Category: Business Process Management

Dieser Artikel ist der zweite unserer vierteiligen Blogserie, die sich ausschließlich mit dem Thema Matter Management und seinen verschiedenen Aspekten befasst. Wenn Sie den ersten Artikel noch nicht gelesen haben, klicken Sie hier, um dies nachzuholen. Im zweiten Teil werden wir uns auf die Frage konzentrieren, wie digitale Matter Management-Plattformen helfen, die Verwaltung von Rechtsangelegenheiten zu optimieren und zu vereinfachen. 

Die Antwort ist simpel: Wenn wir die Kernbestandteile einer Legal Matter betrachten, können wir leicht die Vorteile und die Effizienz ableiten, die Matter Management-Systeme für Rechtsabteilungen bieten. Dies läuft auf Folgendes hinaus: 

ZENTRALE UND SICHERE DOKUMENTENVERWALTUNG 

Matter Management Systeme fungieren als zentrale Plattform zur sicheren Verwaltung von Rechtsangelegenheiten und deren zugehörigen Dokumenten und bieten einen geschützten Ort, um auf wichtige Dokumente zuzugreifen. Wesentliche Funktionen für die Dokumentenverwaltung sind in der Regel vorhanden, z. B. Redlining, individuell anpassbare Metadaten, Tagging, differenzierte Berechtigungsvergabe usw. Zusätzlich integrieren sie oft nahtlos mit MS Office und Google Workspace, was die Bearbeitung und Zusammenarbeit an Dokumenten effizient gestaltet. 

Matter Management Tools erleichtern auch das rasche Auffinden von Dokumenten und deren Inhalten durch leistungsfähige Suchfunktionen. Einige dieser Systeme bieten Funktionalitäten für das Vertragsmanagement. Beispielsweise ermöglichen sie die Integration von elektronischen Unterschriften und die automatisierte Extraktion von Klauseln für vertragsbezogene Angelegenheiten. 

AUFFINDBARES KNOW-HOW 

Ein Vorteil der Verwaltung von Rechtsangelegenheiten in einem zentralen System besteht darin, dass alle mit der Matter zusammenhängenden Informationen und Kenntnisse an einem Ort gesammelt werden, einer Single-Source-of-Truth. Außerdem werden diese Daten strukturiert und taxonomisch geordnet. Gute Matter Management-Systeme machen diese Daten nutzbar und sorgen dafür, dass Know-how bei Bedarf leicht auffindbar und im Kontext verfügbar ist. Einige Systeme für das Matter Management nutzen sogar künstliche Intelligenz, um die Bereitstellung von Wissen zu vereinfachen und zu unterstützen, Daten zu verknüpfen, diese auf dem neuesten Stand zu halten und sie in einen Kontext zu stellen. Einige Matter Management-Plattformen nutzen Integrationen mit anderen Systemen, um Daten zu zentralisieren und mehrere Quellen durchsuchbar zu machen; andere integrieren auch Chatbots und Tools zur Entscheidungsautomatisierung, um Antworten auf spezifische Fragen und Umstände zu liefern, anstatt nur Suchergebnisse. 

EFFIZIENTE KOMMUNIKATION UND ZUSAMMENARBEIT 

Infolge der globalen Pandemie und der verstärkten Nutzung von Remote-Arbeitsmodellen gewinnen führende Matter Management-Plattformen nun durch die nahtlose Integration mit marktführenden Kollaborationstools wie MS Teams an Bedeutung. Matter Management-Plattformen agieren nicht bloß als Dokumentenarchiv, sondern als umfassende Kollaborationssysteme. Sie erlauben es sowohl internen als auch externen Nutzern, gemeinsam an Rechtsangelegenheiten zu arbeiten. Dies erweist sich besonders wertvoll, wenn Rechtsteams in enger Kooperation mit externen Anwälten agieren. 

Kommunikation wird ebenfalls zu einem integralen Bestandteil dieser Matter Management-Plattformen. Sie bieten soziale Kollaborationsfunktionen wie Nachrichten, Kommentare und gemeinsame Dokumentenfreigabe. Ein klar erkennbarer Trend zielt darauf ab, die Nutzer in ihrem gewohnten Arbeitsumfeld abzuholen. Daher ist es absehbar, dass Matter Management-Tools zukünftig verstärkt mit persönlichen Produktivitäts- und Kollaborationstools integriert werden, um eine optimale Arbeitsweise zu ermöglichen. 

AUTOMATISIERTE ARBEITSABLÄUFE UND SELF-SERVICE FUNKTIONEN  

Die Automatisierung standardisierter Arbeitsabläufe und die Reduzierung manueller Tätigkeiten sind essenziell, um Rechtsprozesse effizienter zu gestalten. Aus diesem Grund integrieren Matter Management-Plattformen häufig Funktionen zur Workflow-Automatisierung. Die Bandbreite der Prozessautomatisierung reicht von vordefinierten bis hin zu individuell konfigurierbaren Lösungen (oft als No/Low-Code-Automatisierung bezeichnet). Dieses Spektrum ermöglicht die Optimierung verschiedenster Matter-Prozesse, wie Benachrichtigungen, Legal Intake, automatisierte Dokumentenerstellung, Genehmigungsprozesse, Risikoeskalationsmechanismen und Vertragslebenszyklen – um nur einige Beispiele zu nennen. 

Ein wesentlicher Vorzug der Automatisierung liegt in der Förderung von Self-Service. Rechtsteams sind stets ausgelastet, und indem sie anderen ermöglichen, selbständig zu agieren, können sie sich vermehrt auf strategischere Aufgaben konzentrieren. Matter Management-Plattformen werden daher dazu genutzt, innerhalb des Unternehmens die Empowerment-Ebene zu erhöhen. Hierbei erhalten Beteiligte die Befähigung, eigenständig Dokumente zu erstellen und auf relevante Richtlinien sowie Expertise zuzugreifen. 

KLARE ARBEITSSTRUKTURIERUNG 

Die Bearbeitung einer juristischen Angelegenheit erfordert eine komplexe Koordinierung und Verwaltung von Ressourcen, Status und Risiken, um eine termingerechte und budgetkonforme Abwicklung sicherzustellen. Innerhalb dieser Komplexität spielen Matter Management-Systeme eine bedeutende Rolle, indem sie vielfältige Tools zur Unterstützung von Planung, Ressourcenzuweisung und Zeitplanung bieten. Angefangen von Aufgabenverwaltung, Arbeitszuweisungen und Projektzeitplänen bis hin zu Kapazitätsüberwachung, Teamkalendern und Fristen – Matter Management-Tools fungieren als Navigationshilfe für die Erfassung notwendiger Tätigkeiten und Ressourcen, um die ordnungsgemäße Durchführung der Matter zu gewährleisten.  

In manchen Fällen umfassen Matter Management-Plattformen ebenfalls Funktionen zur Zeiterfassung. Dadurch können Rechtsteams die auf die Angelegenheit verwendete Zeit verfolgen. Doch bei der Projektsteuerung geht es nicht nur um Ressourcenverwaltung, sondern auch um die Überwachung von Statusänderungen, das Management von Risiken und die Gewährleistung transparenter Berichterstattung. Matter Management-Tools bieten folglich Instrumente, die eine umfassende Einblick in die Aktivitäten einer Legal Matter garantieren. 

TRANSPARENTES SPEND MANAGEMENT 

Während viele Angelegenheiten intern behandelt werden, erfordert ein erheblicher Anteil dennoch die Mitwirkung externer Rechtsberater. Ganzheitliche Matter Management-Tools bieten vielfältige Funktionen, um die Zusammenarbeit mit externen Dienstleistern zu unterstützen. Diese Funktionen umfassen die Identifikation geeigneter Rechtsberater, die Budgeterstellung, Ausgabenüberwachung, Rechnungsprüfung, Einhaltung von Abrechnungsrichtlinien sowie Genehmigungsverfahren. Da die Ausgaben eine wesentliche Komponente jeder Rechtsangelegenheit darstellen, ergibt es Sinn, dass das Ausgabenmanagement integraler Bestandteil eines umfassenderen Matter Management-Systems ist. Letztlich lassen sich bedeutendere Erkenntnisse gewinnen, wenn Ausgabendaten mit anderen Informationen zu den Angelegenheiten verknüpft werden. 

Die Analyse der Ausgaben einer Anwaltskanzlei im Verhältnis zu Durchlaufzeiten und Ergebnissen kann beispielsweise Einblicke liefern, ob eine Rechtsabteilung den Mehrwert ihrer externen Dienstleister angemessen erkennt. So ermöglichen Matter Management-Tools eine strategische und datengestützte Herangehensweise, um die Kooperation mit externen Rechtsberatern optimal zu gestalten. 

ECHTZEIT ZUGRIFF AUF DATEN  

Je mehr Matter Management-Aktivitäten in den Systemen durchgeführt werden, desto mehr nützliche Daten enthalten sie. Diese Daten umfassen Aspekte wie Ausgaben, Status, Ressourcen, Verträge, Risiken und den Legal Intake. Es ist von grundlegender Bedeutung, dass diese Daten zugänglich sind, effizient abgefragt werden können und schnell zu verwertbaren Erkenntnissen führen. 

Viele Matter Management-Systeme stellen leistungsfähige Berichts- und Analysetools bereit, mit denen Matter-bezogene Daten gefiltert und extrahiert werden können. Alternativ können diese Daten mithilfe von Diagrammen und Grafiken in Dashboards oder durch Integrationen mit Tools wie Power BI visuell aufbereitet werden. Wichtig ist zu betonen, dass moderne Matter Management-Systeme über bloße Berichterstellung hinausgehen. Sie nutzen die vorliegenden Daten, um nicht nur vergangene Ereignisse darzustellen, sondern auch zukünftige Ergebnisse zu prognostizieren und aufkommende Trends zu identifizieren. 

UMSETZUNG IN DIE PRAXIS 

Matter Management bildet eine umfassende Disziplin, die die effiziente Koordination und Abwicklung sämtlicher Aspekte einer Rechtsangelegenheit umfasst. In der heutigen Zeit gewinnt die Optimierung des Matter Management-Prozesses zunehmend an Relevanz. Trotz der Komplexität vieler Rechtsfälle können bedeutende Fortschritte durch den Einsatz von Legal Tech-Lösungen erzielt werden, die die Optimierung des Matter Management unterstützen. 

Statt einzelne Tools isoliert einzusetzen, empfiehlt es sich, ganzheitliche Plattformen für Matter Management oder Enterprise Legal Management-Lösungen in Betracht zu ziehen. Diese Lösungen besitzen das Potenzial, den gesamten Lebenszyklus einer Legal Matter zu optimieren. Sie eröffnen einen schrittweisen Ansatz und bilden eine solide Grundlage, um Ihr Team auf dem Weg zu einer erfolgreichen Zukunft zu führen.  

Lesen Sie Teil III dieser Serie: 7 Aspekte, die Rechtsabteilungen bei der Auswahl eines Matter Management-Anbieters beachten sollten.

Dieser Artikel ist der erste unserer vierteiligen Blogserie, die sich eingehend mit dem Thema Matter Management und seinen vielfältigen Aspekten sowie Best Practices beschäftigt. In dieser Einführung widmen wir uns den Grundlagen. Wir werden erklären, was genau unter Matter Management und rechtlichen Angelegenheiten zu verstehen ist und gleichzeitig beleuchten, weshalb die Bedeutung des digitalen Matter Managements stetig zunimmt. 

Matter Management ist ein häufig verwendeter Begriff in der Rechtsbranche. Die Weite dieses Begriffs kann jedoch leicht zu Verwirrung führen, wenn es darum geht, was genau unter “Matter Management” zu verstehen ist. Um diese Unklarheiten zu beseitigen, teilen wir in diesem Beitrag unsere Ansichten zu diesem Thema. Wir möchten erläutern, wie wir Matter Management sehen, und die Rolle beleuchten, die Technologie in diesem Kontext spielen kann. 

DIE 7 KOMPONENTEN EINER LEGAL MATTER 

Trotz der wachsenden Verbreitung von juristischen Tools zur Prozessoptimierung hat Matter Management schon lange vor der Entstehung jeder Software-Unterstützung große Bedeutung erlangt. 

Der Begriff Matter Management beschreibt den Prozess der Verwaltung einer rechtlichen Angelegenheit – mit oder ohne Einsatz von Technologie. Doch was genau bedeutet das? Die beste Erklärung ergibt sich durch eine Betrachtung der einzelnen Elemente, aus denen eine rechtliche Angelegenheit besteht. 

1. DOKUMENTE 

Beim Gedanken an Anwälte entstehen oft Bilder von umfangreichen Verträgen und gut gefüllten Aktenordnern. Jede rechtliche Angelegenheit erfordert eine gewisse Form der Dokumentation – sei es in Form von Verträgen, Lizenzen, E-Mails oder Briefen. All diese Dokumente müssen zentral und sicher gespeichert und verwaltet werden. 

2. KNOWLEDGE 

Obwohl Rechtsteams über beachtliches Fachwissen verfügen, können sie unmöglich auf jede Frage eine Antwort wissen. Daher benötigen sie einen raschen Zugang zu erstklassigen und präzisen Informationen sowie Fachkenntnissen, um die Bearbeitung rechtlicher Angelegenheiten optimal zu unterstützen. Das Bereitstellen dieses Wissens zur richtigen Zeit stellt einen essenziellen Bestandteil des Matter Managements dar. 

3. KOLLABORATION 

Rechtswesen ist ein Mannschaftssport. Bei jeder Legal Matter sind zahlreiche verschiedene Akteure involviert – sowohl innerhalb der Rechtsabteilung und des Unternehmens als auch extern. Effektives Matter Management erfordert eine nahtlose Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit zwischen sämtlichen Beteiligten. 

4. WORKFLOW 

Während viele Legal Matter zweifellos komplex sind und ihre eigenen Nuancen aufweisen, folgen die meisten Rechtsangelegenheiten einem gewissen Regelwerk. Anders ausgedrückt, sie durchlaufen eine spezifische Abfolge von Phasen und Stadien, die von den jeweiligen Fakten und Umständen der Angelegenheit beeinflusst werden. 

5. VERWALTUNG 

Da es sich bei Rechtsangelegenheiten um eigenständige Projekte handelt, ist eine ebenso gewissenhafte wie aufmerksame Verwaltung unerlässlich. Angefangen von der Umfangsdefinition, Budgetierung und Ressourcenallokation bis hin zur Zuweisung von Aufgaben, Überwachung von Risiken und Erstellung von Statusberichten – Matters müssen wie jedes andere Projekt mit Präzision verwaltet werden, um termingerechte und budgetkonforme Ergebnisse sicherzustellen. 

6. KOSTENKONTROLLE 

Die Überwachung der Ausgaben im Verhältnis zum Budget ist eine Schlüsselkomponente in jeder Matter, in der externe Anwälte oder andere Rechtsdienstleister beauftragt werden. Es ist von entscheidender Bedeutung, den Verlauf der Matter-Ausgaben im Vergleich zum Budget zu verfolgen, die laufenden Arbeiten (WIP) und Rückstellungen zu überwachen sowie potenzielle Herausforderungen zu erkennen, die sich negativ auf das Budget und die Matter-Ausgaben auswirken könnten. 

7. REPORTING 

Eine angemessene Verwaltung einer Rechtsangelegenheit oder eines Portfolios von Matters erfordert den uneingeschränkten Zugriff auf sämtliche Informationen im Zusammenhang mit den relevanten Akten. Ganz gleich, ob es um den Status, Risiken, Ressourcen, Ausgaben, Verträge oder die eigentlichen Matters geht – diese Daten müssen erfasst, leicht zugänglich und auswertbar sein. 

Matter Management umfasst die effiziente Koordination, Organisation und Bereitstellung all dieser essentiellen Kernelemente für rechtliche Angelegenheiten. 

MATTER MANAGEMENT AUF MIKRO- UND MAKROEBENE 

Gewöhnlich denkt man bei Matter Management zunächst an die Mikroebene – beispielsweise die Verwaltung einer einzelnen Rechtsangelegenheit. Dies betrifft vor allem diejenigen, die an einer bestimmten Matter beteiligt sind, und die einen Überblick über die Aktivitäten sowie Zugang zu den damit verbundenen Dokumenten und Fachwissen benötigen. 

Jedoch bearbeiten Rechtsabteilungen kontinuierlich eine Vielzahl laufender Angelegenheiten, die auf Portfolioebene (Makroebene) ebenfalls verwaltet und verfolgt werden müssen. Dies gilt insbesondere für General Counsel, Chief Legal Officers (CLOs) und Legal Operations Manager, die Transparenz, Berichterstattung und tiefgreifende Einblicke in sämtliche Angelegenheiten des Matter Managements erfordern. 

Somit ist es wesentlich zu erkennen, dass Matter Management auch das Management von Matter-Portfolios einschließt. 

DIE ÄRA DES DIGITALEN MATTER MANAGEMENTS 

Es ist keineswegs überraschend, dass das digitale Matter Management (DMM) den Einsatz von Technologie zur Optimierung der Verwaltung und Abwicklung rechtlicher Angelegenheiten umfasst. Zahlreiche Software-Tools können dazu beitragen, die bereits erwähnten Einzelkomponenten einer rechtlichen Angelegenheit zu verbessern. Diese reichen von Systemen zur Vertragszusammenstellung und Dokumentenmanagement bis hin zu Legal Spend Management-Lösungen und unternehmensweiten Kollaborationsanwendungen. Selbst wenn es sich um einen grundlegenden Ansatz handelt, so stellt selbst die Nutzung von Tools wie Microsoft Excel und Dropbox eine Form des digitalen Matter Managements dar, die für viele Rechtsteams funktioniert. 

Gegenwärtig stehen diverse Einzel-Softwarelösungen zur Verfügung, die bei der Verwaltung und Optimierung verschiedener Aspekte rechtlicher Angelegenheiten unterstützen. Dennoch bergen separate technische Tools ihre eigenen Herausforderungen, wie Integrationsprobleme, Datensilos und Ineffizienzen aufgrund des ständigen Wechsels zwischen Anwendungen. Darüber hinaus stehen Rechtsabteilungen unter dem Druck ihrer unternehmensinternen IT-Teams, die auf eine Vereinfachung und Reduzierung der technischen Infrastruktur abzielen. 

Infolgedessen wandelt sich der Trend weg von isolierten Lösungen für das Matter Management hin zu umfassenden Plattformen, die den gesamten Lebenszyklus einer Legal Matter innerhalb eines zentralen Systems optimieren sollen. Aufgrund dieser Entwicklungen haben Rechtsabteilungen in den vergangenen Jahren vermehrt Full-Suite-Cloud-Plattformen eingeführt. 

GETRIEBEN VON DER DIGITALEN TRANSFORMATION: WARUM DER FOKUS AUF DIGITALES MATTER MANAGEMENT WÄCHST 

Die gezielte Optimierung des Matter Managements hat sich in den letzten Jahren für zahlreiche Rechtsteams zu einem zentralen Anliegen entwickelt, und sie setzen verstärkt auf Technologie, um diese Initiative voranzutreiben. Dies ist ein wesentlicher Aspekt eines dynamischen Trends zur digitalen Transformation in Rechtsabteilungen, der von verschiedenen Faktoren vorangetrieben wird, darunter: 

1. Anpassung an Remote-Arbeit: Die Umstellung auf Fernarbeit erfordert eine intensivierte Nutzung und Investition in juristische Produktivitäts- und Workflow-Tools. Zugleich steigt der Bedarf an mühelosem Zugang zu Fachkenntnissen von überall und zu jeder Zeit. 

2. Effizienz und Mehrwert: Unter dem Druck, kosteneffizienter zu arbeiten und einen gesteigerten Mehrwert für das Unternehmen zu schaffen, setzen Rechtsabteilungen vermehrt auf innovative Ansätze. 

3. Globale Regulierung und Unsicherheit: Steigende globale Regulierungen und Unsicherheiten erhöhen die Arbeitsbelastung im Rechtsbereich, was verstärkte Maßnahmen zur Bewältigung dieser Herausforderungen erforderlich macht. 

4. Mehr interne Aufgaben: Die interne Erledigung von Aufgaben nimmt zu, ohne dass die personellen Ressourcen in der Rechtsabteilung zunehmen. 

5. Kundenbetreuung und Lieferantenmanagement: Die Notwendigkeit, die interne Kundenbetreuung zu optimieren sowie die Auswahl und das Management von Dienstleistern zu verbessern, trägt zur Notwendigkeit von effizientem Matter Management bei. 

6. Ausbau der Legal Operations: Die Entwicklung von Legal Operations und Legal Technology-Strategien in Unternehmen rückt den strategischen Einsatz von Matter Management-Plattformen in den Fokus. 

All diese Faktoren führen dazu, dass viele Rechtsabteilungen ernsthaft in Betracht ziehen, Matter Management-Plattformen einzuführen. Damit möchten sie den Druck mindern und gleichzeitig ihren Beitrag zur Wertschöpfung des Unternehmens steigern. 

Lesen Sie Teil II dieser Serie: Effizientes Legal Matter Management: Die 7 Komponenten einer Matter Management-Plattform.

So, you have carefully assessed your legal team’s challenges, mapped detailed requirements, completed a thorough assessment process, and selected your preferred matter management platform – now what next? Unfortunately, many legal teams stop here without properly thinking about how they will make the deployment and adoption of the new system a success. Bringing in a new matter management system takes time, money, and effort. Therefore, plans must be made to ensure that the new tool delivers the anticipated value and outcomes for your legal department and the broader organization.  

In the fourth and final part of our matter management blog series (read the first installments here: Part I, Part II, Part III), we explore five ways to ensure that your matter management implementation is a great success.  

1. Start Small, but Aim Big

This is less of a tangible step and more of a mindset. Many legal teams (energized by the selection process) get excited by the potential impact of a new legal matter management tool and want to roll it out as quickly and widely as possible. Other teams are immediately under pressure to prove their value to the organization – even if they are more cautious about the rollout. This leads to overambitious implementations that are almost doomed to failure before they begin. It’s great to have grand plans, but to succeed, it’s essential to build toward that success incrementally. For example, identify a small sub-team for the initial rollout or choose a larger group, limiting the initial deployed functionality. This allows you to put the necessary support in place, take feedback, measure impact, and learn valuable lessons before a broader rollout.

2. Bring Users on a Journey With You and Implement a Solid Training Program

While some users of a new matter management system may have been involved in the procurement process, many will not have been. You should not assume those users will understand the rationale for bringing in the new tool or be as enthused as the project team. One of the main reasons that new software implementations fail is down to end-user resistance or low adoption. Some put this down to people being stuck in their ways or technophobic, but often it is down to a lack of understanding and ‘buy-in’ on the part of the users. Therefore, make sure you explain to users why the new matter management system is being implemented, link it to their daily challenges, and showcase how it will benefit them personally. Users soon get on board when they realize a new tech tool will make their working life easier! Find more insights on how to secure legal technology adoption in this blog.

Another reason why user adoption of a new matter management system is often low has nothing to do with possible skepticism and resistance on – the part of users – it’s simply because users were not instructed on how to use the software. While many newer software platforms are built with an exceptional user experience and are intuitive, there is still a steep learning curve for any new software platform. It’s a simple fix! When looking for a new matter management system, ensure there is good user guidance and support built into the system, ensure you have coordinated thorough training for users, and build an associated knowledge base to deliver learning resources, keep users informed, and support new joiners. Ask your vendor to help support your training program, as any Customer-Success driven vendor will have pre-prepared materials and extensive experience onboarding other clients’ users. Also, consider seeking internal volunteers willing to champion the new system and provide support and training to new users.

3. Measure, Measure, Measure

Doubtless, part of the business plan when requesting a budget for a new matter management system included details about the value such a tool would bring to your team and organization. That value could have been in the shape of lower costs, increased revenues, reduced risk, etc. But once you implement a new system, how do you know if it delivers the desired impact? The answer is that you measure it. To measure the impact, you must see the status quo before implementing the tool. Therefore, make sure you have identified your baseline metrics before implementation. You might also consider them as your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). For example, if you’re interested in measuring how a matter management system reduces average matter cycle times, then make sure you know what average cycle times were before implementing the tool. After this, you need to track the metric to monitor impact and trends over time. Read more about typical KPIs in legal departments in this article. These steps will help you avoid the ‘implement and hope’ trap many teams fall into.

You also want to make sure you have a functioning feedback loop. No technology implementation is perfect the first time. It’s a very rare thing indeed for software to be deployed seamlessly without any issues or subsequent enhancement requests. To see the full value of a new matter management system, listening to your users and adapting accordingly is critical. Therefore, when implementing a new system, ensure you have created a user feedback mechanism and communicated this accordingly. Seek as much feedback as possible, monitor trends, and share the results amongst leadership and your users. Transparency is key! Treat implementation as the first step in the journey of your new tool – seek to learn and aim for continuous improvement. As a legal operations software provider, we’ve observed this many times; you may find new value from the tool and out-delivering on your forecasted ROI.

4. Create New Roles to Help Drive Success

Legal technology has evolved considerably over the last decade. Read more on the evolution of matter management here. Legal departments are looking beyond the traditional document and contract management tools and are now embracing solutions to support intelligent workflows, contract analysis, document assembly, decision automation, etc. Many new-generation tools are highly configurable and can be crafted to solve challenges or optimize certain processes. This requires people with both the legal and technical knowledge to “engineer” these solutions.

Furthermore, as legal department tech stacks grow, there is a requirement to manage the different solutions, maintain relationships with vendors, look for synergies, engage with central IT departments and ensure the legal team is supported and enabled from a technology perspective. Therefore, when thinking about implementing a new matter management system, why not consider bringing in additional roles, such as legal engineers and legal technology managers, to ensure its success? Don’t think that only lawyers can pick this up – legal technology is now a vocation in its own right! Many legal teams, therefore, increasingly bring experts from alternative professional backgrounds to the table. Use this opportunity to make your legal team even more agile and diverse.

5. Support Your New Users

Upfront training for a new matter management system isn’t enough on its own – it is also critical to make ongoing support available to users so that any technical or usability issues can be addressed quickly to reduce friction. The minute a user runs into friction, they will likely switch off the new system. This friction may be caused by not understanding certain functionality, performance issues, or even bugs in the system. Whatever causes the friction, systems and processes should be in place for a user to report their issue and obtain help and guidance. It’s critical to agree from the outset who within your organization will support your new matter management system. The best practice is not to assume it will be IT – as they only have limited resources and adding a new tool to their list may not be easy. Therefore, ensure you discuss support adequately before implementing a new system and agree on responsibility and internal SLAs, e.g., what issues are supported, by whom, and when support is provided. Then make sure your users know what support is available and how they reach it. Many sophisticated vendors also offer a support area within their application. This can anticipate many issues from the outset and avoid frustration and a high workload for your internal colleagues. Ask about this when selecting a vendor. Also, consider monitoring support data to help identify common issues – this can help improve training and support processes.

Let’s Summarize…

Implementing a new legal matter management system takes work. It takes careful planning and involves putting in place processes and support to ensure everyone is enabled to see the total value of the new tool and ensure that value is continually delivered throughout the lifecycle of the matter management platform. Starting with these five key tips will undoubtedly help keep you focused during your matter management implementation journey.

This is the final entry in a four-part series. Read the prior installments here:
Part I: The Definition of a Legal Matter and its Management,
Part II: 7 Key Components of a Full-Suite Matter Management System,
Part III: 7 Aspects In-House Teams Should Consider When Choosing a Matter Management Vendor

This article is the third of our four-part blog series, focusing solely on matter management and its various aspects. If you have not yet read the first two articles, click here (Part I, Part II) to catch up. 

In part three, Carina Smolik-Fischer, director of product at BusyLamp (an Onit company) sums up 7 key aspects legal departments should consider when choosing the right matter management vendor. Here, you’ll get guidance on how to proceed once you have decided to purchase matter management software.

The decision has been made! You want to implement a matter management solution that makes your daily work more efficient, lets you work more effectively on matters, documents, legal intakes, and makes internal and external collaboration easier – congratulations on that! But now it’s time to ask yourself who is the right sparring partner for the job. Someone who assists you with scoping the project, supporting you with configuration, and onboarding your legal team to make this project a success. In my professional career, I gained profound experience with various matter management solutions. I found that some rules have proven true regarding finding the ideal matter management solution for a legal department. In the following, I would like to share the most valuable insights with you:

1. Your IT and Technology Matters

First and foremost, you must clarify with your IT and security department which requirements the new application must meet. IT will support you in checking if the matter management vendors meet important requirements like system provider and localization, data privacy, security, and certificates. BusyLamp meets a range of global certifications and regulatory and compliance standards, such as ISO 27001, GDPR, and more. Learn more about it here.

Next to the technical topics, support and provisions are vital, like license model, support model, updated deployment and maintenance, as well as integrations and quick implementation possibilities. Our data security checklist for in-house teams can help you keep the key IT considerations in mind.

And finally, costs and contract considerations like licenses and onboarding costs, contract duration, and payment terms are crucial. Our blog about hidden costs can help you to avoid underestimating the investment and to keep all costs in mind. This way, you can aim to select only the most suitable providers and shorten your vendors list.

2. Is the organization sustainable and scalable?

Besides the hard facts, soft skills should also drive your decision. When evaluating software vendors, take the time to dive into their backgrounds. Find out how long they have been active in the legal industry and whether they are currently growing or downsizing. Do they have a professional product and customer service team? Are they big enough and experienced enough to address your potential questions and concerns? Are they constantly developing the product and thus willing to grow with your future requirements? Make sure other customers are satisfied. Customer satisfaction is the best currency when predicting your project success.

3. Onboard your legal department early in the process

Get your legal department on board to drive user adoption. The project will only succeed if you have your colleagues by your side. This aspect should never be underestimated. We highly recommend you form a team with tech-savvy colleagues who represent your activities and know your department well. These can be lawyers, paralegals, assistants, and/or Legal Operations. Further recommendations on how to secure user adoption can be found within this blog article.

4. Request specific information from your potential matter management vendor

Let the team define its requirements. The best is using specific examples of their daily work and identifying what’s missing. Collect, classify and prioritize challenges and find intersection points. Which “pain points” are most relevant, which aspects are not so important, and which would be “nice to have”? Create a list and make it accessible to the team so that each team member feels included. Add key aspects your IT departments provide and collect all the data you need to make the right decision.

Once you have your list ready, share it with the potential providers and ask them to fill in their details. Use this sheet as preparation for the software presentation meeting.

5. Schedule Software Preparations and Work on a Practical Example

Once the day arrives, and you have invited vendors for the software presentation, it’s time to get down to business. Invite your team (the devil is in the details) and prepare your requirements list. Also, consider inviting a key user from the IT department to clarify all potential IT questions.

Take the chance and ask all the questions you and your team have. Ask the presenter to run through a specific use case completely. Make sure that the whole flow can be mapped within the application. That way, you will receive a realistic idea of whether the software suits your needs.

6. Ask for a Test Drive

Before committing to a new software solution, be sure to kick the tires. Most vendors offer a free trial to test features, benefits, and usability. Make sure the software contains the features you need, as well as the functionality. Use this critical phase to examine the software and put the provider through its paces. This is the only way for you to find out if it is a perfect match.

7. “It Takes Two to Tango”

At the end of the day, the relationship with the software solution representative is very important for mutual success. There must be clear communication and trust on both sides. Make use of a reliable and experienced single point of contact. You and your team spend plenty of effort defining your legal department’s goals and requirements, so it’s important that you don’t rush the last phase of your evaluation process and choose the most suitable matter management vendor wisely.

Read Part IV: 5 Ways to Make Sure Your Matter Management Implementation is a Success. 

This article is the second of our four-part blog series focusing solely on matter management and various aspects. If you have not yet read the first article, click here to catch up. In part two, we will focus on the question of how full-suite digital matter management platforms help to optimize and streamline the management of legal matters.

In short, the answer is simple: If we take the core components of a matter, then we can easily deduce the benefits and efficiencies that matter management systems provide for legal departments. This boils down to: 

1. Central and Secure Document Management 

Matter management systems centralize document storage for matters and provide a secure location where important matter documents can be accessed. Essential document management functionality is normally present, including versioning, redlining, custom metadata, tagging, granular permissioning, etc. Integrations with MS Office and Google Workspace are often available, making editing and collaborating on documents quick and easy. Matter management tools also make it simple for documents and their content to be searched and found. Some matter management systems also offer specific contract management capabilities, such as e-signature integration and clause extraction for contract-related matters.

2. Discoverable Know-How

One benefit of managing matters in a single system is that all matter-related information and knowledge is collated in one location, a single source of truth. It also gives structure and taxonomy to that data. Good matter management systems harness this data and make know-how searchable and easily available in context when needed. Some matter management systems are actually utilizing AI to simplify and support knowledge delivery, connect data, help keep it up to date, and put it into context. Some matter management platforms leverage integrations with other systems to centralize data and make multiple sources searchable; others also embed chatbots and decision automation tools to deliver answers to specific questions and circumstances rather than just search results.

3. Efficient Communication and Collaboration

Following the pandemic and the rise in remote working, the best matter management platforms will now integrate with market-leading collaboration tools such as MS Teams. Good matter management platforms will also be systems of engagement (not just systems of record), enabling users from both within and outside the organization to collaborate on the delivery of matters. This is particularly helpful when legal teams are working with outside counsel. Communication should also be possible within the matter management platform, with social collaboration functionality like messaging, comments, and sharing. We are seeing a trend towards the “meet users where they work” model, so expect to see matter management tools integrating with more personal productivity and collaboration tools in the future.

4. Automated Workflows and Self-Service

Automating standardized workflows and reducing manual intervention is the key to making any legal process more efficient. Therefore, matter management platforms often provide workflow automation functionality. Process automation can range from standardized and fixed to fully configurable (often known as no-code automation). It can be used to optimize a wide range of matter processes, including notifications, legal intake, document automation, approval processes, risk escalation mechanisms, and contract lifecycles, to name just a few. One key benefit of automation is that it unlocks greater self-service. Legal teams are busy enough, so the more they can enable others to help themselves, the more they can focus on higher-value work. Matter management platforms are therefore being used to enable stakeholders within the business to instruct the legal team, generate their own documents, and access relevant guidance and know-how.

5. Clear Organization of Work

Delivering a legal matter involves the intricate coordination and management of resources, status, and risk to ensure delivery of the matter on time and on budget. Matter management systems often include tools to help with planning, resource allocation, and scheduling. From task management, work allocation, and project plans to capacity trackers, team calendars, and timelines – matter management tools help map the work necessary for the delivery of the legal matter and support the management of the resource to ensure proper execution of that matter. In some cases, matter management platforms will also include time-tracking features to enable legal teams to record the time they spend working on matters. However, project management isn’t just about resources, it’s about monitoring status changes, tracking risk, and ensuring transparent reporting. Matter management tools, therefore, provide tools that ensure complete transparency over matter activity. 

6. Transparent Spend Management

While many matters are dealt with in-house, a large proportion still require the support and input of outside counsel. Full-suite matter management tools often provide the functionality to help source legal service providers, create budgets, track spend, review invoices, enforce billing guidelines and run approval processes. Since spend is such a large element of any legal matter, it makes sense for spend management to form part of broader matter management systems – after all, it’s possible to derive more valuable insight when spend data is layered against other matter data. For example, comparing a law firm’s spend with its cycle times and outcomes can help determine whether a legal department sees value in its legal service providers.

7. Access to Data

The more matter activity conducted within matter management systems, the more useful data they hold. Whether the data relates to spend, status, resourcing, contracts, risk, or legal intake – it’s important to ensure that the data can be properly accessed and interrogated and that insights can be delivered quickly. Many matter management systems provide sophisticated reporting and analysis tools that enable matter data to be filtered and extracted. Alternatively, data can be visualized in charts and graphs within reporting dashboards or via connectors with tools such as Power BI. It’s important to note that many matter management systems go beyond simple reporting and now use data to predict future outcomes and spot trends. 

Putting it Into Practice

Matter management is a broad discipline that involves the efficient coordination and delivery of all aspects of a legal matter. Optimizing the matter management process is critical in the current landscape but may seem daunting given the scope of many legal matters; however, there are significant gains to be made by deploying technology solutions to streamline and support the management of legal matters. Instead of trying to stitch together different tech tools, look for full-suite matter management platforms that can enhance the entire matter lifecycle. These tools will help you start small but will provide the foundation for your team to scale into an organized, productive, and informed legal function! 

Read Part III of this series: 7 Aspects In-House Teams Should Consider When Choosing a Matter Management Vendor. 

This article is the first of our four-part blog series focusing solely on matter management and its various aspects and best practices. To kick off the series, we will be going back to the basics. In this article, we look at what matter management and legal matters are and why digital matter management is rising in importance.

Matter management is a term that is regularly used within the legal industry. It’s what lawyers and legal operations professionals want to optimize, and it’s the challenge that legal tech vendors are trying to solve. However, its scope is so broad that it’s easy to get confused as to what “matter management” is. To help address any uncertainty, we thought that we’d share our thoughts on the subject and set out what we believe matter management means and how technology can play a part. 

Starting With the 7 Core Components of a Legal Matter 

While matter management has received more attention with the growth in legal tools aimed at streamlining the process, it’s important to note that matter management is a discipline that has been around much longer than any software tool.  

As the name suggests, matter management is the process of managing a legal matter (with or without technology). But what does this entail? To explain, it’s easiest to first look at the constituent elements of a legal matter.

1. Documents

Think of lawyers, and you’ll often conjure up images of huge contracts and files full to the brim with documents. Every legal matter involves documentation of some description, from contracts and licenses to emails and letters. All this documentation needs to be centrally and securely stored and managed.

2. Knowledge

While legal teams are smart people, it’s perfectly natural they cannot have all the answers. They need quick access to quality and accurate data and know-how to support the delivery of any legal matter. Making this knowledge accessible when it is needed is a core component of matter management.

3. Collaboration

Law is a team sport. Every legal matter involves a broad range of different stakeholders – within the legal department and the wider business, as well as external to the organization. Efficient matter management requires seamless communication and collaboration between all parties.

4. Workflow

While many legal matters are complex and have their own nuances, most legal matters are quite formulaic. In other words, they follow a set sequence of phases and stages depending on the facts and circumstances of the matter.

5. Management

Matters are projects, so they need to be managed with the same diligence and attention. From scope, budgeting, and resourcing to task allocation, risk tracking, and status reporting, matters need to be carefully managed like any other project to ensure delivery on time and within budget.

6. Spend

Tracking spend against budget is a key component any matter where outside counsel or other legal service provider is instructed. It’s always vital to monitor how matter spend is performing against budget, keep track of work-in-progress (WIP) and accruals, as well as look out for issues that might adversely impact the budget and matter spend.

7. Reporting

In order to properly manage any legal matter or portfolio of matters, it’s necessary to have access to all the information about the relevant matters. Whether it’s information about status, risk, resourcing, spend, contracts, matters, etc., this information needs to be collated, available, and capable of being easily reportable. 

Matter management simply involves the efficient coordination, organization, and delivery of all these core components for legal matters. 

Micro vs Macro Matter Management 

When people think of matter management, they are usually thinking about it at matter (micro) level, e.g., the management of a single matter. This will normally be the case for participants in particular matters who need visibility over matter activity and have access to matter-related documents and know-how. However, legal departments are constantly handling large numbers of ongoing matters that also need to be managed and tracked at a portfolio (macro) level. This will particularly be the case for General Counsel, CLOs, and legal operations managers who need visibility, reporting, and insight across all legal matters. Therefore, it’s important to remember that matter management also includes matter portfolio management. 

The Rise of Digital Matter Management 

Unsurprisingly, digital matter management (DMM) involves the use of technology to support the management and delivery of legal matters. There are many software tools available that will help improve the discreet elements of a legal matter listed above, from contract assembly and document management systems to spend management and enterprise collaboration applications. Whilst it’s a basic approach, even the use of tools like MS Excel and Dropbox is a form of digital matter management that works for many legal teams. 

Currently, there is no shortage of software point solutions to help manage and streamline different components of a legal matter. However, the use of separate tech tools presents its own challenges – for example, integration difficulties, data silos, and inefficiency caused by context switching across applications. Legal departments are also under pressure from their organization’s IT teams to simplify and reduce the tech stack. For these reasons, there is a growing trend away from point solutions for matter management and towards single platforms that aim to optimize the full matter lifecycle in one central system. Therefore, in recent years, legal departments have been increasingly adopting full-suite cloud platforms. 

What is Driving the Focus on Digital Matter Management?  

Optimizing matter management has become a key focus for many legal teams in recent years, and they’re turning to technology to support this initiative. It’s part of a rapid digital transformation trend across legal departments that is being driven by a range of different factors, including, but not limited to: 

• Move to remote working, which requires greater focus and investment in legal productivity and workflow tools and easy access to know-how from anywhere and at any time 
• Pressure to be more cost-efficient as a legal function and deliver more value to their organizations 
• Growing global regulation and uncertainty causing increased legal workloads 
• More work being serviced in-house without legal department headcounts increasing significantly 
• Need to improve internal customer engagement as well as vendor selection and management 
• Maturing of legal operations and rise in dedicated legal technology strategies for corporate legal departments 
• Need for legal departments to demonstrate that they are a net contributor to the business

All these factors are leading many legal departments to seriously explore the adoption of matter management platforms to alleviate these pressures and help boost the value that they are delivering to their businesses.

Read Part II of this series: 7 Key Components of a Full-Suite Matter Management System.

Chapter two of the Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report unveils new potential for legal departments to directly and positively impact material growth, operational efficiency, and cultural transformation. Here’s how Legal can be a top game-changer for its business.

There are two sides to every story.

Chapter one of the Enterprise Legal Reputation (ELR) Report — a third-party, multinational study of 4,000 enterprise employees — delved into the image of corporate legal teams through the eyes of enterprise employees and revealed a Perception Paradox: Although four in five (78%) employees consider Legal as outstanding protectors of the business who impart good advice, two in three (65%) have knowingly bypassed Legal, at least on occasion.

Chapter two of the ELR Report examines Legal’s perception of its own department by shining a spotlight on the parallels and perspectives of 500 corporate legal professionals from the United States (200 respondents), United Kingdom (100), Germany (100), and France (100). Is Legal aware of its brand image by its constituents? Does the department know what similarities and differences exist between their perceptions and those of its enterprise employees? And ultimately, how can Legal have greater impact on the materiality and growth of its business?

Similar attitude, legal latitude

When it comes to exploring the connection between Legal and its internal clients, nearly three in four (73%) respondents cite positive relationships. These figures are similar to the responses from enterprise employees in chapter one, where three in five (60%) reported harmonious partnerships. Legal believes its collegiality ranks highest with Finance (84%) and HR (79%), and employees reported the best collaboration with these departments as well, although at a slightly lower clip (62%). Further, nine in 10 (91%) corporate legal respondents believe they share exemplary interactions with their internal clients, and almost every corporate Legal respondent (95%) considers their department efficient in managing service requests, a number that wavered only slightly spanning the globe, with 98% in Germany, 96% in the United Kingdom, 95% in the United States, and 91% in France.

Why, then, do three in every four Legal employees feel the strength of their connection with internal clients is solid when less than two in five enterprise employees concur? Despite Legal believing it has “good” or “very good” relationships with IT (78%), Procurement (76%), Sales (74%) and Marketing (73%), the feeling is different from the enterprise employee perspective, sitting at just 38% for IT, 37% for Procurement, 43% for Sales and 37% for Marketing.

While Legal being confident about their relationships is to be commended, these inconsistencies in awareness represent an incongruity and potential obstacle — also known as the Iceberg Effect.

Part of the issue in differing levels of perception could be taking an outside-in view: Since Legal sets the standards for what needs to be accomplished in its department, Legal innately presumes it is accomplishing what needs to be done. And, in fact, many legal teams are doing an extraordinary job. In chapter one, enterprise employees were quick to note how Legal excels at negotiation, procuring vendors and services, and impacting the corporate brand.

Yet what this variance also indicates is the presence of untapped potential. Legal has the capability to be more than a risk mitigator and compliance officer; to do more than review, manage, and sign contracts. This is a chance for Legal to command a place at the table as a transformational change agent and business influencer impacting topline revenue, innovation, competitive differentiation, brand, and corporate culture.

Steering clear of the Iceberg Effect

When it comes to impacting the business where it matters most, Legal is in safe and steady waters supporting Sales and the revenue acquisition process. In fact, nowhere is Legal’s ability to steer the ship clearer than here: More than half (56%) of enterprise employees say Legal kickstarts sales and revenue operations, with 48% citing Legal’s acceleration of deal cycles. Nearly seven in 10 (68%) legal professionals also believe they help Sales effectively close urgent deals, a sentiment that skyrockets to an incredible 84% in Germany.

There can be no revenue recognition until contracts are signed, though, and with two in five legal respondents (40%) spending four to five hours – at least half of every business day – reviewing and managing contracts, Legal expresses a definite need for speed and modernization. Nearly half of respondents (47%) claim their current technology is insufficient. But optimizing with automated tools powered by the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and contract lifecycle management (CLM) is the key to advancing the entire contract process, from document generation and redlining to e-signature and finalization. This acceleration can pilot faster decision-making on how to push contracts through review cycles, renewals, and negotiation, scaling the speed and growth of revenue generation (44%) as well as mergers and acquisitions (23%).

Legal’s role in materially impacting its business

While the crux of a business’ success may be defined by its sales and revenue, Legal holds the power to influence other functions across the enterprise, too. There can be no sales without a valuable product or service, and more than three in five (61%) legal professionals believe they play a prime role in positively impacting their businesses’ abilities to innovate and differentiate competitively by protecting company patents and intellectual property (IP).

Even beyond the scope of innovation and ideas, it is people who make up the atomic units of a business. Corporate culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are fundamental to operational efficiency and growth. Fortunately, four in five (80%) enterprise employees view Legal as a great partner for procuring vendors and services, and more than half of respondents (52%) worldwide report their departments and companies are now prioritizing vendor diversification. Yet another Legal priority is improving data security, with one in three employees (33%) highlighting the importance of cyber risk management.

It is within these forward-thinking sectors – DEI and data privacy — that Legal can uncover its formula for future success and evolve from a transactional, back-office brand into a visible business influencer, vanguard of innovation, and advocate for diversity and inclusivity. By doing so, Legal can pivot the Perception Paradox and melt the Iceberg Effect, connecting more deeply with its internal clients, ramping up material growth and operational excellence, and expanding its image as guardian of the enterprise into an even more significant role as protector.

Read the ELR Report to learn more about how legal professionals view their relationships with internal clients in comparison to the image enterprise employees have of their legal departments.

The legal department is viewed as an outstanding protector of the business and remarkable advisor. The perception of Legal as a business partner is not quite as stellar. What can Legal do to reconcile these images and come out on top as both?

Bulwark. Safeguard. Defender.

With 77% of enterprise employees around the world rating their legal departments as talented negotiators and almost half (47%) believing Legal positively affects forward-thinking innovation, there are many different perceptions of Legal.

However, the Enterprise Legal Relationship (ELR) Report – a third-party, multinational study of 4,000 enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals spanning the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany – revealed that, far and away, the number-one image that enterprise employees have of Legal is as a protector of the business, its assets, and its people.

Guardian of the enterprise

Legal is responsible for ensuring the compliance of a company’s actions, so it’s no surprise that the department is seen first and foremost as an authority figure both expected and enabled to protect the corporate mission. When one envisions the responsibilities of various functions within an enterprise along a spectrum between protection and promotion, Legal – as opposed to Sales and Marketing – falls soundly on the side of protection. Overall, the perception of Legal around the globe is primarily positive with three out of five respondents (60%) citing good relationships — no doubt due in large part to the protection the department imparts to the enterprise as a whole.

Two separate perceptions

When it comes to Legal, however, there is also a Perception Paradox: While Legal is highly respected as the protector of the business, three out of four enterprise employees (73%) do not consider Legal a good business partner.

How can Legal be lauded as protectors of the business when many of its internal clients don’t see it as a good business partner?

It all comes down to perception. Among enterprise employees, protection and trust appear to be two separate perceptions. In fact, 49% respondents globally describe Legal as “inflexible” and 59% call Legal “inefficient.” Additionally, one in 10 – and as many as one in five in the United States and United Kingdom – voiced concerns that Legal’s abundance of caution as protectors have extended the time to close and win deals, slowing and negatively impacting sales cycles.

That said, this is a cross to bear that shouldn’t entirely rest on the albeit strong shoulders of Legal. If Legal is indeed viewed as and expected to be the protector of the business, but those same employees believe that Legal hinders business from moving forward, it might explain why two out of three respondents (65%) admit to having bypassed the Legal departments and its policies in the past, at least on occasion.  

So then how is Legal supposed to act as the very protectors they are regaled as being?

The future of Legal: protector and partner

 Where Legal shines is in matters ensuring that accountable decisions are made and inherent risk is mitigated: patents, trademarks, and intellectual property (92%) and regional and global-specific matters (89%) top the list. Yet Legal has the potential to evolve its perceptions and become not only the intellectual “head” of an enterprise, but much more of its heart.

Employees want, need, and deserve to feel secure in an organization.  As a true protector, Legal can be empowered to let internal clients know Legal is “with them.” By freeing up time from mundane tasks with state-of-the-art automation, Legal will have an opportunity to contribute more collaborative support to its internal clients, earning greater trust and transforming into a truly valued business partner as well as the protector of the business they always have been.

Assist legal teams in better understanding their brand image by downloading ELR Report Chapter 1.

As many as 65% of enterprise employees bypass the legal department on occasion. Here’s how to turn that around and become the true leader Legal is meant to be.

Modern life teems with sigh-worthy moments: dodgy WiFi when you’re on deadline, your phone battery running out of juice with no place to recharge, the dreaded “You have two more password attempts before being locked out.”

But would it surprise you to learn that, for enterprise employees, dealing with Legal can also sometimes feel a little bit the same? The Enterprise Legal Relationship (ELR) Report – a third-party, multinational study of 4,000 enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany – revealed that only 35% of respondents always engage with Legal on matters.

Even more astonishing, an inverse relationship exists: the fewer the transactions with Legal, the more positive the relationship. Employees from the United Kingdom, who tend to engage with the legal department most frequently, report the poorest interactions, whereas employees in France cite perhaps the best relationships with Legal, yet are most likely to bypass Legal.

It doesn’t have to be this way. These findings present a major opportunity for Legal to improve its approachability factor. In fact, the department has the chance to jumpstart efficiency, impact materiality, and grow the innovation and culture of the business in unprecedented ways.

Increase the percentage of employees that engage Legal by:

1. Cutting the perception of red tape

By and large, employees believe Legal is doing its job – and exceedingly well! But for the enterprise employees who do admittedly bypass Legal on occasion, 36% say they feel the department has a tendency to sometimes be overly bureaucratic.

Legal excels at patents, trademarks, and intellectual property (IP), according to 92% of respondents, as well as matters involving HR issues (88%). But as business partners, nearly half (49%) claim that Legal can be “too process-oriented,” causing 53% of employees in even the most-compliant United States to occasionally circumvent legal processes. And in the other nations surveyed, those numbers skyrocket, to 63% in the United Kingdom, 68% in Germany, and 73% in France.

Legal is typically process-oriented – that’s how the department protects the business. This is a chance to examine existing policies and forge new ones that may reduce any unnecessary inefficiencies.

2. Accelerating response times

Every internal client knows that mitigating enterprise risk is Legal’s essential purpose. Yet nearly half of global respondents worry that Legal’s abundance of caution while doing so could potentially damage sales cycles, affecting deal close rates (43%), missed earnings (35%), and even stock price drops and valuation loss (14% each, respectively). Further, many employees (41%) feel that Legal is not as responsive since many legal operations departments have been working remotely or on a hybrid schedule as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s impossible to work well together if a salient entity like Legal even occasionally feels absent from the enterprise. But introducing methods to improve channels of cross-enterprise communication as well as automation and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to rapidly accelerate Legal’s response time can dramatically prevent Legal’s chance of being bypassed.

3. Embracing flexibility and inclusivity

Trust has a way of naturally trickling downward. Half of all employees (49%) – and three out of five (58%) in France – believe Legal can sometimes be a bit too rigid. If employees feel that a situation is inflexible, they may be far less likely to interact, for fear of being rejected. However, as one ethical compass of the enterprise, Legal also has a unique and distinct advantage in its proverbial back pocket: the ability to transform company culture by bearing the torch for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and protecting the business’ atomic unit – data.

Knowledge is power

Legal always puts itself in the line of fire for a business. But how can you protect the business if two-thirds of your internal clients occasionally evade your oversight?

Bypassing legal is no way to reach your enterprise’s desired destination. Arm yourself, your department, and your team with this knowledge – the knowledge to automate both workflows and processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness between departments; to be a business partner that accelerates the cycle of winning deals; and to become more involved, approachable, and collaborative – so that employees always abide by Legal’s policies. This is how Legal becomes a leader. And, by doing so, Legal will secure a spot as a key differentiator for cost efficiency, operational excellence, and revenue generation.

Find out more about how to prevent your legal team from being bypassed by downloading ELR Report Chapter 1.

The ELR Report is a third-party, multinational study of 4,000 enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany intended to showcase relationship dynamics and perceived image between corporate legal teams and enterprise organizations.

Trusted relationships are everything.

According to Lord Richard Layard, today’s foremost happiness researcher and program director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, what matters most in business is what matters most in life: cultivating a sense of belonging and purpose bolstered by meaningful connection.

Any team, be it Sherlock and Watson or the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, possesses a shared objective, goal, or destination. Every player must be invested in doing the work needed to arrive at that pinnacle. And each individual must feel a connection with their colleagues or teammates to want to achieve that success together.

It’s no different for business teams. If you’ve ever wondered how you can enhance your relationship with internal clients, you aren’t alone. It turns out the status of the relationship with Legal can differ by department.

The Enterprise Legal Relationship (ELR) Report – a third-party, multinational study of 4,000 enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany – found that the majority (77%) of enterprise employees believe that Legal is exceptional at negotiating on the behalf of their companies. However, less than one in five (19%) feels Legal prioritizes its internal clients, and the status of those relationships can vary across the enterprise.

So what accounts for this disconnect among departments? And what can be done to change it?

Satisfied with safeguarding

The ELR Report revealed that enterprise employees believe Legal’s charter is to protect the company, assets, and people. Additionally, 46% of all global employees consider Legal a trusted advisor. It makes sense, then, that the more liability-prone departments have a higher rate of positive engagement with Legal: Around the globe, 62% of employees from Human Resources (HR) and Finance note positive relations with Legal.

Even more impressively, seven in 10 U.S. respondents are pleased with Legal’s interactions with HR. Employees in France cite collegiality with both HR and Finance at 66%. In the United Kingdom, 64% tout a good working relationship with HR; 62% say the same of Finance, whereas in Germany – which reports the lowest rate of satisfaction with Legal — half (50%) are content with HR and 58% with Finance.

Feeling the strain

For Sales, IT, Marketing and Procurement, however, those numbers plummet – only 43% of global respondents say Legal’s interactions with Sales are positive, and that figure drops to 38% for IT and 37% for both Marketing and Procurement.

U.K. employees cite satisfaction with Sales, Marketing, and IT at just 35%. And in France – where, by and large, legal teams are viewed as uncompromising – only 29% consider Legal to share a decent connection with Procurement; 33% with IT.

Similarly, 40% of U.S. enterprise employees call Legal’s relationships with Sales and IT positive. Marketing comes in lower at 38%. Data are not much improved for these departments in Germany, where less the half have good interactions with Sales (49%) and IT (43%), and even fewer do with Marketing (37%) and Procurement (38%).

Looking in the mirror

Legal manages various types of matters including contracts, negotiations, lawsuits, and issues of compliance. Since HR and Finance are required to follow protocol – they are not supposed to deviate from “the book,” and the rules that Legal sets and abides by to safeguard the company – it’s only natural that they find dealing with Legal easier.

Meanwhile, Sales, Marketing, IT, and Procurement – departments that are, by their nature, meant to push the envelope to innovate, hit numbers, and modernize – report frustration working with Legal. As it is their responsibility to assertively grow and advance the enterprise in avant-garde and creative ways, they may feel stymied and stonewalled by the very parameters put into place to protect the business.

A call for change

Still, it doesn’t have to be this way. People are a company’s most valuable asset. And with the core of any business a collection of both internal and external relationships, the more connected the enterprise, the more successful it will be. For the sake of business growth and efficiency, Legal can seize this moment to become a more active partner, to nurture more collaborative alliances, to enhance relationships across the business – and to ultimately connect to the enterprise as a whole, now more than ever.

Take the next step in elevating your internal working relationships. Your business is counting on you.

Learn more by reading ELR Report Chapter 1.

The ELR Report is a third-party, multinational study of 4,000 enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany intended to showcase relationship dynamics and perceived image between corporate legal teams and enterprise organizations.