MatterFirst vs LawMaster

Encrypted at rest and in transit Australian data residency Hosted on AWS No lock-in contracts Guided setup available Your data exportable on request

Last reviewed 28 July 2026

What should a LawMaster firm migrate to?

LawMaster is being wound down by Actionstep with no announced end date, so firms should plan a move on their own timeline rather than wait for one to be set. Actionstep is the default path; LEAP, Clio, Smokeball and MatterFirst are the alternatives. MatterFirst is Australian-built with per-workspace pricing and onshore AI processing.

LawMaster is being retired

Actionstep acquired LawMaster in 2022 and is winding it down. No end date has been announced publicly, which is a harder planning problem than a fixed deadline rather than an easier one: there is no date to work back from, and the decision about when you move is currently someone else's to make.

Whatever you choose, start early. Migration capacity is finite across every vendor, and it is being used up by every other firm in the same position. We would rather you moved somewhere good than somewhere fast, and that is true even if it is not to us.

Source: https://www.lawsupport.com.au/resources/legal-practice-management-software-australia.html

MatterFirst and LawMaster, side by side
	MatterFirst	LawMaster
Origin	Australia (NorthCape Technology, Melbourne)	Australia
Status	Active	Being retired, no announced date
Pricing	Per workspace from $149/month, users included	Not applicable: the platform is being retired.
Data residency	Your chosen AWS region, including AI inference	Not published. Ask the vendor where inference runs, not only where files are stored.
Client portal	Included on every plan, no per-client charge	Not published
AI document extraction	Included, with a monthly credit pool on every paid plan	Not published
Contract term	No lock-in	Not published

LawMaster details are drawn from the source linked at the foot of this page and were checked on 28 July 2026. Where we have not verified something, this page says so rather than estimating.

What LawMaster is good at

Established product with a long-standing base of Australian firms

Things to weigh

Being wound down. No public deadline has been announced, which is its own planning problem
Not recommended for new implementations

MatterFirst is a legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built by NorthCape Technology, covering matters, documents, trust accounting, billing and a client portal, with data hosted in the AWS region the firm chooses.

If you are migrating, MatterFirst suits Australian firms up to about twenty seats that want document extraction and automation at the centre of the file. It is the weaker choice if you need the largest integration ecosystem, which is Clio, or a decades-deep precedent library, which is LEAP, or if the least disruptive path genuinely matters more than the destination, in which case Actionstep is where your data is already headed.

FAQ

Questions firms ask

Do I have to move off LawMaster?

Actionstep acquired LawMaster in 2022 and is winding it down. No end date has been announced publicly, which is a harder planning problem than a fixed deadline rather than an easier one: there is no date to work back from, and the decision about when you move is currently someone else's to make.

Can MatterFirst migrate my LawMaster data?

We offer a Migration Package covering matters, contacts, documents and templates, scoped per firm against your actual data volume. Talk to us early: the closer you get to a sunset date, the less room there is for anything to go wrong, and that is true whichever platform you pick.

Is Actionstep the safest choice, since it owns LawMaster?

It is the path of least resistance, which is a real advantage: your data is already going there and the migration is their project. Whether it is the best fit is a separate question, and worth asking now, because migrating is the one moment when switching costs are already sunk. Actionstep's strength is deep workflow configurability; its cost is that setup is a project and stays one.

Where is my data stored?

In the AWS region your firm chooses. Sydney (ap-southeast-2) is the default for Australian firms. Matter data, documents and Document AI processing all stay in that region: documents are not moved to another region to be OCRed or analysed.

How much does MatterFirst cost?

Pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, starting at $149 per month for Solo. Each plan includes a set number of users, a monthly pool of Document AI credits, the client portal and automations. Extra users are billed only past the included seats. Full plan inclusions are on the pricing page.

Can I get my data out if I leave?

Yes. Your matters, contacts, documents and time records are exportable on request, and there is no lock-in contract. We would rather you were able to leave and chose not to.

Is there a free trial?

Yes, a seven-day guided trial on Solo, Practice or Firm. It is guided rather than self-serve because a practice management system tells you very little until it has your real matters in it, and we would rather help you load them than leave you looking at an empty workspace.

Who builds MatterFirst?

NorthCape Technology, a Melbourne-based software company. MatterFirst is built in Australia for Australian legal practice, which is why trust accounting and Xero are first-class rather than regional add-ons, and why PEXA and InfoTrack are on the roadmap rather than absent from it.

Is MatterFirst suitable for a firm of my size?

It is designed for solo practitioners up to firms of roughly twenty seats. Below that, Solo carries the full platform for one user. Above it, the platform works but you should expect to talk to us about migration and rollout rather than signing up online.

Leaving LawMaster?

Seven-day guided trial with your own matters, and a migration conversation if you need one.

Book a demo See pricing