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Let’s face it: Corporate legal departments are often mired in chaos. Team members are overwhelmed by a constant stream of requests from every direction. Leadership lacks visibility into day-to-day operations, and lawyers live in perpetual fear that a critical review will slip through the cracks. It’s easy to assume this is just the nature of the job.
But it doesn’t have to be.
The truth is, many legal teams are so bogged down by their workload that they don’t have the bandwidth to optimize their processes for legal matter management. Yet, the cost of maintaining the status quo is far too high to ignore. Let's examine the true costs of allowing chaos to reign unchecked in legal operations.
Legal workflows often involve numerous stakeholders, from lawyers to business teams. When processes are poorly structured, these workflows drain resources, with team members spending hours searching for information or duplicating efforts.
The more complex a legal matter is, the higher the costs. The first step in quantifying potential losses is to understand the complexity of your processes:
A simple formula reveals the stark reality of time and resources wasted on processes at each complexity level:
Number of people involved X Number of times process is used X Extra time spent per person X Per-unit cost of people and tools involved
For example, in a moderate complexity process involving eight people spending an extra two hours each on monthly contract reviews, at an average cost of $200/hour:
6 people × 12 times yearly × 2 extra hours × $200/hour = $28,800 annual waste
While quantifying the direct costs is important, it’s worth noting that the consequences of inefficiency extend beyond lost productivity. Delays in legal reviews can stall revenue-generating activities, cause businesses to miss critical market opportunities, and even damage reputations. Ultimately, chaotic workflows leave legal teams overworked and businesses underperforming due to significant missed opportunity costs.
When legal teams lack a streamlined process, the already laborious task of reviewing intricate contracts can become disorganized and inefficient. Each individual involved may spend several unnecessary hours tracking down vital information buried in old email threads, leading to duplicated efforts that squander valuable hours.
Consider the example of a contract review process we described before. The annual cost of wasted time alone is staggering. And that’s just one workflow. Multiply this by dozens of processes running across a business simultaneously, and the impact becomes astronomical.
The following table outlines how costs can add up as business size, process complexity, and number of people involved increase:
Legal teams are more vulnerable to missing critical dates without centralized tools to manage tasks and deadlines. Suppose an inefficient legal review process delays vendor contract reviews, which end up taking weeks instead of days and cause unnecessary back-and-forth for everyone involved. This leads to a key vendor contract auto-renewing at unfavorable terms because the legal team missed the notification deadline to renegotiate or terminate. The company is locked into a costly agreement, damaging its bottom line and eroding trust in the legal team’s ability to protect the business’s interests.
Legal teams often operate in silos, creating bottlenecks that slow down business operations. A typical scenario involves a sales team submitting a new customer contract for legal review, only for it to languish in an inbox due to unclear priorities and the absence of a tracking system. Weeks later, the deal is still in limbo, frustrating the customer and jeopardizing the company’s revenue goals.
Here’s an example of how that cost can be quantified:
Contract size
These collaboration challenges paint legal teams as “deal blockers” rather than enablers. However, legal departments can eliminate these bottlenecks and accelerate business outcomes by fostering better communication and implementing tools that prioritize revenue-generating tasks.
When legal data is scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and personal folders, important details slip through the cracks. This disorganization not only hampers efficiency but also creates significant compliance risks.
Take the example of a marketing campaign that requires legal review for paid endorsements. If the review request is buried in an inbox, the campaign might proceed without proper scrutiny, potentially violating FTC guidelines. Such oversights can lead to regulatory fines, reputational damage, and costly remediation efforts.
Centralized matter management is key to mitigating these risks. It ensures that critical legal information is accessible, organized, and actionable.
When legal teams are consumed by chaotic processes, they have little bandwidth for proactive, strategic work. Instead of acting as business enablers, they are reduced to putting out fires.
Consider a scenario where the legal team is overwhelmed with a backlog of disorganized tasks and misses a request to evaluate risks in a potential acquisition. By the time the team addresses the request, another buyer has seized the opportunity, costing the company a valuable deal.
Streamlining workflows allows legal teams to shift from reactive to strategic, positioning them as critical contributors to business success.
Don't let chaos reign within your legal department — the consequences of poor legal matter management are too significant to ignore. By centralizing workflows, automating repetitive tasks, and improving visibility, legal teams can manage their workloads more efficiently and effectively.
Ready to leave chaos behind? Find out how matter management software helps in-house legal teams keep things under control.
Scale your legal team's efficiency and effectiveness with modern workflow automation tools designed for in-house legal.
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