January 21, 2025

Setting Up A Legal Operations Team Structure

Behind every good law department is an equally good legal operations team, but what critical roles do they play? These silent partners to the legal team provide a plethora of roles and responsibilities, the most of which is to ensure that the legal department runs without a hitch. While this is not always possible, because hitches happen, becoming acquainted with the legal operations team structure, who’s on the...

January 16, 2025

E-billing Solutions Deliver Data to Manage Legal Spend

The haves and have-nots will always feel the difference when the topic is e-billing solutions in corporate legal operations. This digital transformation in managing outside counsel billing and invoicing provides critical efficiencies for the law department. Those without e-billing solutions will likely suffer through manual review and processing of vendor payments. A manual billing process put in-house counsel at the...

January 14, 2025

ELM Solutions Transform Legal Departments

ELM solutions in the corporate legal department are gaining critical entry into global corporations. As a necessary foundation for efficient legal operations workflow, ELM solutions provide an integrated platform for the various functions that in-house lawyers and legal operations teams require. What Does ELM Stand For? In corporate legal operations, ELM stands for enterprise legal management. Broadly, enterprise...

January 09, 2025

Attorney Case Management Software In Legal Departments

Efficiency and organization in the legal department and law firms drive the pathway to success. Attorney case management software provides one of the indispensable tools for modern law practices, transforming how legal professionals handle cases, manage documents, and serve their clients. In this blog post, we’ll look in-depth at attorney case management software and matter management software , who uses it, and...

January 07, 2025

What Is Matter Management In Corporate Legal?

At its core, matter management serves as the backbone of corporate legal operations, orchestrating every aspect of legal work within an organization. Think of it as the central nervous system coordinating all legal activities, documentation, and team collaboration. Without robust matter management, often part of an enterprise legal management solution, legal departments can find themselves navigating a maze of disconnected...

January 02, 2025

What Is LEDES In Legal E-Billing Software

The digitization of everything in corporate legal departments, and now with the advent of AI, means that the law department and outside counsel need to utilize legal e-billing software to streamline their financial operations. LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard) is at the forefront of this transformation. While there are still many PDFs in use for invoice submission and in legal e-billing software, the LEDES...

December 31, 2024

Best Law Office Software for Legal Departments

In-house legal departments face increasing workloads and complexity. Choosing the best law office software solutions is crucial for maintaining productivity and ensuring compliance. In this blog post, we look at various insights for legal operations professionals to select the best law office software to optimize their technology stack. Understanding the Law Office Software Landscape Modern legal departments rely...

December 26, 2024

2024 Year In Review: Our Most Popular Content

In mid-July 2024, the CounselLink blog was officially launched, publishing twice weekly to provide those interested with enterprise legal management features and content for the corporate legal world. Our audience of readers is people in legal operations, in-house legal teams and the outside counsel they hire. Legal topics run the gamut from anything relating to enterprise legal management software; contract lifecycle...

December 24, 2024

What Is A Vendor Management System?

A vendor management system (VMS) is a comprehensive software solution designed to help organizations streamline and automate their vendor management processes. It provides a centralized platform for handling the entire vendor lifecycle, from sourcing and onboarding to performance tracking and payment. Often, vendor management is part of enterprise legal management software , as one of the primary features. By using a...

December 19, 2024

Legal Contract Management Software

Managing contracts is a pivotal function for legal departments, requiring meticulous attention and precise organization. Legal contract management software is designed to streamline this process, helping legal professionals efficiently manage their contracts while ensuring compliance and reducing risks. This software plays a crucial role in enhancing the overall efficiency of legal operations. This article explores...

December 17, 2024

Lawyer Software Implementation Best Practice For Legal Operations Manager

Procurement of lawyer software solutions in the legal department requires more than just saying yes to the buy. There’s a process that adds a “success” bow to the lawyer software customer experience beyond the immediate horizon. A legal operations manager often leads the hands-on purchase decision and works with the procurement department and the chief legal officer or general counsel to ensure that...

December 12, 2024

Maximize Efficiency With Legal And Case Management Software

Legal and case management software may have various connotations among legal operations professionals and in-house lawyers in the law department. Legal and case management software is necessary for in-house legal departments to streamline workflow. Essentially, the primary functions required in legal departments begin with matter management, legal and case management, financial management , relationships with vendors...

December 10, 2024

Advanced Legal Operations Strategy Delivers Law Department Value

In corporate law departments, legal operations strategy requires advanced preparation, attention and critical thinking to showcase value to the enterprise. In fact, when legal operations professionals are in sync with legal operations strategy, the law department can play a pivotal role in leading as a cost center. While the term “cost center” may have a negative connotation to some, especially those in...

December 05, 2024

Law Operations Challenges For In-House Teams

In-house legal and law operations teams continuously face challenges due to various factors. Each team manages daily issues and must also be prepared for the singular issue that draws all hands on deck. Lawyers want to practice law without concern for law operations. Some areas in the legal department overlap legal and operations, primarily associated with vendor management. Often, legal matters can be too complex to...

December 03, 2024

Contract Lifecycle Management Tools Benefit Legal Departments

Contract lifecycle management tools enable legal teams to automate the contract management process within the corporate legal department. This critical benefit helps streamline the entire contract management workflow -- from drafting and negotiation to approval, execution, maintenance, and renewal. Benefits of Contract Lifecycle Management Tools With a contract lifecycle management system that integrates with an enterprise...

November 26, 2024

Simple Legal Billing Software For Legal Ops

In legal ops, managers look for simple legal billing software to pave the way to efficiency and cost-saving strategies in the legal department. E-billing software has been around for decades in many permutations. As the years come and go, technology vendors have perfected simple legal billing software to make things easier for legal ops. Benefits of Simple Legal Billing Software for Legal Ops On the surface, everyone...

November 21, 2024

Product Showcase: CounselLink+ Awarded CLM Platform Of TheYear

LegalTech Breakthrough, a leading independent market intelligence organization that evaluates and recognizes standout legal technology companies, products and services around the globe, recently announced that LexisNexis® CounselLink+™ is “ Contract Lifecycle Management Platform of the Year .” The contract lifecycle management award complements other awards given in other categories for the program...

November 19, 2024

How An ELM Platform Benefits Corporate Legal

In the world of the corporate legal department, an ELM platform provides the foundation for technology that unifies the workspace. For those who don’t know the meaning of an ELM platform, it is an enterprise legal management solution that the legal team and legal operations professionals can use for collaboration, streamlined workflow, matter management, financials, contract lifecycle management, vendor management...

November 14, 2024

What Is Law Operations?

Law operations, legal operations, law department, legal department, in-house counsel, outside counsel, and many other things go hand-in-hand in the practice of law and the delivery of legal services between corporate legal departments and law firms. Legal Operations in Corporate Law Inside companies, a team of lawyers manages all the legal issues affecting the enterprise. These teams can consist of several lawyers...

November 12, 2024

Matter Management Tools for In-House Counsel

The rapidity and complexity of legal matters require in-house counsel to utilize efficient matter management tools , a critical component of software infrastructure in the corporate legal department. As part of the enterprise legal management platform , matter management is the core of the solution that drives cohesive collaboration and internal and external communication with outside counsel. In the legal department...

November 07, 2024

Contract Management Software For All Legal Departments

No matter the size of a business, every business requires contract management software to play a pivotal role. Contracts bind two or more parties with terms, conditions, and expectations. They are the backbone of any business transaction, from hiring employees to making purchases or sealing deals with partners. These essential documents dictate the terms under which business is conducted, ensuring transparency, and setting...

November 05, 2024

Year-end Cost-Cutting Strategies for Legal Departments

Year-end planning with an eye on cost-cutting strategies for legal departments requires a look at historical data and a look ahead to forecast costs, anticipated matters, talent acquisition, technology procurement, and more. One obvious place to explore cost-cutting strategies in the law department is with outside counsel billing and invoicing. Other areas to consider include law firm fees, RFPs, and the vendor selection...

October 31, 2024

Product Spotlight: Using Dashboards to Benchmark Legal Spend

Benchmarking outside counsel hourly rates from one law firm to another provides beneficial insights for general and legal operations professionals who want to better drive legal spend strategy. The LexisNexis® CounselLink® 2024 Trends Report: Dynamics Shaping the Future of Legal indicated that law firm partner rates marked a steady climb in the last four years. The report provides a way for law departments to...

October 29, 2024

Legal CLM KPIs in the Law Department

Legal CLM in the law department pertains to Contract Lifecycle Management , conveniently shortened to CLM for the purpose of this blog post. As a companion to enterprise legal management software for corporate legal departments, legal CLM is the tool law departments need to manage contracts effectively from start to finish and in between. Contract management involves compliance with regulatory guidelines, the ability...

October 24, 2024

Legal Department Budgeting With Smart Financial Tools

Legal department budgeting is enhanced with accurate forecasting and smart financial budgeting tools essential for law department stability. To that end, legal department budgeting not only aids in the financial and economic health of the law department but also contributes to strategic decision-making for legal department leadership and those in other business units. Legal Department Budgeting Strategy Step by Step...