Asana vs. Monday vs. Jira vs. Zendesk vs. LinkSquares Prioritize: Choosing the Right Tool for Legal Task Management

At the core of an organization lies the legal team. Nearly every team in an organization relies on legal, whether it’s to review agreements, content, licensing, or handle litigation. And they have the hectic to-do list to prove it. 

It doesn’t help that requests and questions come from all directions and are often tracked in a mix of tools. In-house teams need a strong legal task management solution to stay on top of it all without risking burn-out.

Demand is rising for task management tools. By 2026, Gartner estimates that 40% of legal teams will use a tool for intake and task management — and they predict the number will be even higher in North America.

There are a lot of options out there when it comes to managing the legal workload, from manual processes like spreadsheet trackers to tools specifically designed to manage legal intake and task management.  Let’s break down the pros and cons of each type of tool, dig into popular tools in each category, and figure out which one is right for your business. If you want an even deeper dive, grab our new guide, Asana vs. Monday vs. Jira vs. Zendesk vs. LinkSquares Prioritize: Choosing the Right Tool for Legal Task Management.

We’ll start with good, old-fashioned manual task management.

Manual Task Management

Manual task management is often the starting point for small, scrappy in-house legal teams — from a paper to-do list, to a desk full of post-it notes, or even an inbox full of requests from teams across the business. While manual task management is often free or low-cost, tracking and reporting on tasks can be a challenge. As the to-do list and team expand, legal teams often find themselves outgrowing these manual processes.

Excel

Excel is a low-cost and simple way to track your tasks manually. While Excel is a powerful tool, it only acts as a place to house and track requests. As Excel is not built to manage intake, intake must be handled separately, often through numerous mediums like email, Slack, or phone calls. Teams can then manually enter requests into Excel for tracking. 

Your intake process does not have to be the death of your email inbox. Intake platforms can help legal teams automate and centralize questions and requests from across the business. 

Intake Platforms 

Intake platforms are built to centralize internal and external questions and requests. By directing stakeholders to submit requests through an intake platform instead of emailing or messaging requests, legal can more easily triage and track those requests. 

Zendesk

A popular intake tool among support, CS, and IT teams, Zendesk helps businesses manage internal and external requests. While Zendesk is geared more towards customer service functions, it can be used by legal to manage requests, create workflows, and assign tasks to members of the team. 

However, intake is just one piece of the puzzle. Even with an intake platform, the actual work of managing projects and drafting and reviewing contracts happens elsewhere. For those looking for something with a bit more breadth than an intake platform, project management tools are an easy first step.

Project Management Tools 

Jira

Jira was built for software developers following the agile methodology. However, legal teams can take advantage of this software to streamline intake and manage projects. Jira allows teams to create roadmaps for long-term initiatives (called “Epics”) and the short-term projects that ladder up to them. Jira also has templates that help legal teams manage their internal processes — like budgeting, IP infringement, policy management, and others.

Asana

Like most project management tools, Asana can be used by teams all across a business. Legal can use Asana to build intake request forms to centralize requests from stakeholders, collaborate with team members, build workflows to assign out tasks, and create timelines to help stay on top of their work. Asana also includes features legal can use to track and report on team member’s goals and current bandwidth. 

Monday.com

Like Asana, Monday.com’s customizable templates, dashboards, and project views can help legal automate task assignments and keep an eye on progress and bottlenecks. Monday.com also includes features outside of typical task management needs, like templates for invoicing and budget forecasting. 

While Jira was built specifically for software developers, tools like Monday.com and Asana were built to meet the needs of teams across a business. And while legal teams can jerry-rig the products to manage their tasks, even robust project management tools can fall short when it comes to legal’s specific needs.

Legal Task Management 

Unlike your one-size-fits-all project management tool, legal task management is built specifically to manage the legal workload, so teams can spend less time tailoring a tool to their needs and more time checking off tasks on their never-ending to-do list.

LinkSquares Prioritize

Going beyond intake, LinkSquares Prioritize provides legal with one place to receive, track, and manage all their tasks. As requests come in, the legal team can assign tasks to the right team member, flag high-priority work, view related documents, and collaborate with their team.

With a tool built to support legal workflows, teams can avoid time spent modifying a generic tool for legal-specific needs. LinkSquares Prioritize will also integrate with the LinkSquares CLM, allowing teams to manage tasks in one place.

Choosing the Right Tool for Legal Task Management

Legal task management comes in all shapes and sizes. Manual task management is a low-cost option that teams can adopt in a pinch, but growing teams often outgrow those processes. Intake and project management tools can help automate some processes, yet teams still continue to operate in multiple systems to receive, manage, and execute on daily tasks.

For those looking for a secure tool only accessible by the legal team, a legal task management tool may fit the bill. LinkSquares Prioritize is a legal task management tool built specifically for legal workflows. With Prioritize, legal can manage intake and contract requests, all while staying connected to their CLM. 

Choosing the right tool is crucial for team efficiency and productivity. While some tools solve one piece of the puzzle, a centralized tool where legal teams can receive, manage, and track all their tasks means legal can ditch manual processes and make time for the work that matters. Want to learn more about your options for legal task management? Download our legal task management guide to learn more.