If the same vendor law firm appears multiple times in your Brightflag account, it is important to understand how duplicate firms work, why they cannot be merged, and the steps your organization should take to ensure future billing and reporting remain centralized under a single vendor law firm.

This article explains:

• Why duplicate vendor law firms exist
• Why duplicate firms cannot be merged
• Why vendor firm names cannot be changed globally
• How to standardize future activity under one vendor law firm
• What happens to historical data

Why Do Duplicate Vendor Law Firms Appear in Brightflag?

Clients have full control over their Brightflag account configuration, including:

• Which vendor law firms are added to matters
• Which vendor users are granted access to firms
• Which vendor law firm records are used for billing

As a result, the same vendor law firm may sometimes appear multiple times as separate vendor firms within a client account.

Even if the firms appear identical, each vendor law firm profile is treated as a separate entity within Brightflag.

⚠️ Important
Brightflag does not create duplicate vendor firms on behalf of clients. The decision to use multiple versions of the same vendor law firm within a client account is controlled by the client organization.

Why Duplicate Vendor Law Firms Cannot Be Merged

Duplicate vendor law firms cannot be merged into a single vendor law firm once they have been used within Brightflag.

This is not technically or operationally possible for several reasons.

Merging firms would require Brightflag to rewrite and alter historical:

• Invoice data
• Timekeeper data
• Matter associations
• Accrual records
• Approval workflows
• Reporting history
• Audit records

Because Brightflag preserves historical billing and audit integrity, this data cannot be overwritten or reassigned retrospectively.

📌 Important
There is no exception or workaround available to merge historical vendor law firm data in Brightflag.

The process outlined in this article is the only supported approach.

Requests to Change a Vendor Law Firm Name

Vendor law firms in Brightflag exist on a global directory shared across all Brightflag clients.

As a result, changing the name of a vendor law firm would change the visible firm name for every Brightflag client using that vendor law firm.

For this reason, Brightflag cannot rename vendor law firms globally.

⚠️ Important
Requests to rename vendor law firms on Brightflag are not supported.

Use the Custom Name Field Instead

If you need to better organize or identify vendor law firms internally, you can use the Custom Name field.

This allows your organization to apply an internal nickname or preferred label to a vendor law firm.

Examples include:

📌 Note
The Custom Name field is only visible within your own Brightflag account.

• Other Brightflag clients will not see your custom name
• The vendor law firm will not see your custom name
• The global vendor law firm name remains unchanged

What Clients Should Do Instead

Although historical data cannot be merged, clients can centralize all future activity under a single vendor law firm moving forward.

This ensures cleaner reporting and operational consistency going forward.

Steps to Standardize Future Activity Under One Vendor Law Firm

1. Identify the Correct Vendor Law Firm

Determine which vendor law firm record should remain active and be used going forward.

This should become the single standardized vendor firm for:

• Future invoices
• Matter assignments
• Timekeeper submissions
• Vendor user access

📌 Tip
Ensure all relevant personnel within your organization understand which vendor law firm should be used going forward.

2. Ensure Vendor Users Have Access to the Correct Firm

Verify that all vendor users have vendor admin access to the correct vendor law firm.

If any users are missing:

• Add the required vendor users to the correct firm
• Confirm they can successfully access the correct vendor profile

3. Disable Vendor User Access on Duplicate Firms

Remove or disable vendor user access from all duplicate vendor law firms that should no longer be used.

This prevents vendors from accidentally submitting invoices against the wrong firm.

⚠️ Important
Once vendor users are removed from the duplicate firms, they will only be able to access the correct vendor law firm for future invoice submissions.

4. Update Matters to Use the Correct Vendor Firm

Review all active matters currently linked to duplicate vendor firms.

For each matter:

1. Remove the duplicate vendor law firm
2. Add the correct vendor law firm
3. Confirm future invoices will route through the correct vendor firm

This step is critical to avoid invoice submission issues and fragmented reporting.

5. Ensure All Timekeepers Exist on the Correct Firm

Verify that all required timekeepers are associated with the correct vendor law firm.

If timekeepers are missing:

• Ask the vendor to resubmit the required timekeeper rate requests
• Review and approve those rate requests before invoices are submitted

⚠️ Warning
Invoices may fail or be rejected if required timekeepers and approved rates do not exist on the correct vendor law firm.

What Happens to Historical Data?

Historical invoices and reporting linked to duplicate vendor law firms will remain unchanged.

This is expected behavior.

📌 Note
While historical reporting will continue to show duplicate vendor law firms, completing the steps above ensures all future activity is centralized under a single vendor law firm moving forward.

Important Things to Know

⚠️ Please Note

• Brightflag cannot merge duplicate vendor law firms
• Historical billing and reporting data cannot be rewritten
• Vendor law firm names cannot be renamed globally
• Duplicate firms remain permanently visible in historical reporting
• Clients are responsible for determining which vendor law firm should be used
• Vendors should only submit invoices through the designated active vendor law firm
• Matter assignments and vendor user access must be updated by the client
• The Custom Name field can be used for internal organization purposes

Recommended Best Practices

To avoid duplicate vendor law firms in the future:

• Reuse existing vendor law firms whenever possible
• Verify whether a vendor already exists before creating or enabling another firm
• Ensure internal teams understand which vendor law firm should be used
• Regularly review vendor access and matter assignments
• Standardize vendor onboarding processes internally
• Use the Custom Name field to improve internal visibility and sorting