Archive
Why Bother With Matter Management?
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Shane Molliwan, Base Articles
One of the most significant benefits of using matter management software is that all of the matter that is being managed is consolidated into a single database which is accessible to anyone who has the credentials or permissions to access it. A far more efficient manner of organizing matter prevents confusion and delays and gets things in motion much more quickly, expediting cases by having everything at the virtual fingertips of all collaborators. (read the post)
How Do You Get Your Attorneys To Use Software?
Jason Emanis
Not all legal department executives mandate their attorneys log into their matter management and e-billing systems. Even if it is encouraged, law department operations leaders are always trying to find creative ways to stimulate greater use of their systems in order to enrich the data therein.
In our increasingly “mobile” world, attorneys have quickly adopted use of their smartphones and tablets for business use and those responsible for user adoption are thrilled to see vendors create access to enterprise systems via these devices. And, for good reason. Attorney adoption is critical to “good” data and simply keeping the workflow of the department going.
We took a fun approach to rolling out our newest product designed to allow access to important matter and billing data from the system attorneys use most, email. Take a look and have a laugh. (watch the video)
How to Maximize the Value of Law Department Technology.
Maximizing The Value Of Law Department Technology
Duff & Phelps
In the current environment, organizations face increasing legal and regulatory complexity, high-stakes disputes, limited resources and decreasing budgets. Accordingly, legal teams have invested (or are investing) in a variety of digital solutions and other technologies – but they often use these technologies in isolation and struggle to maximize their value.
In the age of limited staff bandwidth, optimizing technology may seem an unaffordable luxury. But the evolution of technology and related law department protocol is rapidly expanding the options available to cope with competing priorities. Legal professionals must start taking steps toward evaluating those options, or they risk falling behind their competitors. Every corporate legal manager should be thinking today about the following three aspects of technology that will impact performance in the near future: (read the post)
How Well Does Your Department Care and Feed the Business Units?
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Legal departments can use simple tools to shift the paradigm
Thomas Lalla, InsideCounsel
When a legal department operates solely in a reactive mode, the business team can easily minimize its added value. However, when a legal department operates proactively to support the growth of the company with its business partners, its usefulness is readily apparent.
In the current environment of uncertainty and change, in-house counsel struggle with the legal department’s role as that of a “firefighter” functioning in crisis mode only. The legal department can use certain simple tools to shift the paradigm from the reactive to the proactive mode. (read the article)
Are Your Law Department Metrics Tied to the Business Goals?
Must-Have Performance Metrics For Law Departments
Rebecca Thorkildsen, Law360
Creating a meaningful performance measurement program is one of the biggest challenges for law department managers. It is relatively easy to identify a basic set of measures that would apply to most law departments. For example, most track department-level expenditures against annual budgets. Similarly, most law departments use outside legal service providers, and they typically monitor aggregate costs and run basic reports such as “Top 10 Most Expensive Matters” or “Outside Spend by Legal Service Provider.” Tracking this information over time is useful and necessary. (read the post)
Wondering What to Do With Your Matter Management System, Now?
Keeping it Relevant – What Do I Do with My New Matter Management System Now?
Louann Barnett, Duff & Phelps
Finally, the months of planning, vendor selection, design and implementation for your new state-of-the-art matter management system are over. The excitement level is high throughout the department as you flip the switch on the new system. Finished…at last, right? Not if you want all of the money, time and energy that went into the system to pay off.
Corporations often make the mistake of pulling all of their valuable resources and attention away from the matter management system at this point so that they can focus on new projects. But if you want to keep the system relevant, you can’t stop here.
Opportunities vs. Issues (read the article)
Are Corporate Legal Dashboards Like Homemade Salsa?
Homemade Dashboard and Chips, Anyone?
Lisa Girmscheid, Legal Project Manager, Rockwell Automation, Inc.
Let’s face it – we don’t go to the trouble of implementing an e-billing and matter management system just so we can eliminate paper bills. Dashboards, metrics, KPIs – they are the Holy Grail of our existence. Dashboards are powerful tools that can help plan, monitor, measure and report how the law department manages things like appropriate staffing ratios, trends, outside law firm performance, budgets, matters and costs.
If someone asked me to describe the concept of a dashboard, I would compare it to something tangible, like salsa made fresh from your garden. (The Dashboard/Ginsu comparison led me to this idea, so bear with me, I promise this will eventually make sense.) (read the post)
Matter Management Dominates at LegalTech NY.
Matter management dominates at LegalTech NY for in-house lawyers, and a few consultants appeared
Rees Morrison, Law Department Management
If you are with a law department, and if you are not interested in document review products – litigation support products, the pickings were slim at LegalTech NY other than matter management (See my post of Jan. 5, 2012: 11 matter management systems with booths at LegalTech.). (read the post)
Most Common Management Tools for Law Departments?
Seven revisions of the most common management tools of general counsel, based on my 2005 list of 18
Rees Morrison, Law Department Management
Thus, from the original list the common coin of general counsel in the management arena remain benchmarking, internal-expense budgets, matter-specific budgets for outside counsel, competitive bidding by firms, convergence, document management systems, electronic billing, intranet sites for law, matter management systems, off-site retreats, and personnel evaluations. (read the post)
Boost Efficiency with SharePoint Checklists.
Create SharePoint Checklists to Boost Firm Efficiency
Mark Gerow, Law Technology News
As with all businesses, law firms and legal departments need to pursue ever increasing efficiency and effectiveness, while delivering more and more complex services. One way to do so is through defining and applying repeatable processes to matters. Any candidate process management approach needs to encompass many decision points and possible outcomes. Further, it must be both acceptable and accessible to the legal professionals who will have primary responsibility for directing the work on any matter. (read the article)
