Active Mandate
When You Land a Mandate
How your account manager supports you from kickoff through renewal, and what we need from you to keep things running smoothly.
Landing a mandate is the start of the next phase — not the finish line. Here's what happens on our end, what we'll need from you, how to make the most of the first 90 days, and working with your Account Manager.
Your Account Manager
Once your engagement agreement is signed, you'll be connected with a Goodlawyer Account Manager (AM). They own your mandate relationship from kickoff through renewal and they're your primary point of contact for anything that comes up along the way.
Your AM will reach out to schedule a Pre-Game Call before your first day with the client. This is a working call to make sure you're operationally ready: how docketing works, how to submit your monthly sentiment score, what the closeout process looks like, and how to flag issues early. Don't skip it — it's the fastest way to avoid avoidable friction.
The First 90 Days
The first 90 days are a pilot period — for all parties to evaluate the fit, volume commitment, and for you to get embedded with the organization. Your AM runs a structured process alongside you:
- Kickoff: Your AM joins the client kickoff meeting to help set the frame: 90-day success criteria, communication norms, urgency expectations (what's truly time-sensitive vs. what can wait), and utilization. This isn't a formality — getting these things aligned upfront protects you from scope creep and "everything is urgent" dynamics later.
- ~3-week client check-ins: Separate calibration meetings with the client and you to catch any early friction before it becomes a pattern: misaligned expectations, utilization tracking off, communication bottlenecks. If something isn't working, now is the time to say so.
- Ongoing: Your AM monitors mandate health continuously and will reach out proactively if they see utilization drift, engagement signals, or anything worth discussing. You don't have to wait for them to raise something — if something feels off, tell them early.
- Quarterly Reviews: For active, ongoing mandates, your AM facilitates a quarterly review with the client: what's been delivered, what the next 90 days look like, and whether the structure still fits your needs and theirs.
What We Need From You
This is the part that directly affects how well we can support you, and how smoothly billing, renewals, and your reputation in the network go.
- Docket your work: Log your time in the Goodlawyer App, with enough detail to be meaningful. Vague, repetitive entries create problems at billing time and make it harder for your AM to advocate for you. Docketing Best Practices → · Using CoDocket Assistant →
- Submit monthly Action Reports: Once a month, you'll complete a short sentiment form on your mandate. Be honest — it's not a performance review, it's an early warning system. If something's off, your AM needs to know before it becomes a renewal risk. Action Reports (Sentiment)→
- Complete your monthly closeout: At the end of each month, you confirm your utilization in the app to mark reporting closed and trigger invoicing. This is a hard dependency for billing — it has to happen. Monthly Closeout →
- Report time off in advance: Use the app to log upcoming vacation or unavailability. Your AM coordinates with the client so there are no surprises. Booking Time Off →
- Flag friction early: If scope is creeping, volume is unsustainable, or the client relationship feels rocky — tell your AM. We've seen most of these situations before and can help. The ones that don't get flagged early are the ones that crash out.
The Onboarding Checklist
The Goodlawyer App includes a built-in Onboarding Checklist attached to your mandate. Your AM activates it at the start of your engagement — it covers communications setup, access to legal records, expectation-setting, and team integration. Work through it in the first two weeks.
After the Pilot
At the end of the 90-day pilot, your AM works with the client toward a renewal decision. If it's going well, the goal is a clean conversion — ideally with a longer commitment and a structure that reflects what you've both learned about how the mandate actually runs. If it's not going well, your AM will be straight with you about why and what the options are — but remember, flagging issues to your AM as early as possible is key to keeping mandates healthy.
Overages and underages happen.
Your mandate is structured around reserved capacity, not exact hours. If you consistently work more or less than your contracted days, your AM will reach out before it affects your invoice — never after.
That's the structure. Most of what determines whether a mandate thrives comes down to two things: showing up as a genuine part of the client's team, and keeping the operational side clean so your AM can do their job. Do both, and we'll handle the rest.