Your First Day
You just logged into Laminar for the first time. Here’s a quick tour of where things are so you’re not clicking around wondering what’s what.
The Layout
Section titled “The Layout”Laminar has three main areas on screen:
The sidebar runs down the left side. This is your primary navigation. It’s where you switch between views: your personal task list, your matters, and any team queues you belong to. It stays put no matter where you navigate.
The top bar sits across the top. It has the search shortcut (hit Cmd+K or Ctrl+K to jump to anything instantly), your user menu, and a Create button for making new matters or tasks.
The main content area fills the rest of the screen. This is where the actual work lives: lists of matters, task details, matter views, whatever you’ve navigated to.
The Sidebar
Section titled “The Sidebar”The sidebar has a few sections worth knowing:
Context Selector is at the top. This controls whose work you’re looking at. By default, it’s set to “Me,” which means you see your own matters and tasks. If you manage a team, you can switch to your team’s view or the entire firm’s view. Most people leave this on “Me” for daily work.
My Tasks is probably where you’ll spend the most time. It shows every task assigned to you, organized by when it’s due. Tasks scheduled for today are front and center. Overdue tasks float to the top so you can’t miss them. Tasks scheduled for the future stay hidden until their day arrives.
Matters shows your matter list, organized into pools by workflow stage. This is your bird’s-eye view: how many transactions are in Searches? How many are approaching Closing? What’s stuck?
Below that, you may see team sections if you belong to any teams. These give you visibility into the team’s shared workload.
Finding Things Fast
Section titled “Finding Things Fast”The fastest way to find anything in Laminar is Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K on Windows). This opens a search bar that works across matters, tasks, people, and teams. Start typing a name, a matter number, or a file reference, and results appear instantly.
Get comfortable with this shortcut. It will save you more time than anything else in the first week.
Your Daily Routine (The Short Version)
Section titled “Your Daily Routine (The Short Version)”Once you’re oriented, a typical day in Laminar looks something like this:
- Open Laminar. Your overview loads with a summary of what needs attention.
- Check what’s due. Head to My Tasks. Tasks scheduled for today (and anything overdue) are right there.
- Work through your list. Open a task, do the work, update the status, move on.
- Schedule anything you can’t get to. If a task needs to wait until tomorrow or next week, schedule it. It’ll disappear from your view until then.
- Check your matters. Switch to the Matters view periodically to see the big picture. Move matters forward through stages as milestones are hit.
That’s the rhythm. The details of each step are covered in the Guides section.
A Few Things That Might Feel Unfamiliar
Section titled “A Few Things That Might Feel Unfamiliar”Tasks disappear and come back. This is by design. When you schedule a task for next Wednesday, it’s gone from your view until Wednesday. It’s not deleted. It’s not lost. It’s just waiting. This keeps your daily list honest: what you see is what you actually need to deal with today.
Matters have stages, not just statuses. You won’t see “Open” and “Closed.” You’ll see specific stages like “Active,” “Searches,” or “Closing.” This gives everyone a shared language for where things stand. “It’s in Conditions” tells you a lot more than “It’s open.”
The audit trail is always running. You don’t need to write down that you changed an assignment or uploaded a document. Laminar tracks all of that for you. Check the Activity section on any matter or task to see the full history.
When You Get Stuck
Section titled “When You Get Stuck”If you’re not sure how to do something, try Cmd+K and search for the thing you’re looking for. You’d be surprised how often that’s the fastest answer.
For deeper questions, the Guides section of these docs is organized around common tasks: opening matters, managing contacts, working with trust transactions, and more.
And if something feels genuinely broken, that’s a different kind of question, and your firm’s administrator is the right person to ask.