Clarra

What it is

Clarra is cloud case management built around the litigation docket rather than the billing ledger. Matters, events, documents, contacts and time entries hang off a litigation lifecycle, and matters can be linked into sub-matters for mass tort, class action, arbitration and mediation work. A mail log with a “send to docketing” step routes incoming filings to whoever owns deadlines, and a recoveries module tracks settlement phases, cost splits and fee splits per party. It most resembles Filevine, priced and configured for firms that find Filevine too heavy.

The company is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2021. Co-founder Todd Schneider is managing partner of the plaintiff class-action firm Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky, where the product started. Keao Caindec is CEO. It launched commercially on October 3, 2023, and completed a SOC 2 Type II examination (Security criteria) announced June 2, 2026.

Why it shows up in Legal Ops stacks

• It ships a first-party MCP server with 120+ tools. On August 19, 2026, Clarra released an MCP server with 120+ tools over its 250+ REST API endpoints, and demonstrated it at ILTACON that month. Claude Cowork, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Cursor can read matter data, documents, notes, deadlines and accounting, and can also write: update matters, create tasks and configure workflows. Clio and Filevine users reach Claude through third-party open-source connectors (Oktopeak’s Clio server ships 26 tools). Clarra’s is first-party and 4 times the size of Oktopeak’s. See what an MCP server is.
• It is built for docket-driven firms, plaintiff or defense. Filevine’s product DNA is plaintiff personal injury. Clarra’s docketing, sub-matter linking and portfolio dashboards also fit insurance defense, corporate legal departments running outside-counsel litigation, and insurers.
• The price is published. Most litigation platforms quote by demo. Clarra lists three of its four tiers on its site, and it offers a free plan to test the matter model with real data.
• Documents stay where they already live. Growth connects SharePoint, OneDrive and Google Drive. Enterprise adds iManage and NetDocuments, plus Outlook, Gmail and Twilio communications logging.

Pricing reality

The pricing page lists per-user rates, with users unlimited on paid plans:

• Free: $0, 5 users, 5 open matters, 10 GB.
• Essentials: $59/user/month billed annually ($708/year), $69 monthly. Capped at 1,000 open matters and 1 TB. No REST API, no court rules, no SSO.
• Growth: $79/user/month billed annually ($948/year), $89 monthly. Unlimited matters and storage, bulk edits, intake, REST API, SSO, and the CalendarRules integration.
• Enterprise: quote only. Adds accounting, communications, analytics, AI document summarization and timekeeping, document generation, and iManage and NetDocuments.

Capterra still shows $47, which is Clarra’s 2023 launch price. It is stale. For a litigation firm, Growth is the real floor, because Essentials has no court-rules calculation. A 30-user firm on Growth pays $28,440 a year, plus a separate CalendarRules subscription for deadline chains. Firms on iManage, or those that want the AI features, land on Enterprise. The MCP server is not listed in any self-serve tier, and Clarra has not published its price. Growth at $79 is about half the low end of Litify’s estimated total cost quoted below.

Best for

Litigation managers and legal operations leads at litigation firms of roughly 20 to 500 lawyers (the customer bands Legaltech Hub lists for Clarra), plaintiff or defense, that run hundreds to low thousands of open matters, want a first-party MCP server so Claude can work on live matter data, and need published pricing to budget against. It also fits corporate legal and insurance claims-litigation teams that need a docket, not a spend-management suite.

Skip it if you are a PI firm whose value is in medical-records and demand-letter automation. Filevine and the specialist AI tools built around it (EvenUp, Supio) are deeper there. Skip it too if your firm is transactional, or if you need built-in accounting without an Enterprise quote. Clio covers that for less.

Versus the alternatives

Filevine is the market-share leader in plaintiff and mass tort case management. It raised $400M in September 2025 at a valuation reported at $2–3B. Pick it when a PI or mass tort practice runs 1,000+ templated matters and wants native medical-record and demand workflows. Its pricing is custom (our Filevine entry puts effective rates at $50–150/user/month). Pick Clarra when you want a published price, a first-party MCP server, or a defense-side docket.

Clio is the volume leader for small and mid-size firms, and the fastest-growing: it passed $500M ARR in May 2026. Pick it when billing, trust and client intake matter more than litigation depth. Clio also owns CalendarRules, the court-rules engine Clarra’s deadline chains depend on. Pick Clarra when sub-matter linking and portfolio docketing are the daily work.

Litify is the Salesforce-native option for large plaintiff and enterprise legal teams. Third-party reviews estimate $150–300+/user/month including Salesforce licenses, plus $50,000–200,000+ implementations over 3–9 months. Pick it when your firm already runs Salesforce and has admins to spare.

If none fit, because what a legal department actually needs is spend management and e-billing, look at Mitratech or Onit instead of a case management system.

Watch-outs

• There is no independent review base. Capterra shows 0 reviews, and the public evidence is press releases and two LegalTech Breakthrough awards (2024 and 2025). Guard: ask for two reference customers at your matter volume and practice type, and run the free tier on 5 live matters before signing.
• Court rules depend on a rival’s subsidiary. Deadline chains require a separate CalendarRules subscription, and CalendarRules has been owned by Clio since 2021. Guard: get the CalendarRules cost and jurisdiction list quoted together with Clarra, and write rule-feed continuity into the order form.
• The MCP server writes, not just reads. Tools that update matters and configure workflows mean a bad prompt can change records. Guard: start with a read-only role for AI clients, confirm that matter access controls apply to MCP sessions, and review the audit logs weekly during the pilot.
• The SOC 2 scope is narrow and recent. The June 2026 report covers the Security criterion only and does not name the auditor. Guard: request the full report and bridge letter, and ask whether Confidentiality and Availability are on the roadmap before storing privileged material.
• Key features sit on the quote-only tier. AI, iManage, NetDocuments and accounting are Enterprise-only. Guard: price the tier you actually need in the first call, not Essentials.