git:20260728.b7e78fc to git:20260804.6747a52

---

name: "Clio Contacts"

description: >

Clio contacts -- the people and companies connected to matters: person

vs. company contact types, and how a contact relates to the matters they

are party to (client, opposing party, witness, and other roles).

when_to_use: >-

When creating, updating, or searching for a Clio contact, or when

figuring out how a contact relates to a matter. Use when: clio contact,

clio person, clio company, clio client contact, clio opposing counsel,

clio witness, or clio contact search.

---

# Clio Contacts

## Overview

A **contact** in Clio is a person or a company. Contacts exist

independently of any single matter — the same contact can be the client on

one matter, opposing counsel on another, and a witness on a third. Tools:

`clio_contacts_list`, `clio_contacts_get`, `clio_contacts_create`,

`clio_contacts_update`. Navigate into the `contacts` domain first.

**No delete tool exists for contacts** — same rule as everywhere else in

this integration (see [api-patterns](../api-patterns/SKILL.md)). A contact

that's no longer relevant doesn't get removed through this integration.

## People vs. Company Contacts

Clio contacts come in two shapes:

| Type | Examples | Notes |

|---|---|---|

| **Person** | An individual client, an opposing party who is a person, a witness, an individual attorney at another firm | Has first/last name fields |

| **Company** | A corporate client, an opposing party that's a business entity, a vendor | Has a company/organization name; may have associated people (e.g. a primary contact at the company) |

When creating a contact, get the type right up front — person vs. company

determines which fields are meaningful (a company doesn't have a

first/last name; a person isn't "incorporated"). If a user describes an

entity ambiguously ("Acme" could be a company or could be shorthand for a

person at Acme), ask rather than guess, especially before creating a new

contact — search first (see below).

## Contact ↔ Matter Relationships

A contact's relationship to a given matter is contextual, not a fixed

property of the contact itself. The same contact record might be:

- **Client** — the party the firm represents on the matter (every matter

has exactly one client contact — see the

[matters skill](../matters/SKILL.md))

- **Opposing party** — the other side in the matter

- **Witness** — someone with relevant testimony or evidence, not a party

- Other matter-specific roles the firm tracks (co-counsel, expert,

guardian ad litem, etc.), depending on how the firm uses Clio

Don't assume a contact's role from one matter carries over to another —

the same person can be a client on one file and a witness on an unrelated

file. When summarizing "who's involved" in a matter, resolve the

relationship per-matter rather than trusting a contact's role from a

different context.

## Searching Before Creating

Law firms accumulate large contact lists with overlapping names (multiple

"John Smith"s across different matters is normal, not a data quality

problem). Before calling `clio_contacts_create`:

1. Search existing contacts (`clio_contacts_list` with a name/company

filter) — check email address and company affiliation, not just name,

to disambiguate.

2. If there's a plausible existing match, confirm with the user rather

than silently reusing it or silently creating a duplicate — both are

real failure modes in a system where contacts persist across many

matters and years.

3. Only create a new contact once you're confident it doesn't already

exist.

## Creating and Updating Contacts

- **Person**: first name, last name are the minimum meaningful fields;

email/phone are commonly expected for anyone who'll be communicated

with directly.

- **Company**: the organization name is the minimum; consider whether the

firm also wants a primary person contact linked at the company for

day-to-day communication.

- **Updates** (`clio_contacts_update`) are scoped to a single contact ID —

send only the fields actually changing.

Contact data is comparatively low-sensitivity relative to matter content

(communications, documents), but it's still client PII — don't populate

fields with guesses, and don't merge/overwrite existing contact data

without the user's explicit intent.

## Related Skills

- [Clio API Patterns](../api-patterns/SKILL.md) — connection, navigation, scope limits

- [Clio Matters](../matters/SKILL.md) — the matter a contact is linked to, and the client relationship

- [Clio Time & Billing](../time-billing/SKILL.md) — activities and bills, which reference the matter, not the contact directly