“Legal tech” is no longer an oxymoron. The staid, precedent-bound legal guild is slowly transforming into something new. While precedent remains a guiding principle in the practice of law, we have begun to see the proliferation of legal technology. In 2020, only 3.9% of in-house legal departments’ budgets were spent on legal tech, an increase of 2.6% recorded in 2017. By 2025, legal tech spending is expected to increase to 12% of in-house budgets, a rather considerable leap forward. Understanding the inevitable and accelerating pace of the industry’s digital transformation requires a broader lens.
The Covid-19 pandemic intensified an already perfect storm of macro-environmental forces that are fundamentally altering how we live, work, and exchange information. A remarkable convergence of events has contributed to the rising need for innovative solutions:
- Rapid technological advances
- The emergence of Big Data
- Socio-economic factors like Covid-19 and Ukraine
- The shift from an analog to a digital world
The speed and complexity of businesses have been dramatically affected by the macro-environmental forces listed above, placing immense pressure on in-house legal teams to deliver. In 2020, 58% of corporate law departments saw a rise in workload, while 30% endured budget cuts.
In response to these challenges, a new question has emerged: ‘How can legal departments be more efficient and do more for less?’ This is not typically a question that legal as a business function has had to concern itself with before, but as legal teams continue to adjust to an ever-changing corporate environment, there is a need to manage legal matters and contracts workload better.
Email and Microsoft Word have been the mainstay of every in-house legal department for years to document and share information. These tools have served lawyers well, but they have suddenly become inefficacious in response to increased digitalization and other technological innovation. How are critical metrics measured, analyzed, and optimized using email and MS Word? It’s not possible. This is where matter management software comes in.
What is matter management?
Matter management software is legal technology that assists with the broad management of legal matters, including everything from issue management, contract lifecycle management, knowledge management, and reporting on a legal team’s performance inside a corporate in-house legal team.
Matter management software is distinct from legal case management or legal practice management. They are law firm-specific activities, while matter management software tends to be more comprehensive, encompassing a wider range of activities related to an in-house legal team’s practice.
An efficient matter management software platform has displaced Microsoft Word and email as the most vital tool in a lawyer’s toolkit. A streamlined approach to matter management significantly increases the efficiency of the general counsel. Today matter management software has become the most crucial tool in today’s modern corporate legal operations departments to operate efficiently.
What does a matter management solution achieve?
1. Central and secure document management.
Matter management systems centralize document storage for matters and provide a secure location where important matter documents can be accessed. Seamless integrations with MS Office and Google Workspace simplify editing and collaboration. Matter management systems also make it simple for documents and their content to be searched and found.
With matter management systems, all matter-related information and knowledge are collated in one location. The best matter management systems harness this data and make know-how searchable and readily available in context when needed. Some matter management platforms leverage integrations with other systems to centralize data and create multiple sources searchable.
2. Efficient communication and collaboration.
Modern matter management platforms enable users from both within and outside the organization to collaborate on the delivery of matters. This is essential when legal teams are working with outside counsel. Communication should also be possible within the matter management platform, with social collaboration functionality like messaging, comments, and sharing, enabling team members to work effectively in the office or remotely.
3. Automated workflows and increased self-service.
Automating standardized workflows and reducing manual intervention is the key to making any process more efficient. Therefore, matter management services often provide workflow automation functionality ranging from standardized and fixed to fully configurable (no-code automation).
Automation can assist in optimizing a wide range of matter processes, including legal intake, document automation, approval processes, risk escalation mechanisms, and contract lifecycles.
While lawyers are generally resistant to change, they also seek out efficiency. Matter management software can help you do everything you already are doing but better.
4. Clear organization of work.
Delivering a legal matter requires the intricate coordination and management of resources, status, and risk to ensure delivery of the matter on time and within budget.
From task management, work allocation, and project plans to capacity trackers, team calendars, and schedules – matter management tools help map the work necessary for the delivery of the legal matter and support the management of the resource to ensure proper execution.
In many cases, matter management platforms also include time tracking features to enable legal teams to record time spent working on matters. However, project management isn’t just about the resource. It’s about monitoring status changes, tracking risk, and ensuring transparent reporting. Matter management tools ensure complete transparency over matter activity.
5. Transparent spend management
While many legal matters are dealt with in-house, a significant proportion still require the support of outside counsel. Full-suite matter management tools often provide the functionality to help source legal service providers, create budgets, track spending, review invoices, enforce billing guidelines, and run approval processes. Since spending remains such a significant element of any legal matter, it makes sense for spend management to form part of broader matter management systems.
6. Data-driven decisions
Many matter management systems provide sophisticated reporting and analysis tools that enable matter data to be filtered and extracted. Alternatively, data can be visualized in charts and graphs within reporting dashboards or via connectors with tools such as Power BI.
Many modern matter management systems go above and beyond simple reporting and are now using data to predict future outcomes and identify trends. With this valuable data at your fingertips, your in-house legal team can make better decisions that bring value to the entire organization.
Legal teams working without a matter management toolset operate entirely in the dark.
The Solution: Altien Legal Matter Manager
Matter management, like Altien’s solution, Legal Matter Manager (LMM), provides legal departments with the tools and applications to make their matter processes more efficient, streamline their legal operations, and deliver greater value to their organization.
Altien Legal Matter Manager provides the following competitive advantages:
- Our system can be configured to the way you work quickly and simply
- Our ‘model office’ implementation process minimizes disruption
- We can demonstrate an ROI in 12 months
- Integration to existing tools like email and teams means the transition overhead is limited
- We are built on enterprise standards, with the highest levels of security
Why does it matter?
Optimizing the matter management process is more critical than ever with the current landscape, and while it may seem daunting given the scope of legal matters, there are significant gains to be made by deploying technology solutions to streamline and support the management of legal matters.
