How to Close a Law Firm Matter Properly in 2026: The 9-Step Financial Closeout Checklist Most Firms Never Wrote Down

Law firms have a rigorous process for opening matters and almost none for closing them — and that asymmetry is where realization dies and trust exposure builds. This is the 9-step financial closeout checklist: time sweep, cost capture, lien resolution, trust transfer, residual refund, matter-level reconciliation, retention, and profitability capture, in the order they have to happen.