Thinking about setting up your first matter management system? It might sound complicated, but with the right steps, it can be a smooth and rewarding process.
This guide will take you through everything the legal in-house team needs to know from analyzing the team’s needs to choosing the best solution, implementing it, and making sure everyone knows how to use it.
Let’s get started!!
The Role of Matter Management Systems in Legal Teams
Legal matter management software is a solution that helps legal teams and other departments track and manage their legal matters. The software organizes the matter data, contact details, important documents, legal research, leads, and clients’ communication in one place.
Key benefits of matter management:
- Centralizing matters, data, documents, leads, research, and other key assets.
- The software focuses more on automation as a result, it helps in minimizing errors and saving time.
- It offers a complete insight into legal spending, budget, and expenses, which makes budget tracking more accurate.
- The software helps to improve collaboration with the internal team and outside counsel through features like client and co-counsel portals, making remote work easy and more.
- Enable legal departments to manage deadlines of critical tasks and make everything more transparent.
- Its e-discovery, AI document drafting, and legal research help legal teams to save hours invested in these tasks.
Some important features of matter management solutions:
- Centralized Matter Tracking
- Document Drafting & Management
- Task & Deadline Management
- Collaboration Tools Like Client and Co-Counsel Portal
- Reporting & Analytics
- Custom Workflows
- Role-Based Access Control
- Conflict Checks & Compliance
- Integration Capabilities
Implementing Matter Management Software: A Proven Step-by-Step Approach
In this section, we will discuss how legal teams can implement their first matter management software. From assessing team needs to analyzing security features of the software, we will discuss every step in detail to help the in-house teams bring the best out of the system and improve efficiency and productivity.
Step 1: Building Your Foundation, What Your Team Needs in a Matter Management System
Before picking a matter management solution for your legal team. Start by analyzing the needs of your team. Pick out what features your team will need the most, like
- Automated reminders, document repository, and task management.
- AI for legal research and drafting, co-counsel and client portal, and more.
Once you are ready with a checklist, let’s go ahead with the next step.
Step 2: Finding the Perfect Matter Management Fit for Your Team
After having a clear understanding of what the needs of the in-house team are. Next, you need to search for the right solution that fits the needs of your team. It should include:
- Customizable Features: Pick software that offers the option to customize it based on the needs of legal teams, like customized workflow, reports, and dashboards, and multilingual intake forms.
- Integration Options: Choosing systems that integrate with the existing tools that the in-house use, like Google Suite, Microsoft Suite, QuickBooks, and Dropbox. And if the software offers on-demand integration, it’s a bonus.
- Security and Safety: Look for software that ensures all the sensitive information is securely and safely stored with ISO-certified infrastructure, enterprise-grade security, and data encryption.
Step 3: Planning for Implementation, Setting Clear Goals, and Assembling Your Team
- Set Clear Goals: Keep a clear checklist of the needs of the legal team from matter management software, like document and task management, deadlines, budget, and expense tracking.
- Helping Your Team Learn the System: Provide comprehensive training to the in-house team. Ask for live demo sessions, and if any member is not available for a live session, ask for pre-recorded demos. Ensure the whole team is familiar with the software and its features.
Step 4: Personalizing Your Matter Management System, Workflows, Roles, and Integrations
Set up workflows that match how your team handles matters. This can include assigning tasks, setting up approval steps, creating automatic reminders, and generating customized intakes in multiple languages.
- Customize the workflow based on the way the team handles matters.
- Integrate the system with the tools that the legal teams already use, like Google Suite, Microsoft Suite, QuickBooks, and Dropbox.
- Generate customizable intake forms, reports, and dashboards tailored to the needs of your team.
Step 5: Keep Improving, Regular Reviews and Updates for Lasting Impact
To get the most out of your matter management system, it’s important to review and update it regularly. This helps your team stay efficient, and the system remains relevant as your needs change.
- Review Often: Check how the system is working and gather feedback from your team with detailed reports.
- Make Updates: Fix issues or create new workflows as needed.
- Stay Flexible: Keep adjusting the system to match your team’s changing needs.
Step 6: Legal Compliance and Data Security, Staying Ahead of Risks
It is important for legal teams to use software that ensures the sensitive information related to matters and documents stays safe and secure and away from being tampered with. The software may offer:
- Enterprise-grade security and data encryption.
- ISO-certified infrastructure and on-demand certifications and documentation.
Step 7: Setting Your Team Up for Success, Training, Practice, and 24*7 Customer Support
MatterSuite’s dedicated team offers training and support to ensure the law firm is ready to utilize every feature of MatterSuite.
Our specialists guide legal teams through live online workshops tailored to your team’s workflows. If the team can’t make it to a live session, we provide on‑demand, prerecorded tutorials whenever it’s convenient.
Additionally, our support team is available 24*7 through chat, emails, phones, and demo calls to ensure a smooth transition and onboarding process.
Our team will walk firms step‑by‑step through matter setup, document organization, and eDiscovery workflows, so everyone quickly masters the core modules.
From drafting contracts to running AI‑powered research searches, our experts show you how to get the most out of MatterSuite’s AI capabilities, empowering your team to work smarter.
Why MatterSuite Stands Out as the Top Choice for Legal Matter Management?
There are various matter management options present in the market for corporate legal departments. MatterSuite is one of the best options. It is an all-in-one platform that helps in-house and external counsel teams.
The software offers a range of features, such as
- Centralized matter tracking to stay updated on matter data and budget with one intuitive platform.
- Document drafting & management that will help to store, share, and retrieve legal documents securely.
- Task & deadline management lets the team assign tasks, set priorities, reminders, and track critical deadlines with the team’s calendar.
- Collaboration tools to communicate seamlessly and collaborate with internal teams and co-counsel in real time.
- Conflict checks & compliance help in maintaining regulatory compliance.
- Integration capabilities let you sync with Microsoft, OneDrive, QuickBooks, Google Suite, and more.
The software offers ISO-certified features and data encryption to make sure all the data is securely stored in cloud storage and avoid data breaches.
Conclusion: Leverage the Full Potential of Matter Management with MatterSuite
Now that you have a basic understanding of the matter management system. Unlock its full potential by utilizing its core features to automate your team’s workflow, stay a step ahead with conflict checks, and avoid ethical violations.
MatterSuite offers a range of features like e-billing, e-discovery, AI for legal research and drafting, document repository, co-counsel and client portal, customized reports and dashboards, and multilingual and multilocation options for legal teams to collaborate globally.
Its data encryption and enterprise security make sure sensitive information is away from breach. MatterSuite offers 24*7 customer support to ensure a smooth transition and onboarding process.
