What Is Matter Management and How Can It Help Legal Teams?

Legal teams have a lot on their plates. From contracts and disputes to compliance and intellectual property matters, it feels like there's always a mountain of work waiting to be done. So, how do you keep your head on straight? The answer lies in effective legal matter management.

What is matter management?

Matter management is the systematic process of capturing, tracking, and reporting on the work that an organization's in-house legal department handles. 

Let's say you're working on a contract. That's not just a document — it's a process with many moving parts. Or perhaps you're dealing with ongoing litigation that needs constant care and attention, or even frequent back and forth with outside counsel. These are examples of what can fall under the expansive umbrella of matter management.

While a lot goes into managing legal matters, the foundation of matter management rests on three pillars — intake, project and workflow management, and reporting.

• Intake: It all starts with intake, the process of gathering information about different cases and matters. Some teams may use specialized tools for this, while others might try to get by with email or instant messaging. 
• Project management or workflow management: And now it’s time to execute. A project management tool can make it easier to sort everything out — assigning each matter to the right team member, deciding which ones need immediate attention, keeping everyone updated on the status, and of course, working together as a team. Remember, when evaluating legal project management or matter management software, it’s important to consider how it will interact with the rest of your legal tech stack. 
• Reporting: The work doesn’t stop once a matter is closed. It's equally crucial to report on the work you’ve done and the impact your team has on the business. 
  
  

How can matter management tools help legal teams?

Proper matter management helps legal teams move faster, increase efficiency, and reduce risk. Here are three ways that in-house legal teams can benefit from strong matter management:

• Standardizes legal processes:  A matter management tool can help you create repeatable and scalable legal workflows for your team. With access to historical data and the ability to clone tasks, you can make it easy for your team to consistently follow procedure.
• Improves collaboration: With the entire legal team working in one place, it’s easier to tackle projects as a team, request information, and share status updates. 
• Keeps data secure: Storing project information and documents in a single tool accessed only by the legal team ensures your data and sensitive information stay secure. 

How can LinkSquares Prioritize help?

LinkSquares Prioritize is a project management tool specifically built for legal teams to manage their projects and requests from across the business. 

Even better, with a project management tool integrated with LinkSquares CLM, in-house teams can keep up with legal matters, and access related contracts, documents, and approvals in one platform. With centralized storage and collaboration, you can stop wasting time jumping between tools and double-checking data.

See how Prioritize can help your legal team take control of your legal matters — request a demo today!