The prospect of introducing technology to the way in-house lawyers interact with other stakeholders is sometimes viewed with a degree of trepidation. There can be a fear that the technology might become an impersonal barrier between the legal team and the colleagues they assist.
However, used in the right way, technology can and should deliver many benefits which improve communications and bolster the personal relationships in-house lawyers are keen to protect. In this article, we highlight 6 ways that a matter management system can enhance communications between legal and the business.
The prospect of introducing technology to the way in-house lawyers interact with other stakeholders is sometimes viewed with a degree of trepidation. There can be a fear that the technology might become an impersonal barrier between the legal team and the colleagues they assist.
However, used in the right way, technology can and should deliver many benefits which improve communications and bolster the personal relationships in-house lawyers are keen to protect. In this article, we highlight 6 ways that a matter management system can enhance communications between legal and the business.
If you work in-house, chances are you’ve been on the receiving end of emails like this:
“Hi, looking to start talks with Acme Corp. about a new project. Would you be able to put together an NDA please?”
The lack of context means you’ll likely respond with questions. What is the nature of the project? Will the NDA be one-way or mutual? Is there to be an exclusivity period?
This sort of exchange can be frustrating for lawyers and their colleagues alike and delays the work being started.
A well thought-out legal intake form will prompt business users to provide all required information upfront, saving them time and enabling the legal team to get started without delay.
As a bonus, requests captured in a digital intake form also capture ‘structured data’ which opens the door to better tracking and analysis of legal workflows.
Managing expectations is key to good communication but the work involved in keeping business users informed at every stage – whether that’s through calls, meetings, emails or updating a spreadsheet – can add significant pressure to lawyers’ already busy workloads.
However, if updates are not provided with sufficient regularity, this can frustrate internal clients who are left wondering whether anyone has picked up their work or what stage it’s at etc. This will typically prompt the sending of chasers, adding more work to the pile and creating a vicious circle.
Automated updates keep all stakeholders informed and reduce the need for manual follow-ups, both for the lawyers and their business colleagues alike.
In a similar vein, matter management systems can also provide a single source of truth for all stakeholders.
Bringing all matters, documents and data together in one place saves lawyers hunting around for the information they need to support their communications with internal clients.
Equally, giving business users the ability to access all relevant/required information themselves enables them to access information they need without always having to go through legal.
Some matter management systems will also include features that allow the legal team and their business colleagues and even outside counsel to communicate directly within the platform.
For instance, every digital matter created on Tabled includes a built-in instant messaging module. This sits alongside key matter information such as the original request details, names of all people working on the matter, matter-related checklists, matter documents and related email correspondence. People collaborating on the matter can therefore exchange messages with all of the relevant information at their fingertips.
Exchanging messages on the platform rather also means that those exchanges can easily be seen by everyone with permission to access the matter and creates a clear audit trail for future reference.
On a related note, a good matter management system will also cater for the reality that communications will still happen on other platforms and offer ways to bring everything together. (To support this, Tabled workspaces integrate seamlessly with Outlook, Gmail and Slack.)
By capturing and unlocking more data about legal workflows, a matter management system can help in-house legal teams to tailor communications according to specific stakeholder preferences; for example, creating charts to present updates to the CFO visually as opposed to defaulting to longer-form written memos.
Having more data can also unlock opportunities for the legal team to contribute more to commercial or strategic discussions. For example, with the right contract-related data to hand, could the legal team help colleagues in revenue operations to produce more accurate forecasts and help the sales team to identify the best deals to focus on to hit targets?
By helping the legal team to manage and collaborate on legal matters as efficiently as possible, a legal matter management system can free up significant time that would otherwise have been spent on relatively low-value tasks that do not call for the ‘personal touch’.
This will be especially true if your matter management system also offers complementary productivity-boosting functions around things such as panel management, document automation, or the ability to create self-service resources.
This allows legal teams to work more efficiently and respond to stakeholder inquiries faster, ultimately improving communication between legal and the rest of the business.
And, perhaps most importantly, it frees up time and energy to invest in more regular, more thoughtful – and higher impact – personal discussions and interactions with colleagues, helping to improve communications and grow those relationships.
Effective communication is crucial for building productive working relationships between in-house legal teams and their internal clients. Technology, such as matter management solutions, can help to balance personal communications with more efficient/streamlined options. It can also be used by in-house legal teams to enhance and enrich their personal communications by leveraging collaboration tools, drawing on data & insights and freeing up time to focus personal attention on the most impactful exchanges.
To learn more about how Tabled can help, please get in touch or sign up for a demo using the form below.