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 tools, scattered information, and fragmented processes.

Essentially, mature legal departments face mounting pressure to operate with greater efficiency and transparency. The use of data to drive strategic decision-making provides that balance to advanced maturity versus ad hoc decisions.

One reason that matter management software is so critical is the errant searches made by the legal team for documents. Vital documents used in matter management versus case management become hidden in emails, folders, the cloud, in Word document files, and even the filing cabinet(!). One-to-two hours daily may be spent looking for the proper documents. This time deficit accumulates rapidly, potentially leading to decreased productivity and increased stress levels among legal teams. Moreover, time is money. No one in the corporate legal department wants time wasted.

What Is Matter Management Benefits

A legal team without matter management runs into efficiency and collaboration issues. Matter management software streamlines the entire end-to-end process of legal matters. Beyond that, other benefits also apply, and here are several:

• Data and Analytics. Imagine a chief legal officer or another in the C-suite asking for status on all open matters and their budgets. The only surefire way to provide automatic reporting is by matter management application as part of an enterprise legal management solution. Data drives strategic decision-making. Data around matters help determine how many lawyers and paralegals are needed on an in-house team. Data also provides the foundation for hiring outside counsel to assist with matters. Typically, an in-house team cannot manage a surprise legal matter, and a request for more budget to manage the issue needs to be supported with data analysis.
• Collaboration. Matter management in a cohesive and unified workspace provides advanced benefits for anyone in the legal department and external vendors. Matter management is an opportunity to collaborate, streamline work intake from locations throughout the company, manage budgets and cost-cutting opportunities, negotiate fees with vendors, and enhance productivity in a synchronized manner.
• Maturity in the Legal Department. We briefly mentioned that data drives maturity. Going a step further, data also drives strategic decisions. Having more data about matters, matter duration, timekeepers, outside counsel costs, rates, and win/loss rates is critical to the overall success and strategy of the legal department. This type of information builds value and strengthens the regard for the law department by leadership teams throughout the company.
• Enhanced Operational Excellence. Advanced matter management solutions transform legal operations in several ways. The establishment of a unified platform for all legal activities ensures seamless coordination across departments and teams. By creating fluid workflows between internal teams and external counsel, organizations can maintain continuity in their legal processes. Comprehensive analytics enable data-driven decision-making, providing insights that were previously difficult to obtain. Through centralized information management, organizations significantly reduce their exposure to operational risks and potential compliance issues.
• Business Integration and Accessibility. Progressive matter management systems have revolutionized how legal departments interact with the broader business. Strategic business alignment is achieved through improved data visibility, allowing legal teams to better support organizational objectives. The implementation of self-service capabilities for routine legal requests reduces the burden on legal professionals while accelerating response times.
• Streamlined Work Intake. One of the critical features of a robust enterprise legal management solution is its ability to streamline work intake. There are two options: the first is the use of forms that enable business stakeholders to complete a legal request directly in the ELM solution. The form traverses the queue and ends up in the hands of an assigned in-house lawyer who determines whether the issue can be easily resolved or becomes a matter that requires the full legal team's attention. Secondly, using an AI legal assistant provides answers, culled from the company’s policies and procedures, to simple legal questions posed by business stakeholders. These questions and answers allow the self-serving of legal help for things like “Where can I get our company’s NDA?” or “Do we have a non-compete agreement for new hires?”

Knowledge preservation and transfer across teams becomes seamless, ensuring valuable insights and precedents are never lost. Additionally, the system's ability to provide accelerated response times for legal inquiries enhances the department's value proposition to the organization.

Essential Matter Management Components

While often conflated, matter management versus case management serve distinct purposes. Case management primarily focuses on litigation document organization and court-related processes. In contrast, matter management encompasses the broader spectrum of in-house legal operations, including strategic planning, resource allocation, and cross-functional collaboration. While there is software for matter management versus case management functionality, legal operations professionals and procurement directors can select intelligent enterprise legal management software to organize case documents and manage the life cycle of matters such as financials and budgeting, the contract life cycle, and the outside counsel who assist with legal services delivery.

A comprehensive matter management solution should incorporate several critical elements:

Foundational Elements

The system must be built specifically for in-house legal teams, with architecture that addresses their unique needs and challenges. Workflow configurations should be customizable to accommodate varying organizational requirements and processes. An intuitive user interface design ensures widespread adoption and efficient utilization of the system's capabilities. Robust security protocols protect sensitive legal information while maintaining accessibility for authorized users.

Software Integration

Critically, enterprise legal management solutions provide a plethora of applications in a single and unified platform. This has been indicated throughout this article. One of the key features that every legal operations professional should look for when selecting ELM software is contract-to-matter linking. This echoes what was stated in the initial paragraphs: no one wants to waste time searching for the contracts associated with matters. If the right ELM software, is selected, provides this beneficial feature so in-house lawyers can automatically pull up a contract associated with a matter from one interface.

Technical Integration

The solution must provide seamless connectivity with essential business tools that legal teams use daily. Advanced document management capabilities ensure efficient storage, retrieval, and version control of legal documents. Automated reporting and analytics functions deliver actionable insights for strategic decision-making. Cross-platform accessibility enables legal professionals to access necessary information regardless of their location or device.

Collaborative Features

Internal team coordination tools facilitate efficient communication and task management within the legal department. External counsel integration streamlines collaboration with outside legal partners while maintaining information security. Again, ELM software provides the opportunity for outside counsel to submit invoicing directly within the platform. This puts all documentation and LEDES invoicing at the fingertips of invoice reviewers on the corporate legal side while enabling the law firm's financial manager the opportunity to review invoices linked to that client’s matter. Business stakeholder engagement options ensure smooth interaction with non-legal departments. Knowledge sharing mechanisms preserve institutional knowledge and promote best practices across the organization.

What Is Matter Management During Implementation

Organizations may encounter several challenges when implementing matter management systems, and these can be avoided with the right technology provider delivering the right customer service during the implementation process.

While a legal operations professional needs to appoint a point person internally to manage implementation requirements, the technology provider manages every critical step to establish uniform procedures. These procedures are set up across teams and require careful planning and change management. The goal is to disrupt information silos that demand both technical solutions and cultural changes. On both sides of the equation, logistics are managed with synchronized calendars, deadlines and fulfillment tasks. Once implementation occurs, the next steps are comprehensive training and support.

At the outset, stakeholder buy-in involves demonstrating clear value propositions and benefits. This occurs through integral training and adoption programs that are comprehensive and accessible to users with varying technical abilities. Certainly, legacy system integration requires careful planning to prevent data loss and business disruption. Along the way, security protocol implementation must balance protection with accessibility. Data protection, most of all, is a significant objective in addition to risk management and regulatory compliance.

What Is Matter Management In The Future

The evolution of matter management continues to accelerate, driven by several key factors. Artificial intelligence integration is enhancing decision-making capabilities and automating routine tasks. Advanced analytics capabilities are providing deeper insights into legal operations and performance. Mobile accessibility requirements are shaping how legal professionals interact with matter management systems. Enhanced collaboration tools are facilitating better communication and coordination across global teams.

Effective matter management represents more than just a technological solution—it's a strategic approach to legal operations that enables organizations to operate with greater efficiency, transparency, and control. As legal departments continue to evolve, robust matter management systems will become increasingly central to organizational success. To learn more about matter management and a robust enterprise legal management solution, contact us.