Clio Payments vs LawPay, now that the integration has ended

For years, a small firm on Clio could take a retainer by card through LawPay and watch the payment land on the right matter, in the right trust ledger, without anyone typing it in. That stopped on August 31, 2026. LawPay still works, but its payments no longer sync into Clio Manage. Someone has to record each one by hand, or the firm switches to Clio's own payment product.

This post compares the two for the part that matters most to a law firm: taking advance fees into trust without card fees or chargebacks touching client money. It also covers what each costs on the vendors' published prices, and where reminders fit in.

Not legal advice. We build and test automations; we're not lawyers. This is a plain-English summary of primary sources, checked on October 27, 2026. Your state's trust-account rules control. Ask your state bar's ethics hotline or your trust-accounting adviser if you're unsure.

What changed

LawNext reported in May 2026 that Clio would discontinue its LawPay integration on August 31, 2026, after the contract wasn't renewed. Clio has offered its own Clio Payments since 2021. Clio's help center now says the LawPay integration "ended on August 31, 2026". Historical LawPay transactions stay in Clio as read-only records, and new LawPay payments no longer sync. LawPay says it is still available directly to Clio users.

So there are three paths:

1. Switch to Clio Payments and keep payments syncing to matters and ledgers.
2. Keep LawPay as a standalone processor and record every payment in Clio by hand.
3. Use another legal-specific processor, which also means recording payments by hand unless it integrates with Clio.

The rule that decides this: card fees can't come out of trust

ABA Model Rule 1.15(c) says advance fees go into the client trust account and come out only as they're earned. Most states have adopted some version of it. The practical problem with cards is that a regular merchant account takes its processing fee out of the payment. A $2,500 retainer arrives as a little less than $2,500, and later chargebacks get pulled from the same account. If that account is your IOLTA, client money is paying your costs.

State bar opinions we read handle it this way:

• Michigan (RI-344) prefers two accounts: advance-fee deposits go to trust, and merchant fees and chargebacks come out of the business account. It suggests separate merchant contracts may be needed.
• Connecticut (Informal Op. 2014-02) says card fees must not be taken from client funds held in trust, and suggests separate merchant accounts for trust and operating.
• Missouri (Informal Op. 2019-08) says that if the lawyer absorbs the fee, it must not be deducted from trust.
• New York (Op. 1050) allows passing the actual processing fee on to the client, if the client was told and agreed in advance and the amount is reasonable.

Our reading: whichever processor you use, you need (a) trust deposits that land in full, (b) fees and chargebacks debited from operating, and (c) operating and trust payments kept apart. Legal-specific processors are built around this. General ones usually aren't, by default.

Side by side

Prices and terms below are taken from each vendor's own pages on October 27, 2026. They change, so check before you decide.

	Clio Payments	LawPay
Monthly fee	Clio says it's "included with your Manage subscription"	$19 a month, no contract
Visa, Mastercard, Discover	2.95%, no per-transaction fee	2.99% + $0.30
American Express	3.5% (Clio lists this rate for firms switching from the LawPay integration)	3.90% + $0.30
ACH / eCheck	1%	1%
Other charges listed	Clio says no card-network fees are passed on	Card-brand pass-through fees may apply; $7.99/month pass-through allocation; +1.75% on foreign cards
Where fees and chargebacks are taken	Operating account, per Clio's comparison page. Clio's terms say they don't permit Clio "to debit a Subscriber trust account for any reason"	LawPay advertises trust-account protection and IOLTA compliance; confirm the fee account setting with LawPay
Syncs to Clio matters and ledgers	Yes	Not since Aug 31, 2026
Works outside Clio	No, Clio users only	Yes; LawPay says it integrates with 75+ apps
Who processes the card	Stripe, under Clio's product terms	LawPay (an 8am company)

Worked example, illustrative only: a $2,500 retainer paid by Visa. At Clio's listed 2.95%, the fee is $73.75. At LawPay's listed 2.99% + $0.30, it's $75.05, plus the $19 monthly fee and any pass-through charges. On these list prices the per-transaction difference is small. For most firms, sync and bookkeeping time will matter more than the fee.

A note on the "Stripe" row. Our own retainer reminder recipe says never to send a plain Stripe payment link for a retainer. That isn't a contradiction. A standard Stripe account takes its fee out of each payment and pays into one bank account, which is the problem described above. Clio Payments uses Stripe for processing but, per Clio's terms and comparison page, takes fees from operating and sets up separate payout accounts. Our reading is that the setup is what matters, not the brand of processor.

Option 1: switch to Clio Payments

From Clio's help center (read October 2026):

• Activation has two stages, and Clio says review takes about one to two days.
• Each payout account connects to one ledger account in Clio. Set up trust and operating separately and check which bank account each one pays into.
• Old LawPay transactions stay visible but read-only.
• If you put a permanent LawPay payment link on your website or invoices, Clio notes that you'll need to replace it.

Clio also lists surcharging in eligible states. If you pass card fees on to clients, the New York and Missouri opinions above both describe advance disclosure and agreement. Card-network rules and state law apply too. Our reading is that the engagement letter is the place to do that.

Option 2: keep LawPay and record payments by hand

This makes sense if you use LawPay with other software, prefer its terms, or don't want to re-onboard. The cost is a manual step: every LawPay payment has to be entered on the right matter and ledger in Clio. In practice the risk is a trust payment that gets recorded late, or on the wrong matter, so your three-way reconciliation stops matching. If you go this way, decide who records payments and how often, and check the LawPay deposit report against Clio at each reconciliation.

Option 3: another processor

Ask any processor these questions in writing before you take a trust deposit:

• Does a trust payment arrive in full, with fees billed separately to operating?
• Where are chargebacks and refunds debited from?
• Can trust and operating payments use separate payment pages or links, so a client can't pay a retainer into operating by mistake?
• Does it sync with Clio? If not, who records payments?

Reminders: Clio's own, or ours

Clio has two reminder systems. Clio's bill-reminder Workflows need an active Clio Payments account, apply to operating bills only, and can send by email or text on a schedule. The default steps are 7 and 3 days before the due date, on the due date, and 7, 15 and 30 days after. Clio's help warns that if you also have its automated bill reminders turned on, a client can get two reminders for the same bill.

If you move to Clio Payments and just need reminders on unpaid bills, Clio's built-in tools are probably enough. Our invoice and retainer reminder recipe adds three things on top:

• trust top-up alerts when a retainer runs low
• a hand-off to the attorney at 30+ days instead of another automatic email
• Stripe links for earned-fee invoices for firms not on Clio Payments

Trust requests always use your trust payment link. The variable is called LAWPAY_TRUST_URL, but it's just a URL, and a Clio Payments trust link should work the same way. We haven't tested that with Clio Payments.

Testing status: the Stripe part ran live in Stripe's test mode on October 27, 2026. Clio and email were mocked. It hasn't run against a live Clio account or a real LawPay page. If you turn it on, switch off Clio's own reminders so clients don't get the same reminder twice.

Before you decide

• Count how many card payments you take into trust in a typical month. That's how many manual entries Option 2 creates.
• Read your state's opinion on card fees and trust. Several are linked below.
• Check your engagement letter if you plan to pass on card fees.
• Replace any permanent payment links if you switch.
• Run one small test payment into trust and confirm the ledger shows the full amount.

More on client communication and intake is on the law firms page, including whether lawyers can text clients and auto-replies to web inquiries.

Sources

All checked October 27, 2026.

• Bob Ambrogi, Clio to discontinue its longtime integration with LawPay, LawNext, May 5, 2026. Legal-tech news; the author discloses that a family member works at 8am.
• Clio Help Center, Activate Clio Payments. Vendor help page; it blocks automated fetches, so we read it via a search excerpt.
• Clio Help Center, Send Bill Reminders With Workflows. Vendor help page.
• Clio, Clio Payments vs LawPay and Product Specific Terms (effective August 4, 2026). Vendor pages.
• LawPay, Pricing and comparison page. Vendor pages.
• American Bar Association, Model Rule 1.15: Safekeeping Property. Model rule; your state's version governs.
• State Bar of Michigan, Ethics Opinion RI-344 (2008). State bar opinion.
• Connecticut Bar Association, Informal Opinion 2014-02. State bar opinion.
• Missouri Office of Legal Ethics Counsel, Informal Opinion 2019-08. State ethics counsel opinion.
• New York State Bar Association, Ethics Opinion 1050. State bar opinion.