Estate planning matters do not stall because attorneys are careless or paralegals are slow. They stall because the handoff is invisible — and when the handoff is invisible, nobody owns the next move.
This Legalboards Academy session was built around that problem. Bruna Gonçalves, Legal Project Designer at Legalboards, built a full estate planning workflow automation live inside Legalboards — six stages, eight automations — using a single framework: Move, Wait, and Done.
What This Session Was About
This is the sequel to Tai Miranda's Before You Automate session. That session covered the three things every law firm needs before automation can work: ownership, sequencing, and visibility. This session assumes you have done that work. Now you build.
The session opened with a scenario most estate planning firms will recognize immediately. A draft is sitting in attorney review. The paralegal thinks the attorney is reviewing it. The attorney thinks the paralegal is still drafting. The partner does not know the matter is stuck. The client is waiting.
Nobody is doing anything wrong. The handoff is just invisible. And invisible handoffs are where legal work quietly dies.
Bruna's framing: the system should be the safety net so your team does not have to rely on memory, perfect communication, or everyone being available at the same time.
The Three-Trigger Framework
Every workflow automation in Legalboards is built from one of three triggers. Understanding which trigger to use is what separates automation that works from automation that looks like it works.
Move — something happens when a card enters a column. Use this for actions that should fire the moment a stage begins: creating a task, sending a client email, applying a label. The card arrives. The action fires.
Wait — something happens when a card has been sitting in a column too long. This is the trigger most firms skip, and it is the most important one. If a matter has been in document collection for ten days without movement, a Wait trigger creates the follow-up task automatically. Nobody has to scan the board. Nobody has to remember. The delay becomes visible because the system surfaces it.
Done — something happens when a specific task is marked complete. Done triggers create guardrails. The matter does not move to draft preparation because someone feels ready. It moves because the task that confirms all documents are collected has been checked off. One task is the gatekeeper for the next stage.
Bruna's framing: Done triggers mean your workflow moves forward because the required work is done — not because someone is emotionally ready.
The Live Build — Estate Planning Workflow
The session built the following workflow live inside Legalboards, stage by stage.
Stage 1: Intake and Conflict Check A Move trigger fires when a new matter is created in Clio and lands in the Intake column. A conflict check task is created automatically and assigned to the paralegal, due in one day. Nothing manual. The card arrives, the task is queued.
Stage 2: Document Collection A Move trigger sends the client document checklist email and creates a collection task for the paralegal the moment the card enters this column. A Wait trigger — ten days with no movement — creates a follow-up task automatically. This is the automation that fixes the most common wall in estate planning: the client who went quiet and nobody noticed.
Stage 3: Draft Preparation A Done trigger moves the card forward only when the paralegal has marked the document collection task complete. When the card arrives, a drafting task is created for the attorney with a five-day due date. The move is conditional on the work being done, not on someone deciding to drag the card.
Stage 4: Attorney Review A Done trigger fires when the drafting task is complete, moving the card and creating the review task in a single action. A Wait trigger — 72 hours in review — sends an alert to the managing partner. This is the automation that solves the scenario from the opening of the session: the draft that sat for a week because nobody knew it was waiting.
Stage 5: Signing Coordination Three Move triggers fire when the card arrives: schedule signing appointment, prepare the signing package, and a client-facing email confirming documents are ready. One column entry, three actions.
Stage 6: Filing and Close Two Move triggers on the final column: a task to deliver executed documents to the client, and a card created in the billing board in the Ready to Invoice column. This last automation is the one most firms miss — matter closes, billing never opens, and the invoice goes out late or not at all.
What the Session Covered in Q&A
Three questions came from attendees that are worth including here.
Can one column have more than one Move automation? Yes. A single column entry can trigger multiple actions — and if you have different matter types on the same board (individual plans, couples, trust admin), you can add conditions so different triggers fire for different case types.
What should trigger the move from Document Collection to Draft Preparation? Whatever you need confirmed before drafting can start. For most estate planning matters, that is all client documents received. If your firm also requires a retainer payment before drafting, the trigger should require both. The point is that you define the condition — Legalboards holds the guardrail.
What should someone bring to a workflow session with Bruna? Two things: what is working in your current workflow, and what is the biggest issue you are facing. Write them down before the session. That is enough to build something useful in 30 minutes.
Three Verification Rules Before You Go Live
Before sending live matters through any new automation chain, Bruna covered three checks every firm should run:
- The account-level automation toggle is ON. Settings → Automation. If this is off, no automation fires on any board regardless of how it is configured. This is the single most common reason firms report that automation is not working.
- Task names in Done triggers match exactly. Character for character. A space or capitalization difference and the trigger silently fails.
- Run a test card through the full workflow before any live matters go in. Drag a fake matter through every stage, mark each task complete, and watch every automation fire. If something does not fire, you find it on the test — not on a client matter.
Where to Go From Here
The template used in this session will be available in the Legalboards gallery. If you are already a client, you can download it and see the automations live. If not, you can start a trial and build from it directly.
The framework — Move, Wait, Done — applies to every practice area with sequential stages. Family law, personal injury, immigration: the triggers are the same. What changes is what each trigger condition is and who owns each task.
Download the Workflow Automation Starter Kit — includes the Three-Trigger Worksheet, the eight-automation recipe card, the verification checklist, and practice-area adaptations for family law, PI, and immigration.
Book a workflow session with Bruna to walk through your firm's actual workflow, or start your free trial to build it yourself.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Three-Trigger Framework?
It is a way of categorizing every automation in Legalboards into one of three types: Move (fires when a card enters a column), Wait (fires when a card has been in a column too long), and Done (fires when a specific task is marked complete). Choosing the right trigger before building the automation is what makes the difference between a workflow that runs reliably and one that requires manual intervention to keep moving.
Can I use this estate planning workflow for other practice areas?
Yes. The six-stage structure and trigger types apply to any practice area with sequential stages. Family law, personal injury, and immigration all follow the same pattern — intake, collection, drafting, review, signing or filing, close. What changes is the specific tasks and the conditions that define each trigger. The session's free Starter Kit includes adapted recipe cards for family law, PI, and immigration.
What happens if a Done trigger does not fire?
The most common cause is a task name mismatch. The task name in the Done trigger must match the task name created by the preceding automation exactly — character for character, including spaces and capitalization. If it does not match, the trigger fails silently. Always copy and paste the task name rather than retyping it, and always run a test card through the full workflow before using it on live matters.
How many automations do you actually need to run an estate planning workflow?
The session built eight. That is not a minimum or a maximum — it is the set that covers the most common failure points in an estate planning workflow: invisible client delays, attorney review stalls, and missed billing triggers. The right number for your firm depends on where work currently gets stuck. Start with the stages that cause the most manual follow-up and build from there.
