Matter management in the legal world can refer to many different things, but it’s really just another way of saying project management system for legal work. At a high level, it is the process by which matter and related data are gathered, tracked, and reported on throughout the matter lifecycle. Key components of matter management include legal intake to track requests, collaboration and assignment to track who is working on what, knowledge management, and reporting.
Why Ironclad Could Work for Matter Management
When you think about Ironclad’s features and functionality, it actually aligns quite well to general intake needs and tracking needs around “long tail” work like advice and counseling. Let’s explore how.
Change Management
Where Ironclad has already been rolled out for CLM, end users are used to going to Ironclad to request contracts. Not everyone in the company requests legal work, but if they do, they have likely also had to request a contract at some point in time. Even if they haven’t, it is likely easy for them to turn to a teammate who has and can direct them. Our customers put it best, saying “Our clients are already using Ironclad all the time and it’s a good experience. They’re the ones asking why we can’t just use Ironclad to request non-contract work too?”
Easy, No-Code Configuration
Legal teams can easily experiment and spin up “non-document workflows” for non-contract work. It can be one catch-all bucket for an easy user experience, and then legal administrators can add the metadata once requested. You don’t need to rely on the requestor going through the tedious process of entering it themselves.
Transparency
Other systems generally don’t offer transparency on the status of the matter. End users are usually asked to request work and then wonder if the submission even went through. Since Ironclad allows them to see who it was assigned to, what stage it is in, etc., they can stay up to date on the status of their request.
Collaboration
Similar to transparency, buyers have lowered their expectations and requirements so much that they don’t even think that a collaboration space could exist for strategic legal work like counseling and advice. In fact, many will use a Google Doc as a “team tracker”; you could imagine them using the “contract” doc in Ironclad to serve that same purpose.
Knowledge Management
The activity feed and the ability to memorialize who did, said, approved, advised what to who and when is invaluable. There is no way to capture all the data that sits in everyone’s inboxes, but using Ironclad creates a record of it all. This is the holy grail of knowledge management.
Reporting
Turnaround time is another measure of advice and counsel that has never been done before. Theoretically, you could do this with a ticketing system, but no one ever goes back in to close things out in a timely manner… or goes back in at all, ever. If people are actually working and collaborating in this system, the possibilities of data capture and reporting are endless and unprecedented.
Flexibility
No one wants to buy yet another tool. They want to find ways to extend existing tools to other uses. By extending Ironclad to handle matter management at no real additional cost, users get more juice for their squeeze.
Ironclad for Legal Intake in Action
The legal intake aspect of matter management was the most popular topic of discussion on the CLOC boards in 2020, and last year, it was also the most popular topic on the Ironclad Community boards. Several of our community members indicated that they had started using Ironclad for this purpose… and successfully!
We quickly spun up a user group meet-up where Megaport Senior Legal Counsel Mel Scott shared how she has leveraged Ironclad for legal intake. After the meet-up, several other community members let us know that they started doing the same. We also learned at last year’s procurement live Q&A session, that panelists had begun using Ironclad for procurement intake as well. Talk about a one-two punch! Check out how she did it below.
Growing Possibilities
We may still be a ways away from a one-size-fits-all solution to matter management, but as productivity tools across seemingly every industry continue to proliferate, the gap is quickly closing. And as AI-powered legal tech enters the conversation–intelligent clause detection anyone?–we’re excited to see what’ll happen next.
To learn more about how Ironclad can streamline legal functions, request a demo today.
Ironclad is not a law firm, and this post does not constitute or contain legal advice. To evaluate the accuracy, sufficiency, or reliability of the ideas and guidance reflected here, or the applicability of these materials to your business, you should consult with a licensed attorney. Use of and access to any of the resources contained within Ironclad’s site do not create an attorney-client relationship between the user and Ironclad.
