you can provide to begin to change behavior.” — Trina diNapoli, Director of Marketing & BD Ops and Systems, Jackson Lewis P.C.

Pilot program with targeted practice groups

The team launched a structured pilot with select practice groups identified by firm leadership. In a labor and employment firm, differentiating matters proved harder than anticipated. Corporate practices use deal size as a natural organizing principle, while most labor and employment cases share surface similarities that make prioritization less straightforward. The pilot surfaced this early and shaped how the team prioritized matters before scaling firm wide.

AI-powered matter narrative generation

The team adopted GenAI to draft matter narratives directly from complaints and case documents, building matter profiles at a scale manual effort could not support. Foundation turned each approved narrative into a searchable record available across the firm.

“This would not have happened if GenAI didn’t exist. We are not asking the attorneys to draft. We are doing it all ourselves and asking them just to review it and provide comments, if any.” — Trina diNapoli, Jackson Lewis P.C.

Coordinated channels of matter data

As awareness of the initiative spread internally, the team identified several organic avenues of matter data flowing through the firm: practice group leaders sharing matter updates, office distribution emails announcing recent successes, KMAs embedded in practice groups, the internal proposals team, and external consultant support engaged to profile and write up matters at scale. The team built each one into a single intake workflow feeding Foundation.

Results

Jackson Lewis built an experience program that captures matter data in a structured, reliable way, giving business services departments and attorneys the information they need to work more efficiently and effectively.

“Understanding the challenge to minimize attorney time and maximize experience data capture, the team was able to devise an automated, repeatable process by using AI and data management tools making Foundation a more robust repository.” — Lynn K. Oser, Chief Executive Officer, LKO Information Management Consulting, LLC

Matter data at scale

Settlement data, statutory references and matter profiles now exist in Foundation where before there was nothing. The firm can now quickly and accurately answer questions that matter to both clients and attorneys.

Improved research quality

The firm’s researchers, the power users of Foundation, report that their work is significantly easier and more productive. Critically, their output serves both marketing and billable client work, meaning the return on the data investment extends well beyond business development.

“Their work product is not only for marketing and business development, it’s billable work product too because they [researchers] support our attorneys on legal, case-specific research as well. So, it’s extremely valuable in many capacities.” — Trina diNapoli, Jackson Lewis P.C.

Visibility across departments

Matter profiling now surfaces information for departments that previously had no line of sight into it. Teams receive matter closure notifications and status updates that were once siloed, improving coordination and reducing duplicated effort firm-wide.

“We’ve designed something that is slowly but surely improving our ability to answer questions about firm experience and improving the data within other firm systems.” — Trina diNapoli, Jackson Lewis P.C.

Looking Ahead

The team is candid that the initiative is not complete. The current process remains too manual for a firm of Jackson Lewis's size, and the next phase focuses on further automation through AI agents and a planned integration with docket data. That integration would give attorneys and business services professionals strategic insights into judges, opposing counsel, and case outcomes directly within Foundation.

The team also plans a formal re-introduction of Foundation to the broader firm; built on the ROI they are already experiencing. The longer-term vision is a fully connected platform where matter profiling, docket intelligence, and AI narrative generation work together to support both client-facing work and internal decision-making.

“I’d like to take it to the next level by using AI to engage attorneys where they already work.” — Trina diNapoli, Jackson Lewis P.C.

To learn more about how Litera Foundation can support your firm’s matter experience program, visit litera.com.