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In-house legal teams need to find ways to stay organized and efficient at scale to keep up with the pace of business. Matter management is a crucial factor in the efficiency of legal team operations. Without effective matter management, workflows are chaotic, lawyers get burned out, and legal leaders lack the data they need to advocate for additional resources.
In this post, we’ll define matter management for in-house and corporate legal teams and offer best practices that can help you improve your team’s efficiency.
The term “matter management” originates from traditional law firms, where precisely tracking the tasks and time of legal professionals is crucial for billing clients appropriately. Today, the term is more often used by in-house legal teams to describe the process of organizing and tracking corporate legal work. Perhaps the most important (and complex) aspect of matter management is legal intake and triage, where matters are located and routed to the correct team members. Beyond intake, matter management also encompasses document management, deadline tracking for requests, and communication between team members.
For corporate legal departments, the goal of matter management is to manage internal requests efficiently. Generally, that means involving outside counsel as little as possible to minimize legal spend. That said, matter management includes tracking both internal and external matters. Below is a non-exhaustive list of examples:
Want to go deeper on in-house matter management? Check out our ultimate guide for legal teams, which is a jumping-off point for a more in-depth exploration.
The types of legal matters a traditional law firm handles depend on its industry specialties and practice areas. For a real estate law firm, matters might include property sales and purchases, title disputes, and zoning issues. In family law, lawyers handle divorce proceedings, negotiate child custody arrangements, and argue for spousal support. Still other firms specialize in trust and estate planning, assisting individuals and families with guardianships, wills, estate taxes, and more. Regardless of what type of law a firm practices, its goal is to track legal matters closely to bill clients for the amount of time lawyers spend on each project or case. This differs from internal legal teams where time isn’t directly billable, so the goal is to resolve requests as efficiently as possible without requiring additional resources (e.g., hiring more lawyers or paying outside counsel).
While both matter management and case management deal with legal requests, they are not the same. Matter management offers a holistic view of the legal function within an organization with a focus on workflow efficiency. It encompasses all types of legal work within an organization, including both litigious and non-litigious matters. By contrast, case management dives deep into the micro-level intricacies of individual litigation cases, focusing on documents, deadlines, and court requirements.
ELM is the broader concept of managing the legal enterprise. It includes matter management, contract lifecycle management, compliance management, reporting and analytics, e-billing, and legal spend management. When it comes to software, no single tool handles every aspect of ELM, so it’s best to prioritize the functionality you need and evaluate solutions accordingly.
According to the 2023 Legal Department Operations Index by Thomson Reuters Institute, most law departments are experiencing an increase in the volume of legal work but are trying to handle that increased workload in-house. Law departments feel pressure to do more with less, with their budgets flat or decreasing. So, whether or not your team has efficient processes in place, you are technically managing matters — but your methods may be working against you.
With this in mind, effective matter management is vital for several reasons:
Managing legal matters manually can feel like trying to navigate a storm without a compass. Teams relying on email threads, messaging apps, spreadsheets, and generic task management tools like Asana or Jira often struggle with inefficiencies and a lack of clarity. These methods create a fragmented legal intake system where information is scattered, priorities are unclear, and critical tasks are easily overlooked.
Manual methods may seem manageable for small teams or simple tasks, but as legal operations grow in complexity, the cracks begin to show. In a fast-paced business environment, adopting legal technology isn’t optional; it’s essential.
Unlike manual methods or general-purpose tools, matter management software is designed for the unique needs of legal teams, serving as the corporate legal department’s centralized source of truth. An effective platform should incorporate request intake and triage, document management, workflow automation, analytics and reporting, collaboration tools, and useful integrations with other tools. By organizing and tracking all in-house legal work, matter management software transforms chaotic workflows into streamlined operations.
In-house legal teams face unique challenges in managing legal matters efficiently and effectively. To navigate these challenges, adopting best practices in matter management is crucial.
A centralized document management system can store important legal documents and ensure easy retrieval and secure sharing. For instance, legal teams can utilize modern, cloud-based document management platforms to manage contracts, litigation documents, and compliance materials, enabling team members to seamlessly access and collaborate on the latest documents, regardless of where they are. This approach saves time, reduces the risk of outdated versions and document misplacement, and enhances overall data security.
Another best practice is integrating workflow automation in legal processes. A 2023 study by Hyperion Research showed a significant shift in legal departments embracing workflow automation with 71% of respondents planning to invest in a workflow automation tool in the subsequent 12-18 months. Legal workflow automation software like Streamline AI can significantly reduce the time spent on routine, high-volume tasks like contract approvals, document drafting, and compliance checks, resulting in significant cost savings.
For example, a tech company might use automation tools to streamline its sales contract or vendor approval process for contracts over or under a certain dollar threshold, where draft contracts are automatically routed to the relevant parties for review and approval, thereby reducing the turnaround time from several days to a few hours. This not only increases efficiency but also allows legal professionals to have the time to focus on more strategic tasks, such as advising on complex legal issues or negotiating more critical, high-value contracts.
In today’s modern businesses, data reigns supreme. For legal teams, leveraging data is essential to inform smarter decision-making processes. Software like Streamline AI makes it possible for legal teams to gain real-time insight into legal operations processes and trends, such as request volume (over time, by team or type), SLAs, and time at each step, or exceptions to thresholds and non-standard terms. By analyzing this data, legal teams can better forecast workload volume and improve resource planning. The team can develop targeted strategies to mitigate risks or break down bottlenecks through better compliance training or streamlined contract processes.
Incorporating data analytics into matter management enhances efficiency and risk management and transforms the legal department from a reactive service provider into a proactive strategic advisor to the business. This data-driven approach ensures that legal strategies are aligned with business objectives and that the legal team is contributing to the overall success and resilience of the organization.
Matter management transcends mere case handling; it’s about optimizing the efficacy and impact of the legal department. By understanding its value and adopting best practices, in-house legal teams can significantly improve their operations, making a strategic contribution to their organizations.
Learn more about matter management software for in-house legal teams.
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