Aderant API
Aderant is software law firms use to run the business of law—tracking time, managing clients and matters, generating bills, submitting eBills, handling trust and AR, enforcing outside counsel guidelines (OCGs), and reporting on firm performance. An unofficial API lets you pull clients
What is Aderant?
Aderant provides practice management and financial systems for law firms, including Aderant Expert and Expert Sierra (cloud), plus products like iTimekeep (time capture), BillBlast (eBilling), CompuLaw (docketing/calendaring), Handshake (knowledge/intranet), and OCG Live (guideline enforcement). Firms rely on Aderant to handle timekeeping, matter and client records, billing and eBilling, trust and AR, conflicts and intake, docketing, reporting, and role-based approvals.
Core product areas include:
- Timekeeping & Rates (time/expense capture, rate tables, alternative fee arrangements)
- Matter & Client Management (intake, conflicts, client/matter hierarchies, assignments)
- Billing & eBilling (prebills, narratives, write-ups/downs, LEDES files, BillBlast submission)
- OCG Management (policy rules, validations, exception routing)
- Docketing & Calendaring (rules-based court deadlines via CompuLaw)
- Trust, AR & Collections (trust balances, receipts, write-offs, payment application)
- Reporting & Analytics (WIP/AR dashboards, utilization, realization)
- Knowledge & Integrations (Handshake portals, iManage/SharePoint links)
Common data entities:
- Clients & Contacts (client number, billing addresses, payors)
- Matters (matter number, titles, responsible partners, practice groups, phases/tasks)
- Timekeepers/Users (attorneys, paralegals, roles, rates)
- Rates & Rate Cards (standard, client/matter negotiated, timekeeper-specific)
- Time & Expense Entries (date, hours/amount, UTBMS codes, narratives, status)
- Prebills & Invoices (line items, adjustments, taxes, LEDES exports, statuses)
- eBilling Submissions (target vendor, file versions, acceptance/rejection)
- Payments & Trust (receipts, allocations, balances, transfers)
- OCG Rules (policy definitions, violations, exceptions)
- Approvals & Audit (who approved, when, changes)
The Aderant Integration Challenge
Legal finance data and workflows are robust—and integrating cleanly is non-trivial:
- Multi-environment variability: Expert on-prem vs Expert Sierra, custom fields via Designer, regional ledgers, and firm-specific workflows
- Prebill lifecycle: WIP, draft, routing, revisions, and finalization span days and require idempotent, auditable updates
- OCG nuance: Client-specific rules (activity/task codes, narratives, rates, caps) must be validated consistently to avoid eBilling rejections
- eBilling complexity: LEDES generation, BillBlast submissions, vendor acknowledgements, and rejection remediation are asynchronous
- Authentication & security: AD/SSO/MFA and session handling differ by firm; least-privilege and entitlement alignment are mandatory
- DMS context: iManage workspaces are often the primary attorney interface; mapping matter and document context is essential
- Audit rigor: Every post, edit, and approval needs traceability with before/after values and user attribution
How Supergood Creates Aderant APIs
Supergood reverse-engineers authenticated browser flows and network interactions to deliver a resilient API endpoint layer for your Aderant tenant.
- Handles username/password, SSO/OAuth, and MFA (SMS, email, TOTP) securely for on-prem or cloud deployments
- Maintains session continuity with automated refresh and change detection
- Normalizes matter, time/expense, rate, prebill, and invoice objects into consistent schemas
- Aligns with customer entitlements and role-based permissions to ensure compliant access
- Supports high-volume operations (time capture, prebill sync) with polling or webhooks for long-running jobs (billing runs, eBilling responses)
- Maps DMS context (e.g., iManage workspace IDs) to Aderant clients/matters so your features live where attorneys work
Getting Started
- Schedule Integration Assessment
Book a 30-minute session to confirm your modules, licensing, deployment (on-prem vs cloud), and authentication model.
- Supergood Builds and Validates Your API
We deliver a hardened Aderant adapter tailored to your workflows, entitlements, and iManage context mapping.
- Deploy with Monitoring
Go live with continuous monitoring and automatic adjustments as Aderant evolves.
Use Cases
Time Capture From iManage
- Capture time against the active iManage document/workspace and post to the correct client/matter with UTBMS codes - Validate entries against OCGs pre-post, suggest compliant narratives, and flag exceptions - Auto-apply negotiated rates and calculate WIP amounts
Matter Finance Inside the DMS
- Show budgets, WIP, AR, and rate info inside iManage workspaces - Let users request rate exceptions or add matter notes that sync back to Aderant - Keep matter lists in sync across practice teams and deal rooms
Prebill Review & eBilling
- Pull prebills with line-level details for in-app redlines, write-ups/downs, and narrative edits - Attach invoice PDFs stored in iManage, generate LEDES, and submit via BillBlast - Track acceptance/rejection statuses and remediate with one-click corrections
Intake, Conflicts, and Approvals
- Start matter intake from your app, capture required fields, and route to approvers - Run conflicts via the firm’s process and sync the resulting matter to create an iManage workspace - Enforce approval gates before time or billing can proceed
Technical Specifications
Authentication
Username/password with MFA (SMS, email, TOTP) and SSO/OAuth where enabled; supports service accounts or customer-managed credentials
Connectivity
Works with Expert on-prem (via secure connector/VPN) and Expert Sierra (cloud); honors firm network policies
Response format
JSON with consistent resource schemas and pagination across modules
Rate limits
Tuned for enterprise throughput while honoring customer entitlements and usage controls
Session management
Automatic reauth and cookie/session rotation with health checks
Data freshness
Near real-time retrieval of matters, time/WIP, prebills, invoices, and eBilling statuses
Security
Encrypted transport, scoped tokens, audit logging; respects Aderant role-based permissions and approval gates
Webhooks
Optional asynchronous delivery for long-running workflows (billing runs, eBilling accept/reject, trust receipts)
Latency
Sub-second responses for list/detail queries under normal load; billing and eBilling operations reflect underlying platform timing
Throughput
Designed for high-volume time capture and prebill synchronization across large matter portfolios
Reliability
Retry logic, backoff, and idempotency keys minimize duplicates and support at-least-once processing
Adaptation
Continuous monitoring for UI/API changes with rapid adapter updates
Frequently asked questions
Supergood commonly supports Time & Expense (iTimekeep), Matters & Rates, Billing & Prebills, eBilling (BillBlast), Trust & AR, and OCG validations, subject to your licensing and entitlements. We scope coverage during integration assessment.
We normalize and store external references (e.g., iManage workspace IDs) on matter objects, allowing your iManage UI to display live budgets, WIP/AR, and invoice status, and ensuring time captured from documents posts to the right matter.
Yes. We generate LEDES (e.g., 1998B) from approved prebills, attach PDFs, submit via BillBlast, and track acceptance/rejection with webhook notifications or polling.
Entries can be preflight-validated with detailed violations and suggested fixes. You can block posting on errors or route for exception approval while preserving an audit trail.
We deploy a secure connector inside your network (or via VPN/bastion) to interact with Expert while keeping data within your control. All actions respect firm entitlements and approval chains.