FAQ

For lawyers

Membership

Who is matterius for?

matterius is aimed exclusively at business lawyers, i.e., lawyers who advise companies and entrepreneurs.

Individual lawyers, boutique law firms, medium-sized law firms, and large law firms can all benefit equally from using matterius.

In-house lawyers, notaries, and tax consultants cannot currently use matterius. matterius is also not intended for presenting or offering legal services to consumers (e.g., family law).

What are the advantages of a Premium membership?

• Client confirmations, comments, and feedback are publicly displayed. Although these can also be obtained with a Basic membership, they can only be displayed publicly if you are a Premium member.
• Confirmed matters appear higher up in the search results.
• You can integrate your case list into your law firm or personal website.
• Your uploaded law firm logo will be displayed.

How much does it cost to use matterius?

Many of the features matterius offers can be used free of charge. You can create a profile, publish matters and have them confirmed. A 12-month Premium membership costs 37 euros per month (net, excluding VAT) per lawyer.

Publish matters

What do we mean by "matter"?

A "matter" refers to a specific practical experience, e.g.,

• drafting, reviewing or negotiating a contract,
• drafting another type of document (e.g., policy),
• representation in a legal dispute,
• advice concerning a transaction,
• advice or representation with regard to another specific issue (e.g., drafting a legal opinion, advising on regulatory issues, investigative work).

If you have many similar cases, you can combine these into a collective matter. The form on matterius provides appropriate fields for this purpose (client type, matter type). We recommend describing matters individually where possible: In similar cases, you can copy and modify previously created matters or take client information from them.

How can I publish matters?

To create a matter, simply enter the details into the form provided in your profile. You can change, publish, unpublish, or delete your matters at any time. This means that you always have full control over your matter list.

Do I have to enter the name of the client?

No, you can also publish matters and even have them confirmed by the client without naming the client and using a general description instead (e.g., "medical equipment manufacturer").

Which matters should I publish?

There are various objectives you may pursue in publishing a matter and you should select your matters accordingly:

• Building reputation and trust: large, well-known clients and matters
• Showcasing focus and expertise: matters that are representative of your work
• Increasing efficiency and recycling work results: specific matters which allow you to recycle expertise you have gained and leverage previous work results

Please see our guide for tips on how to choose the right matters and how best to describe them.

Confirmation of matters

Do matters have to be confirmed by the client?

No, you can publish matters without client confirmation. However, these will not be flagged as "confirmed" and may be listed further down in the search results.

Tip: Your can published and even have confirmed matters on matterius without giving the name of your client. This may make it easier for your client to confirm a matter.

How can I obtain confirmation for matters?

After you have described the matter in your account, you should select "Ask client to confirm matter." You will receive a customized link to send to your client via which the client can view the matter description and confirm it online.

You can specify whether the matter should be published prior to confirmation or not until after.

What is the confirmation process like?

You describe the matter and send an individual link to your contact person at the client company using your own e-mail program. When the contact person clicks this link, they are brought to a page with the matter description where they can confirm the matter online.

Your contact person enters their e-mail, name, role, and company and confirms their e-mail address. We use the e-mail domain ("@companyname.com") to verify whether your contact person works for the client and whether the domain matches the matter description (e.g., "@oceanic-airlines.com" at "international airline").

Your contact person can decide whether their personal details should be published. If they do not wish for them to be published, the information will be deleted immediately after verification.

Your client does not need to create a user account to complete the confirmation process.

How do you ensure confidentiality?

1. Listing of the client's name is optional.
2. Since you yourself send the request for confirmation link to your contact person at the client, matterius does not receive any client e-mail addresses or contact details.
3. During the confirmation process, your contact person can decide whether their name, role, and company name should be published.
4. The contact person's personal details will be deleted immediately after validation unless they have explicitly agreed to the publication of this information.
5. The confirmation process is separate from matterius’ operational business in terms of personnel and organization. Managing directors and owners of matterius do not receive access to non-public information.

Will I be rated by the client?

No, matterius is not a rating portal.

While your client has the option to leave a comment regarding your work when confirming the matter, this comment will only be published if both you and the client agree.

If they wish, clients can express their appreciation for your work by selecting feedback phrases from a list (e.g., "pragmatic and practical," "solution-oriented," "good industry knowledge").

Other

Which matters appear first in a search?

As matterius is a technical platform and not a publishing company, we do not perform any editorial ranking. Our search algorithm takes into account a variety of factors, in particular:

• the relevance of the search term entered (e.g., How often does it appear in the matter description?, Does the search term only appear in the description or also in the title or keywords?),
• the completeness of the information in the matter description,
• the completeness of the lawyer's profile,
• whether the matter has been confirmed by the client.

Since matter confirmations are only displayed on Premium accounts, result ranking is influenced by whether the lawyer has a paid membership or not. However, the confirmation of a matter by a client is only one of several criteria; unconfirmed matters do not necessarily appear lower in the hit list than confirmed ones.

Can I use matterius to advertise?

Yes, we would be delighted. Unlike some of our competitors, matterius does not make money by selling overpriced badges, logos, or trophies.

You need a Premium membership if you would like to indicate that a certain matter has been confirmed by the client on matterius, as confirmations are only displayed on Premium accounts.

How does matterius make money?

We generate revenue through Premium memberships.

For clients

What is matterius?

matterius is a searchable directory of legal matters handled by specialized business lawyers, i.e., a search engine for finding lawyers based on their specific experience. We make the expertise of business lawyers transparent, verifiable, and findable.

matterius is an independent company based in Munich and hosted in Germany.

We do not provide lawyer or law firm rankings, and we are not a publishing company. matterius is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

What is the process for confirming matters?

Lawyers describe their matters and invite a contact person at the client company via e-mail to confirm them online. The contact person enters their e-mail, name, role, and company name and confirms the e-mail address. We use the e-mail domain to verify whether your contact person really works for the client and whether the domain matches the matter description (e.g., "@oceanic-airlines.com" at "international airline"). Therefore, direct contact with your contact person is usually not necessary.

What matter information is published?

The matter description is published as entered by the lawyer and this information is also displayed to the client during the online confirmation process. The lawyer alone decides whether and when a matter is published. The lawyer can delete or unpublish matters at any time and thus has full control over the matter list.

For profiles labelled as "editorial", the profile details and matters were created by matterius on the basis of publicly available information.

What will my personal information be used for (e-mail, name, role, company name)?

During the confirmation process, we ask for your business e-mail address, name, role, and company name. We use the e-mail domain to verify whether you really work for the client and whether the domain matches the matter description. We use the remaining information for plausibility checks. For example, we can use Google or LinkedIn to determine whether the name, role, and company name match.

If you do not expressly agree to the publication of your personal details, these will be deleted immediately once the matter is confirmed. Only the information that the matter details have been confirmed by the client will then be saved.

Do I have to rate the lawyer?

No, but you can leave a comment on the matter, which will only be published if you and the lawyer agree.

You also have the option to express your appreciation for the lawyer's work by selecting feedback phrases from a list (e.g., "pragmatic and practical," "solution-oriented," "good industry knowledge"). This feedback is always public.

Do I need to register?

No, you do not need a user account to confirm a matter.

However, you have the option to create one so that you can confirm matters on matterius more easily in the future. This means that you will not need to re-enter your contact details or re-confirm your e-mail address each time.

For visitors

What is matterius?

matterius is a searchable directory of legal matters handled by specialized business lawyers, i.e., a search engine for finding lawyers based on their experience. We make the expertise of business lawyers transparent, verifiable, and findable.

matterius is an independent company based in Munich and hosted in Germany.

We do not provide lawyer or law firm rankings, and we are not a publishing company. matterius is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

How are the matter descriptions created?

Matter descriptions are written by the lawyer who has handled the respective matter and are neither created nor reviewed by matterius. matterius is a technical platform and not a publisher.

For profiles labelled as "editorial", the profile details and mandates were created by matterius on the basis of publicly available information.

What does "Confirmed by client" mean?

This means that the matter description has been confirmed online as accurate by the client. We check the identity of the confirming person by validating their e-mail address. Confirmed matters will only be flagged publicly as such if the lawyer in question holds a Premium membership.

How is the information on the lawyer's profile pertaining to their focus determined?

This information is provided by the lawyer. The lawyer estimates how much of their billable working time is allotted to the individual areas.

For profiles labelled as "editorial", the profile details and mandates were created by matterius on the basis of publicly available information.

How may I use the data on matterius?

As a visitor to matterius, you can view the data in order to find a business lawyer or law firm for your company.

As an applicant, you can find information about the focal areas and work of a potential new employer.

As an employer, you can use the information to better evaluate an applicant or find a potential applicant.

The following forms of use are not permitted unless you have first obtained our express written consent:

• copying or adopting data for the purpose of full or partial publication (e.g., on a website, your organization's intranet, or in a book)
• evaluating the data to create rankings, "best of" lists, or other publications
• for recruitment (head-hunting)
• for promotional use (e.g., for use in professional literature, seminars, or trainings)

Of course, lawyers and their law firms may use their own matter descriptions as they please.