Patent ID: 8204949

Claim:
A method performed on a computer processor, said method comprising: receiving an email from a sender; authenticating said sender to an authentication database; identifying a first matter from said email, said email being a reply email to an original email transmitted by said matter database, said first matter being determined by evaluating said original email; determining that said sender has permission to update said first matter; looking up said first matter in a matter database, said matter database comprising matter records and activities related to said matter records; adding at least a portion of said email to said first matter in said database; determining a set of open activities for said first matter; evaluating the contents of said email to identify one of said open activities; updating said one of said open activities; identifying a first activity from said set of open activities by evaluating contents of said email, said first activity having a due date; associating an identifier with said first activity; updating said first activity with at least a portion of said contents, said updating comprising determining a completion date from said contents; said updating further comprising uploading an attached file from said email to said matter database, said attached file being associated with said first matter.