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Migration · Amicus Attorney to Clio
Firms leaving Amicus are frequently doing it on someone else's schedule. That changes the order of operations: the first question stops being what you want to migrate and becomes how long you will still be able to reach the data at all.
The practical consequence is that extraction gets front-loaded and completed early — well before mapping is finished — so the raw material is safely in your possession regardless of what happens to the timeline afterwards. Firms that sequence it the other way around are the ones that lose history.
Amicus has existed in both server-installed and hosted editions, and which one you are on materially changes the extraction path and what you can reach — establishing that is the first thing the assessment does. Clio is cloud-hosted with a documented API and a defined intake. Where the source is a local installation, the data is physically yours and the first step is taking a complete copy so all later work runs against a snapshot rather than a live system on a countdown.
Each of these gets its own record count in the assessment and its own line in the reconciliation report. Depth of history is a scope decision made with real numbers in front of you, not an assumption baked into a quote.
Contacts and related parties
Clients, opposing parties, counsel, courts, and the relationships between them that conflict checking depends on.
Files and matters
Matter records with practice area, responsible attorney, open and close dates, status, and your firm's file numbering convention.
Notes and file history
The chronological record against each matter with dates and authors preserved — the contemporaneous record, validated as its own step.
Calendar and deadlines
Appointments and court dates. Migrated dates require attorney review after cutover; see the quirks section.
Time entries and billing history
Recorded time with rates and timekeepers, plus billing history to an agreed depth and any unbilled work in progress.
Documents and document associations
Documents and their links to the right matter, with the caveat that where Amicus pointed at a network share rather than storing files, the files are their own workstream.
Custom fields
Firm-specific fields mapped into Clio custom fields where a home exists, flagged explicitly where one does not.
Written down before you spend anything, because the alternative is finding out in week six. This list is specific to Amicus Attorney to Clio; the assessment turns it into your list, with record counts attached.
— Amicus screen layouts, custom forms, and configuration. Data migrates where a home exists; the interface is rebuilt as separately scoped work.
— Workflow automation and document-assembly templates.
— Calculated deadline rules. Resulting dates migrate; the rules do not. Every calendared deadline needs attorney review after cutover.
— Files themselves, where Amicus only ever held a pointer to a network share and that share is being retired as part of going cloud. That is a distinct document-migration workstream, identified in the assessment.
— Anything you have already lost access to. If the source system has been decommissioned and all that remains is exported reports, recovery is partial and expensive — and I will tell you that in the assessment rather than after taking a migration fee.
— Amicus internal record IDs. Clio issues its own; anything keyed externally needs the mapping table.
None of this is in either vendor's documentation. It is the category of thing that looks fine in a test load and produces a wrong number in month two, which is why the process puts a full sandbox load and a reconciliation you sign in front of any production cutover.
01
This is the whole strategy when a source system is going away. Get a complete, verified copy of the data into your possession first. Once that exists, the deadline stops being an existential threat and becomes a scheduling inconvenience, and mapping and validation can proceed at a sane pace.
02
The extraction path, what you can reach, and what your contract permits all differ. Establishing which edition you are on is the first thing the assessment does, because a plan built on the wrong assumption is worthless.
03
The sandbox load and reconciliation are what make cutover reversible. Compressing the schedule by removing them does not save time, it relocates the discovery of problems into your live system. Compress elsewhere.
04
A date that migrated correctly and a date that is still correct are different claims, and the rule engine does not migrate. Attorney review of every calendared deadline goes into the plan explicitly — it is a professional-responsibility matter, not a data-quality one.
01 — 02
A read-only audit of your Amicus Attorney instance produces record counts, a risk register, and a fixed quote. Then a field-by-field mapping document you sign before any code runs.
03 — 04
The complete migration runs into a Clio sandbox — not a sample. You spot-check records you choose, and sign a written reconciliation. If the counts don't tie, we don't cut over.
05 — 06
Scheduled around your calendar with the rollback plan written in advance, followed by 30 days of included corrections for the things that only surface in real use.
A small firm with light customization and intact access lands in Standard Migration. Heavy custom-field use, a document share that has to move, degraded access, or a compressed timeline push it toward Complex. The assessment is what makes a fixed migration price possible, and its fee is credited toward the migration if you proceed.
Tier
Scope
Price
Migration Assessment
A read-only audit of your source system.
$1,500 – $2,500
Standard Migration
One source system to one destination.
$6,500 – $15,000
Complex / Multi-Entity Migration
Multiple locations, systems, or long history.
$18,000 – $40,000
Get a complete copy of the data extracted and verified, before anything else and before mapping is finished. That single step converts a hard deadline into a manageable one. Say the access-expiry date in the form and the plan gets built backwards from it.
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on what remains — a database backup, an export, or only printed reports are three very different situations. The assessment will tell you honestly what is recoverable and at what cost. If the answer is that recovery is not economic, you will hear that instead of a proposal.
If you are not sure, that is normal and it is one of the first things the assessment establishes. Server-installed means the data is physically yours, which is the better position to be in. Hosted means access terms matter more and the timeline is tighter.
Yes, before anything is shared. Client files are privileged, work happens in a scoped environment, and test data is destroyed at the end of the engagement on a documented schedule.
The assessment is the read-only audit — what data exists, what is extractable, what will be lost, and a fixed-price quote for the migration itself. It is priced at $1,500 – $2,500 depending on scope, fixed before anything starts, and the report is yours whether or not you go further.
Tell me what you're moving. I read every one of these personally and reply within one business day, usually with a couple of specific questions about your source system — the answers change the price, so it's worth asking early.
Nothing is committed by this form. No payment, no contract, no scheduling sequence. It starts a conversation.
If your destination vendor can handle it, I'll say so. Some conversions genuinely don't need an independent migration.
Standard – Complex
Fifteen years of custom fields.
Complex
Trust accounting must reconcile exactly.
Standard
Trust balances, even on an easy pair.
Every pair
Twenty-odd pairs are written up across seven industries — and the written ones are not the limit of the work. Search the full list, or just ask.
Amicus Attorney and Clio are trademarks of their respective owners. This page describes independent data migration work involving those systems and does not imply any affiliation with, partnership with, or endorsement by either vendor.
Before you give notice on Amicus Attorney
The most expensive mistake in this category is losing source-system access before the extraction is done. The assessment is read-only, fixed-price, and yours to keep either way.
I respond personally within 1 business day. No pitch — just a real conversation.