Setting Up Originating and Responsible Attorney Credits in LeanLaw

Most law firms recognize two types of attorney credit beyond the work itself: credit for the attorney responsible for the client relationship, and credit for the attorney who originated (brought in) the client. LeanLaw tracks both through the Originating Attorney and Responsible Attorney fields, which feed directly into compensation reporting.

Responsible Attorney

The Responsible Attorney is the attorney primarily responsible for supervising a matter — the lead partner or supervising attorney. This is set on the matter itself.

Setting the Responsible Attorney on a Matter

Open the matter from the Matters tab.
In the matter details (General or Billing and Rates tab), find the Responsible Attorney field.
Select the attorney from the dropdown.
Save the matter.

When a payment is collected on this matter and a Responsible Attorney share percentage is configured (see Article 4), that attorney receives the configured percentage of collected revenue as Responsible credit in addition to any Worked credit they may have.

Originating Attorney

The Originating Attorney is the attorney credited for bringing the client relationship to the firm — the business development credit. One or more attorneys can be set as originators on a matter.

Setting the Originating Attorney on a Matter

Open the matter from the Matters tab.
Go to the matter's General settings or Access & Billing section.
Find the Originating Attorney field.
Select one or more attorneys as originators.
Save the matter.

📋 Multiple originators: If multiple attorneys are set as originators on a matter and an Originating Share percentage is configured (e.g., 20%), the origination share is split evenly between them. With two originators and a 20% share, each receives 10%.

You can also set a matter-specific origination percentage to override the firm-wide Originating Share setting for this particular matter. Enter the custom percentage in the field next to the originator's name.

How Origination and Responsible Credits Appear in Reports

Once attorneys are assigned and share percentages are configured, their credits appear in the Compensation (Revenue by Attorney) report:

Column	What It Represents
Worked	The sum of pre-allocation revenue from the attorney's own time entries and assigned fixed fees.
Worked Share	The attorney's share of collected revenue after applying allocation percentages — what they keep from their own work.
Origination	Revenue credited for originating matters — calculated as the Originating Share % × total collected revenue for matters where they are the originator.
Responsible	Revenue credited for being the responsible attorney — calculated as the Responsible Share % × total collected revenue for matters where they are responsible.
Total	Worked Share + Origination + Responsible + any custom fixed fee allocation. The total compensation credited to this attorney.

💡 Collected, not billed: Origination and Responsible credits are calculated on collected revenue — when the invoice is paid — not when it is billed. An attorney receives origination credit when their originated matter's invoices are collected, not when they are sent.

Originating Attorney in Revenue Reports

Two dedicated reports in LeanLaw's Revenue section track originating attorney performance:

Collected by Originating: Details revenue from matters originated by specific attorneys, including origination amounts and percentages.
Billed by Originating: Totals all billed line items by their originating attorney. Shows which attorneys are generating business — not just performing work.

These reports are found in Reports → Revenue → By Originating Attorney.