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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, contract lifecycle management, and analytical reporting. The use of an enterprise legal management solution provides for the aforementioned and also rolls in legal and case management software into an integrated platform.
Enterprise legal management solutions centralize matter management, document storage, case management, workflow automation, and spend management. This comprehensive solution enables legal teams to track cases, manage deadlines, collaborate effectively, and make data-driven decisions.
Moreover, when legal operations professionals select enterprise legal management software to streamline the law department, they can ensure that contract lifecycle management software integrates within the enterprise legal management solution. This enables contracts to link directly to respective matters.
This type of integration essentially automates and streamlines workflow so in-house legal teams and their outside counsel can easily locate documents and eliminate unnecessary searching.
Mature legal departments utilize software and data to drive decision-making strategies. A law department does not have to be large to function as a mature cost center. The leaders who choose the right technology solution and configure the software to deliver data can scale and grow the department empowered by data-driven decisions. This includes legal and case management software.
Maturity in the law department is something to consider and act upon. Those cost centers that utilize empowered decision-making strategies to attain growth objectives and streamlined operations find that data actually drives success with actionable insights. Putting the right technology in place helps initially unlock the data. Analysis of the unlocked data allows legal operations to apply enhanced insights to critical decisions that positively influence law operations and legal team management.
As mentioned above, matter management and case management mean different things to in-house and law firm teams.
In matter management, one of the primary functionalities of enterprise legal management software, in-house lawyers consider this a broader term covering legal work types, such as litigation, contracts, advice, compliance, and more.
Also included in matter management is budgeting, invoices, and allocation of legal resources to matters. It doesn’t matter which type of issue the legal team manages, because matter management software is robust enough to handle various types of work.
Particularly for matter management, and as mentioned previously, contract lifecycle management is part of the overall enterprise legal software solution that integrates and links contracts with matters. Integrating the contract lifecycle management function with the matter management feature of the enterprise legal solution is a critical benefit. This enables legal teams and hired lawyers to collaborate in the same workspace without the need to search for matching or respective documents. The time saved is an important benefit.
As for case management, lawyers in firms regard this as litigation and dispute management. Every case that law firms manage includes multiple documents, deadlines, pleadings, and court requirements for trials and litigation. Typically, case management encompasses all the details surrounding many adversarial proceedings. With the right technology, case management can be automated with workflow processes and systems.
When evaluating legal and case management solutions, focus on:
The software should seamlessly connect with existing tools, including document management systems, billing platforms, Microsoft 365, and other communication tools. This integration reduces manual data entry and ensures consistent information flow.
Software should always be considered with an eye on the future – growth, scalability and the ability to empower decision-making maturity. No legal department wants software that reaches maximum capacity early on or has a limit on users that can grab a licensing seat. Consider factors like user limits, storage capacity, and the ability to add new features or modules, as needed.
Legal departments handle sensitive information, making security paramount. Look for solutions with robust encryption, role-based access controls, and compliance with industry standards like GDPR, HIPAA and other privacy and global security regulations.
The interface should be intuitive for both legal professionals and non-legal stakeholders. Training requirements and adoption rates significantly impact ROI. Part of an enriched user experience depends on how well users understand the basics and the depth of the software. Does the software create efficiencies? Does it enhance collaboration?
Established software manufacturers provide in-depth support for all customers. These levels include a professional services team offering layers upon layers of high- level and high-quality expertise to ensure customer onboarding and user experience are more than satisfactory. From a health check and vendor dashboards to scorecard metrics and benchmarking analysis, customers can ask for assistance in developing a more mature legal department that responds to growth objectives. Moreover, software vendor teams are experts in best practices of the software and can develop creative solutions to ensure that a customer’s legal department is on a path to success.
Look behind the curtains of the software packaging aka the vendor website. Are there ongoing training courses, on-demand video, trainer-led sessions, and 24-7 support? After deployment, the primary points of contact on the legal operations team should absorb as many training sessions as possible so they can essentially train others in the department. Consistent training demonstrations are necessary to keep users continuously interested and informed about the software product.
Law departments and law firms cannot function without legal and case management software. While various vendors provide these solutions, select technology that is scalable and provides robust features to optimize and automate. Reach us to see a demo of our solution.