The post Practice Management Platform Clio To Discontinue Its Longtime Integration With Payments Processor LawPay appeared first on Above the Law.
Legal technology company Clio‘s integration with the payment processing platform 8am LawPay is discontinuing on Aug. 31, 2026, it has notified customers. After that date, customers of the Clio Manage law practice management platform will no longer be able to use LawPay to process payments.
The integration contract between the two companies expires as of that date and will not be renewed.
I have been unable to determine precisely when Clio and LawPay first integrated, but the relationship goes back many years. The integration was further enhanced in 2015, when the companies announced that the LawPay engine would power the newly launched Clio Payments.
But that relationship changed dramatically starting in 2021, when Clio launched its own native version of Clio Payments.
Less than a year later, LawPay’s parent company, which was called AffiniPay until its rebrand last year as 8am, shifted the competitive landscape by turning around and acquiring practice management platform MyCase, a major competitor of Clio’s.
As I wrote at the time, one reason that acquisition was so stunning was that, until then, LawPay had been the legal tech equivalent of Switzerland, providing its payments technology to virtually every practice management platform, without favoring any one.
But overnight, LawPay became a competitor to many of the platforms with which it had long partnered.
Against that backdrop, it should come as no surprise that the relationship is ending, as it was bound to happen sooner or later.
See my series: The Shrinking Ownership of Law Practice Management Technology.
I reached out to Clio for comment, and received the following statement from AJ Axelrod, vice president of payments and financial services:
“The agreement supporting the LawPay integration within Clio Manage is expected to conclude in August 2026. This is a natural contract conclusion. Because the ability to accept payments is mission-critical for law firms, customers have been informed well in advance so they can evaluate their options and prepare for business continuity. Our priority is ensuring firms have the time, information, and support they need to plan their next steps with confidence. Clio will continue to provide integrated payment capabilities within Clio Manage through Clio Payments and customers are able to continue using LawPay outside of the integration.”
I also reached out to 8am LawPay for comment, which provided the following statement:
“8am LawPay and Clio have offered law firms an integrated payment option for years. As that concludes at the end of August, our commitment to these firms doesn’t change. LawPay remains available to customers directly, and we’re working closely with each of them to ensure a smooth transition and continued access to the payment experience they expect and rely on. Law firms benefit from flexibility in how they manage payments, and LawPay is committed to delivering that directly and without disruption.”
In recent years, both Clio and 8am have expanded their financial offerings for legal professionals.
On Clio’s part, in addition to launching Clio Payments in 2021, it has launched Pay Later, a buy-now, pay-later feature for legal services, and in March it launched Clio Capital, a financing program that provides eligible law firms with access to working capital.
LawPay has introduced a number of finance-related initiatives in recent years. It had launched a buy-now, pay later feature in 2021. More recently, it introduced Smart Spend, a credit card for law firms that directly integrates with MyCase for expense tracking; the expansion of LawPay into a full financial management platform; and, just a week ago, a guarantee of next-day payment processing for LawPay customers.
[Disclosure: My son is employed by 8am as a software engineer.]
