Resource guide
Switching legal software: the complete checklist
Requirements, migration, training and exit in one place. Use it when the firm is replacing practice, document, CRM or workflow software.
Boundary: this is vendor-neutral and does not approve a supplier, contract or migration plan.
Operational guidance, not legal advice. No confidential information is needed. Original PDF editions (all v1, 18 Aug 2026, now combined into this single maintained page): Preparing for Legal Technology Change, Switching Legal Software Checklist, Making the Case for Legal Software Change, Cloud Legal Software Implementation Guide and Legal Software Data Migration Checklist.
1. Frame the decision
Treat implementation as operating change, not data copying. Records, controls and continuity must survive the move.
Specific focus - pick the line that matches your situation:
- Readiness: agree the problem, affected routes, migration boundary and rollback (when a proposed change has support but no shared implementation picture).
- The case for change: show workflow cost, risk, user impact, migration effort and the no-change option (when a system problem is real but the case is anecdotal).
- Cloud implementation: separate supplier controls from firm identity, data and continuity duties (when implementing a cloud legal service).
- Switching: protect records and critical work while moving systems (when replacing practice, document, CRM or workflow software).
- Data migration: preserve provenance and reconcile a representative sample before cutover (when moving records between systems).
Questions to answer:
- Which problem must change?
- What records must move?
- Which reports depend on the old system?
- What is rollback?
Avoid:
- migrating everything
- letting the supplier define success
- cutting over before reconciliation
2. Control sheet
Treat a blank evidence field as a reason to pause, not a reason to guess. Record sources and owners before changing the workflow.
| Area | Evidence to collect | Pass condition |
|---|---|---|
| Requirements | Needs and constraints | Brief is signed |
| Data | Inventory and mapping | Sample reconciles |
| Controls | Roles and permissions | Owner approves |
| Adoption | Training and support | Critical routes work |
| Cutover | Freeze and rollback | Go decision has evidence |
Fail closed: if an input, owner or approval is missing, record the gap and keep the affected step outside the proposed change.
3. Working record
Complete this page with counts, dates and named sources. Do not include client names, matter names, contract text or privileged material.
| Field | Evidence or answer |
|---|---|
| Change owner | |
| Critical workflows | |
| Data inventory | |
| Reconciliation sample | |
| Rollback deadline | |
| Exit evidence |
Evidence quality check:
- The source is named and dated.
- An estimate is labelled as an estimate.
- The owner can reproduce the measure.
- The same method can be used after a change.
4. Decision record
Select the outcome that the evidence supports. A stop or no-change decision is valid.
- Stop: a required source, owner or approval is missing.
- Fix: repair the underlying route before adding technology or cost.
- Test: run one bounded change with a baseline and review date.
- Proceed: adopt only the option supported by the recorded evidence.
| Decision field | Record |
|---|---|
| Chosen outcome | |
| Reason and evidence | |
| Owner and approvers | |
| Review or expiry date |
Related pages: the buyer's due-diligence checklist (/resources/legal-ai-buyers-due-diligence-checklist/) for supplier selection, and context-aware AI guidance (/resources/context-aware-ai-for-lawyers/). Questions: hello@margolegal.com.
Primary sources
- Law Society - Buying new technology: lawsociety.org.uk
- Information Commission (formerly ICO) - Information security checklist: ico.org.uk
- NCSC - Choosing a cloud provider: ncsc.gov.uk
- NCSC - Cloud security shared responsibility model: ncsc.gov.uk
Source status: links checked 15 September 2026 (ico.org.uk checklist, NCSC choosing-a-cloud-provider and NCSC shared-responsibility-model pages all verified live 200 today; the Law Society page was verified by manual browser check 15 Sep (resolves 200, title/H1 match; automated fetch returns 403 bot-block)). Confirm the current version and obtain appropriate professional advice before relying on regulated, contractual, privacy, security, insurance, financial or wellbeing conclusions.
MARGO LEGAL LTD, company number 17322603. Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 66 Paul Street, London, England, EC2A 4NA. Originally published as five PDF guides (v1, 18 August 2026); consolidated and converted to HTML 15 September 2026.