Purpose and best uses
Firm Preferences stores your personal defaults for firm-oriented work. It helps reduce repeated setup and shape how answers are presented. Use it when you repeatedly work in the same practice areas, prefer a particular answer format, or want new matters to start with sensible default information. Despite the name, the current page describes these as personal preferences. It is not the same as creating a firm, adding employees, or granting colleagues access to a shared Matter.
The available fields include practice areas, primary jurisdiction, default matter type, matter-number format, preferred answer format, tone, citation style, and additional notes about how you work. Answer-format choices include a research memorandum, plain-English explanation, bullet-point summary, and IRAC analysis. Tone choices include formal, plain-spoken, and concise presentations. These preferences concern defaults and presentation. The page explicitly distinguishes them from changing the law or determining which sources should be cited, an important limit when choosing settings for professional work.
How to use it well
Enter preferences that are stable enough to be useful across multiple tasks. A usual practice area or preferred memorandum structure belongs here; a confidential factual narrative about one specific client generally belongs in the appropriately authorized matter context instead. Use clear wording in the additional-notes field and avoid contradictory instructions. If you prefer concise answers but also need full source discussion for a particular assignment, state the task-specific requirement in that request rather than assume a general preference can describe every situation.
Save the preferences and look for the saved confirmation. When creating a new Matter, check the actual values placed in its fields and adjust them to the case. A primary jurisdiction default is convenient, but it should not cause a new matter in a different jurisdiction to inherit an inappropriate setting unnoticed. Similarly, recording a matter-number format should not be mistaken for proof that the application will automatically generate a complete numbering sequence or enforce your firm's recordkeeping policy in every workflow.
Example and practical limits
A professional who usually wants research memoranda could select that output style, use a formal tone, enter a primary jurisdiction, and record a preferred citation style. On a particular project requiring a plain-English client explanation, the user would still give that specific instruction in the request. The preferences reduce repetitive setup; the task instruction supplies the immediate purpose and audience. This division makes the defaults useful without allowing them to obscure differences among clients, courts, or assignments.
Firm Preferences is best used for consistency and convenience. It does not automatically share your private research, create firm membership, change another person's account, or turn a preferred format into a court-compliant document. Use Manage Firm for organizational membership and firm-sharing controls, and Matters for case-level work. Confirm the actual output rather than assuming a preference has been applied everywhere. If your work changes, revisit the defaults and remove stale instructions. A small set of accurate, understandable preferences is more useful than a long collection of conflicting rules that no longer reflects how you prepare research and documents.
Before adding a standing instruction, ask whether it belongs in every similar assignment or only in one Matter. A reusable preference should be short enough to understand and specific enough to apply. Reserve changing facts, unusual court requirements, and one-time client directions for the individual task where they belong.