In this article:

External Legal service providers (LSPs) are a vital resource for In-house legal teams.

Simply get in touch with your contact at LawVu. They will assist you in setting up the Spend Management capabilities, so you can invite your preferred LSPs to collaborate with you in LawVu. There is no cost to the LSP for doing so.
​

Note: You must be a LawVu Administrator to perform these actions.

In this article, the terms Legal Service Providers (LSPs), Law Firms, and Outside Counsel are used interchangeably.

There are two ways to add an LSP in LawVu : through the Legal Service Providers tab or from the Directory, both options being equivalent.

From the LawVu Home page, click on Organization settings and select Legal Service Providers and then Settings.

If you already have legal service providers (LSPs) in the Directory, you will find them listed here, along with their connection status.

If you don't have any LSPs, you will be presented with the below screen and have the option to Add a legal service provider.

In the popup that opens, you can first search for the LSP you need to invite. In this example, I have searched for and found "Legal 123".

Click on Add next to the name to send the LSP an invitation. If the search reveals no matches, click the Add a new legal service provider button.

You'll be asked how you would like to connect to the LSP:

Once you have selected the appropriate access level, you'll be prompted to input further information for the LSP such as the address (for new LSPs being added to the directory) and details of your key contact at the firm to whom you can send the invitation.

Note: If the LSP is already in the global directory, it's likely that the external counsel already has an assigned organization admin(s). If you are sending the invitation to someone who doesn't have LawVu access yet, the current organization admin(s) will be notified to accept the invitation to connect and add your designated key contact as a new user. Once the current admin has accepted the invitation and accepted the request to add your key contact, the new user will subsequently receive the invitation.

If you select the Collaboration access level when connecting to an LSP, you will need to enter the email address of your key contact at the firm to whom the invitation will be sent. The LSP will receive an email to set up their login to the LawVu portal.

Once the invitation to collaborate has been accepted, the LSP can be added as a member to matters and contracts, upload invoices, and appear in Spend reporting.

However:

For more information on how to assign and collaborate with your LSP on a particular matter, check this article.

If you select the Billing only access level when connecting to an LSP, you will need to enter the email address of your key contact at the firm to whom the invitation will be sent.

Once the invitation has been accepted, the LSP can upload invoices in LawVu but will have no visibility of any matters and contracts.

By choosing this level, the LSP will not have access to other details or participate in any other activities beyond being able to upload invoices.

They will not have access to:

To enable them to upload invoices, you will need to include the LSP to the matters as Billing Only member.

From the Members tab of the selected matters, search for the LSP in the dropdown and add them as Billing-only member:

From here on, the LSP will be able to upload invoices against the matters you added them to.

By selecting the 'No access' level for the LSP, they will be listed in your Directory, however, they won't have access to any matters, contracts, or invoices.

They will simply not know you exist. The benefit of this access level is that you can still upload invoices for them and assign expenses to them.

Here's an example of how I upload invoices for my Legal Service Provider - whom I have added as No access:

If your LSP has not yet accepted your invitation to collaborate, the system will display them as Pending. To resend the invitation, click on the envelope icon:

In the event that you have wrongly sent the invitation to an incorrect email address or wish to modify the invitation recipient, simply click on the LSP name. From there, click on the contact first name and use the people picker to search or add a new user.

Selecting the appropriate collaboration level with your LSP is crucial for effective access, communication, and invoice management while maintaining confidentiality and control. Here are some pointers:

⤑ Choose the Collaboration level if you want the LSP to have full access to matters, contracts you add him to, and the ability to upload invoices. They can actively participate in matter-related activities.

⤑ Choose the Billing Only level If you only need the LSP to upload invoices without them having any visibility over matters and contracts, select this level. They won't have access to other details or participate in other activities.

⤑ Choose the No access level if you don't want the LSP to access matters, contracts, or be able to upload invoices, but you still want to handle invoices on their behalf.

No worries, if you later change your mind, you can modify the access level of your LSP at any time by following the instructions outlined in this article: LawVu Customers, Article 3: Change the access level of your LSPs

You also have the ability to view detailed information of legal service providers added to your directory. Navigate to the Legal Service Provider section under Organization settings and click on the LSP name to view their profiles and update necessary details if needed.

Clicking on the existing LSP access at the top right-hand side of the page allows you to modify the LSP access level. For more details on changing the access level of your LSPs, click here.