PracticePanther allows you to add a special custom field with the type "Contact". This type of field will give you a dropdown list of every existing contact in PracticePanther. It's used to link existing contacts to other contacts or matters. This can be used for example, when you want to add an "Opposing Counsel" field to a matter, where the opposing counsel field is an existing contact.

1) Add a custom field of type "Contact". In this example, we'll use "Opposing Counsel" as our type of contact.

2) Create or edit a matter.
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3) Select one of your pre-existing contacts (or create a new one), to populate the custom field. This will create a link between the matter and the chosen contact.

4) Scroll down and click "Save".

Just like with every field on PracticePanther, custom fields will have merge codes automatically created on this page.

The base merge code for our "Opposing Counsel" field should look something like this: #Matter.Opposing Counsel#.
​Note: Copying and pasting this code on your document will not trigger the template to pull in any information.

Adjust the merge field to include the specific information you wish to populate into your document.

Examples:

#Matter.Opposing Counsel.FirstName# will populate the first name of the opposing counsel.

#Matter.Opposing Counsel.LastName# will populate the last name of the opposing counsel.

#Matter.Opposing Counsel.OfficeNumber# will populate the office number of the opposing counsel.

Your document template should look something like this in a  Word document:

After you're fully satisfied with your document, click the "New Document Template" button on the top of merge code page to upload it to PracticePanther for future use.
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When you use this document template on a matter, PracticePanther prints the information from the related contact (Opposing Counsel) onto your template: