What’s legal affairs management?

[ad_1]

Legal matter management is a software-based means of tracking legal expenses, attorney collaboration, and overall legal performance. Corporate legal departments are often the biggest consumers of legal issue management programs, although systems can also be useful for independent law firms. They are mostly used for budgeting and cost management purposes. In managing legal matters, a simple online platform simplifies internal and external billing, expenses, and fees.

For many legal departments, managing the data needed to run a successful business can be a challenge. Different projects are outsourced to different locations, and many attorneys may be working on multiple cases at any one time. Matter management is a way to bring all of a company’s legal data together in one place so that it can be easily accessed and analyzed online.

“Legal issues” is a broad term that encompasses almost all elements of legal practice and procedures that are not case-specific. Of course, legal departments and law firms focus on individual cases and disputes, but there is much that is unrelated to or independent of the specific details of those cases. This often includes billing and sending invoices, day-to-day workflow, and overhead. The main objective of a legal matter management system is to provide operators with a comprehensive view of all activities, accounts and cases that are open at any given time.

There are many similarities between managing legal matters and managing legal cases, although the two have important differences and law firms often need both. Case management generally provides a broad overview of all materials related to a single case file. Matter management involves similar concepts, but concerns all activities in all cases at the same time. It is not uncommon for law firms and corporate legal departments to be involved in many different cases, often in many different places, simultaneously.

One of the biggest advantages of a legal issues management system is the ability to quickly and easily understand labor statistics. Most programs store data over time and can compile reports and produce cross-category comparisons. Managers can quickly calculate how many hours they were billed in a given quarter, for example, and can compare that number to the same quarter last year. Expenses attributed to the company, project and outcome are also readily available, often with little more than the click of a mouse.

At its core, legal matters management is simply information technology management: it is the rationalization and storage of data. These types of programs can be an immeasurably valuable means of knowledge management and data accessibility. Most programs can be optimized for specific business needs, and nearly all are customized for specific practices or legal departments.

Asset Smart.

[ad_2]