Definition of a Legal Matter Management System
Legal Matter Management Systems are a tool to help legal practices to manage and track their cases and matters within a practice. They have core functionalities that improve the efficiency and enable the practice to manage their business more effectively. The core functionalities of a legal matter management system include time and billing, document and email management, case management, and matter management. The general concept of a legal matter management system is somewhat new to the law, or shall I say new to most lawyers. Some lawyers might be using a core practice management system, but not all. So let’s take a look at what is a legal matter management system.
· A legal matter management system is software that allows a lawyer to manage their cases and matters within a practice. You may be asking yourself why would I need this when I have a practice management system in place? Well the real answer is, you may not need a legal matter management system, but if you have multiple and/or larger law practices , a legal matter management system may be just what you need.
· A legal matter management system provides the ability to manage all stages of a matter from initial conflict checks through to the post settlement report including budgeting/forecasting and post matter comparisons of what occurred against what was budgeted.
· It allows for effective filing and retrieval of file and record documentation, from the contracts with clients through pleadings, evidence, orders, correspondence, and billing.
· Helps to keep track of billing and expenses associated with each matter and enables accurate electronic transfer for submission to third-party billing systems.
· A duty calendar that records when certain events occur or are due to occur, so that no one breaches their duty or their right to claim costs.
· Matters lead through important processes through workflow functions. For example, a personal injury matter would have a flow that is unique to it, not necessarily transferrable to other matters. That is to say that a personal injury matter would follow its own course independent of other matters.
Outstanding Features of Legal Matter Management Systems
The key features that legal matter management solutions offer vary based on the sophistication of the applications, but most have at least these five basic functionalities:
Document Management
Document management software is a core function of legal matter management systems that allows firms to organize and share files in a secure environment. A document management system also enables compliance through a consistent workflow, restricting access only to individuals and enabling standard security protocols that will be audit proof. For example, a firm may choose to place an embargo on a case file so that only partners can access it at the trial stage.
Document management is especially important for smaller and mid-sized firms that find themselves inundated increasingly with documents that need to be stored and retrieved at a moment’s notice. In 2014, 30 percent of law firms reported having 75 to 100 per cent more documents than they had ten years earlier, according to research conducted by Bloomberg Law.
Time Tracking
To capture all billable hours, legal matter management systems help law firms track client time via mobile devices or PCs, with the ultimate goal of raising revenues and improving operational performance. Lawyers are either prompted to record their time at set intervals throughout the day or they can launch a Web app that will give them immediate access to the application for recording their hours. Cloud-based timekeeping also enhances data accuracy in far-flung law firms where it provides a single location for time and expenses.
Billing
Legal matter management systems automate invoicing, reduce redundancies and eliminate missed billable hours. The billing process is totally transparent when timekeeping is integrated with billing, helping law firms increase revenue and decrease decision fatigue. The near real-time data empowers effective forecasting and fees can be adjusted on the fly.
Client Communication
People benefiting from an effective legal matters management system are the legal administrator, the attorney and the client. With cloud-based systems, law firms can stay in contact with clients and provide a more personalized experience. Close to 40 percent of attorneys cite client communication as a key priority, and 62 percent of clients expect regular updates from law firms, finds Clio’s 2015 Legal Trends Survey.
Advantages of a Legal Matter Management System
One of the most significant benefits of legal matter management systems is the improved productivity of legal teams. By centralizing and streamlining processes, these platforms help legal professionals save time and work more efficiently. Whether it’s automating repetitive tasks, facilitating case management, or centralizing resources, a legal matter management system gives legal professionals more time to focus on what matters most: the cases.
Better collaboration is another key benefit. Legal matter management systems provide legal professionals a collaborative environment to share vital case information that would otherwise be siloed on a shared drive or in email inboxes. With a centralized accessible system, attorneys, paralegals, and support staff can easily communicate, share documents, and manage workflows with their internal colleagues and their clients, all at the same time. Everyone involved in the matter can stay up-to-date with the latest information and have visibility into the status of the case.
Tech-enabled efficiency provides improved client satisfaction and outcomes as well. A legal matter management system can help firms better meet deadlines and exceed client expectations by having actionable insight into entire matter lifecycles—billable and non-billable time, expenses, work product, and other critical resources. By having a single view into their workload, firms can maximize their resources by allocating personnel to the highest value work. This transparency also strengthens attorney-client relationships as clients are able to stay informed about the progress of their matters.
An effective legal matter management system will help firms manage their workload efficiently, which can ultimately increase profitability. By automating administrative processes and providing a bird’s-eye view of matters, firms can ensure they have the resources needed to successfully support their clients and complete the work that needs to be done. And by leveraging critical data and analytics, firms can develop business cases to support matters with sound financial projections.
Implementation Considerations for a Legal Matter Management System
When investing in a legal matter management system, there are several factors to take into account. Choosing the right solution can have a significant impact on the way an organization does business.
Scalability One of the most important things to consider when choosing a legal matter management system is scalability. As an organization’s needs change, its legal matter management system should be able to evolve to meet those needs. This means that legal departments should look for software solutions that are designed to scale as their needs expand.
Customizability Similar to scalability, legal matter management systems should also offer the ability to customize the system. Legal departments aren’t one-size-fits-all operations; each department has different needs and requirements. The legal software solution should allow for some measure of customization to meet these needs.
User-Friendliness No one wants to struggle with a difficult-to-use software solution. Legal departments that want to be a productivity powerhouse need to implement legal matter management systems that are easy to use . Complicated software solutions are less likely to be adopted and used properly than user-friendly software.
Integration The legal department is often a hub of activity, coordinating across the organization and with outside counsel. Because of this centrality, it’s important for legal matter management systems to play well with the other software systems in the legal department’s technology stack. Legal software solutions should be able to integrate with other systems to ensure a seamless experience for the users and those with whom they interact.
Cost Cost is always a factor when choosing a new solution, and legal matter management systems are no different. Assessing exactly what is required to get the deal done and choosing a solution price accordingly will help to ensure that a legal department gets the most value from their new software.
A legal department looking to implement a legal matter management system has a lot of options to choose from. However, by keeping the factors above in mind, departments can evaluate these options and choose the solution that is right for their unique needs.
Legal Matter Management System Challenges and How to Address Them
When it comes to best practices in legal matter management, there are several challenges and solutions every law firm needs to understand.
Challenge 1: Information Overload and Fragmentation
In a recent industry report, Microsoft found information overload is the number one challenge for lawyers. This is compounded with fragmented channels of communication, such as email, phone, fax, chat, and text. As more tools are used, more information is created, but data is often stored in unstructured formats, siloed from collaboration with other team members.
Solution: A matter management system is invaluable when it comes to centralizing all communications and files into a single workspace. Information no longer needs to be communicated via emails, phone calls, or text messages. Everything is stored on secure servers within the law firm matter management system. Documents are uploaded centrally and organized by matters.
Challenge 2: Time and Budget
Every lawyer must manage their time and their client’s budget. Nobody wants nasty surprises when the bill is delivered. The only way a law firm can manage time and budget is by consistently tracking hours spent on various tasks related to a case against the estimated fees and budgets presented to the client before work was done.
Solution: Automated timekeeping makes it easy to track billable hours for every individual matter and every person working on the matter. The use of task-based management further helps enforce efficient timekeeping and ensures no critical tasks slip through the cracks.
Challenge 3: Defining and Refining Processes
Every law firm has established processes for how they perform work. But processes are rarely documented or consistently followed. As a result, processes are often ad hoc and can vary per matter or client.
Solution: Legal matter management systems have advanced features that allow firms to define workflows for common tasks or series of tasks. As soon as a matter is opened, key tasks will automatically populate. Tasks will automatically migrate based on set due dates or scheduled dates based on the initiation date of a matter. The right LMM system is not simply a tool, it also ensures firms are following their own best practices.
Common Challenges to Legal Matter Management System Adoption
Even though law firms are ready to adopt a legal matter management system, there are several challenges many firms face.
Challenge 1: Uncertainty
Many firms are understandably apprehensive to invest in technology. How do firms know if the technology will deliver the results they are hoping for? Will it really help solve any of the challenges outlined above?
Solution: Law firm leaders need to know the metrics they are trying to improve and define exactly how they are going to measure results. With the right software, firms can survey employees and gather feedback at different points in the process to see if their experience has improved. Managers can also measure the speed and efficiency of a system by comparing performance pre-and-post implementation.
Challenge 2: Slow Onboarding
Integration with existing systems is important for any technology. Firms are reluctant to consider switching if they believe it will take too long to onboard their teams to a new system.
Solution: Law firms can ease onboarding by introducing tech gradually. Workflows can be gradually introduced and firms can start with a handful of team members so they can build champions internally who advocate for a new system.
Challenge 3: Lack of Commitment
Many firms simply do not dedicate enough resources to properly implement a legal matter management system.
Solution: A single champion is important, but it is not enough. Every champion needs to have an executive dispersed responsibility across every practice group so they can better manage the onboarding process.
Emerging Trends in Legal Matter Management Systems
The implementation of legal matter management systems has already brought about a major transformation in the operation of law firms through massive efficiencies in document, knowledge and matter management. However, the future suggests that technology will advance into areas currently unimagined. If we look to other industries already undergoing transformation through new technology, and follow a similar path, we can only anticipate that legal matter management systems will be integrated with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data analytics. AI and machine learning are already making inroads into fields such as marketing and accounting. In the finance sector, algorithms now make instant decisions on stock deals. In manufacturing, intelligent machines configure themselves for maximum efficiency. For the law firms, this means a future in which intelligent applications will initiate work in the order of priority determined by their own assessment of all the information at their disposal. Imagine a future in which knowledge-wide searches gone wild will no longer reveal the proverbial haystack for an attorney to sift through for the one piece of hay. The intelligent application will carry out that function and distill the appropriate results into the relevant deliverable, whether it be a brief, memorandum , docket or pleading. Furthermore, as those deliverables evolve, the application will learn from past iterations that can be used to speed new versions, integrating new content with past information and circulating for review and approval faster than an attorney at a billable rate can do so now. Machine learning also means that as clients amend their instructions to their firms, the system will learn and be able to reverse engineer the process. When clients send amended instructions to a firm, they may also include the prior instructions. Machine learning provides an opportunity to capture and analyze those changes. Sophisticated analyses may reveal repeated requests for answers to the same questions or repeated request for revisions. That data may bring about an awareness to the client that the law firm relies on inefficient processes that have not been clearly documented, that have not been optimized and that should be standardized. If clients demand this level of efficiency from technology, law firms will soon have to respond. There is a future in store for legal matter management that is already beginning to impact our world though not widely recognized as yet. Law firms that take an interest in understanding the scope of these trends and the direction in which we might be headed may be in the right place at the right time.