What CLNG does for city and county law offices
Your office runs on matters, deadlines and documents, so it helps to see how one system holds them together. CLNG keeps your matters, calendars, time, documents and reports in one cloud system, and your files stay in your own Microsoft 365.1
What is CLNG?
CLNG is CityLaw/CountyLaw Next Gen: a cloud-based legal case management system for city and county law offices.
It is the next generation of CityLaw and CountyLaw, rebuilt from the ground up.1
How does CLNG organize your matters?
A city attorney’s day is a mix of advice, contracts, litigation and deadlines. CLNG organizes that work into modules and matters, so each kind of work has the fields and views it needs.1
Assignments and Litigation modules, parties and witnesses, and finance and reserves all sit in one matter record.2
Modules for claims, third-party claims, labor relations, workers’ compensation and family services sit alongside them.1
Matters, calendar, documents and reports work the same way in every module, and online portals bring requests in from outside the office.2
Where do deadlines and time go?
There is a built-in calendar with a tab on every matter. It shows appointments, due dates and ticklers in month, week, day and list views.
For time, you can record it against matters with a timer or a quick-add bar. You also get a weekly view, favorites and rate classes, plus a Time tab on each matter.
When you sign in, the dashboard gives you a read-only view of your open matters, with a shortcut into each.2
How do documents work with your Microsoft 365?
Matter documents are stored in your own Microsoft 365 tenant.3
You can build letters from templates, import Outlook email, and search inside your files.1
Tip: use Find Document when you can’t remember where something lives. It searches document names and details, or the contents of your files, from any module.2
A person reaches a document only by asking CLNG to open it. CLNG checks their permission at that moment, then issues a personal link that works only for them and expires within about a working day.3
What about reports and online portals?
Built-in reports cover Assignments and Litigation matters, deadlines and statistics, with print preview and export.2
Online portals let city or county staff send requests through a web form, and each one arrives in CLNG as a matter.1
How is CLNG secured?
People sign in with their own Microsoft 365 accounts through Microsoft Entra single sign-on. CLNG does not store user passwords.
Multi-factor authentication and conditional access are whatever your organization enforces in Microsoft Entra.
Access is by invitation only, with roles assigned at invitation. Someone who has not been invited is denied, even with a valid Microsoft 365 account.
Each customer is tied to its own Microsoft Entra directory, and records are tagged with their customer.
CLNG keeps audit records of user administration, such as invitations, role changes and revocations, and of document opens and changes.3
Check compatibility with your IT team early. Sign-in is through Microsoft Entra only, and Microsoft 365 GCC High and DoD tenants are not supported. Commercial and GCC tenants are supported.3,4
How does an upgrade from CityLaw or CountyLaw work?
This is an upgrade within the same product family. CLNG is still legal case management for city and county law offices, organized around matters, deadlines, documents and reports, and the vocabulary will be familiar.
A Microsoft 365 Global Administrator approves CLNG from a setup link, which takes about five minutes. Before that, CLNG walks your IT team through what it is allowed to do.
Your CLNG administrator then finishes document storage setup inside CLNG.
Each person who will use CLNG needs a Microsoft 365 account with a mailbox, plus SharePoint and Office for the web licensing. You invite them, with a role.4
How do your records come over?
The plan is made with your office. You provide your CityLaw or CountyLaw records, a database backup, your document folders or both, and you agree the steps and the go-live date together.
Your IT team runs a small Windows program on your network. It reads your document folders and never changes them.
Its first step sends only folder and file names, sizes and dates, never the documents themselves. Documents are copied only after the plan is reviewed and approved with you.
Check your matters and files in CLNG before go-live.4
What should you bring to the first conversation?
- Which modules your office uses today.
- Who administers your Microsoft 365 tenant and can approve CLNG.
- Your form letters and templates, and the reports your office runs regularly.
- How many people will use CLNG, and in which roles.4
When you’re ready to see it, request a demo and CLNG will show you the system with your kind of work in mind.1