Onit has brought SimpleLegal, ContractWorks, SecureDocs, Axdraft, Readysign, and BusyLamp together in one destination designed to simplify and strengthen legal operations.
Change brings clarity. That’s exactly what this moment represents for Onit and our customers. We’ve brought every solution in the Onit family together in one place at Onit.com. With SimpleLegal, ContractWorks, SecureDocs, AXDRAFT, ReadySign, and BusyLamp part of a single digital experience, this marks a new chapter for unified legal operations.
This change isn’t about taking anything away. It’s about making it easier to find what you need, explore what’s possible, and experience the strength of one connected brand built for the future of legal operations.
A simpler, stronger experience for customers
Nothing changes in how you work. You’ll continue to use the same solutions, access the same logins, and connect with the same trusted support teams. Each product remains available and fully supported, just as before. What’s new is the simplicity. Instead of multiple websites, you now have one destination where every Onit solution lives together. It’s easier to learn, compare, and explore how our tools connect to help legal teams manage spend, automate contracts, streamline workflows, and reduce risk — all within a unified legal operations experience.
The power of one brand
Bringing every Onit solution together at Onit.com strengthens our shared foundation. It’s more than a design change. It’s a reflection of who we are: a single organization delivering trusted, AI-native solutions that help legal teams scale smarter.
SimpleLegal continues to lead in legal spend management and ebilling.
ContractWorks offers intuitive contract management for legal and business teams.
SecureDocs remains the go-to for secure data rooms and deal collaboration.
Axdraft simplifies document automation for faster, more accurate drafting.
BusyLamp empowers legal departments with advanced matter management and time tracking.
Each solution keeps its strengths and identity while benefiting from the collective innovation, clarity, and support behind Onit.
Why we brought everything together
Onit’s growth across the legal technology space has always been driven by one goal: helping legal teams work more efficiently. Over time, that goal expanded into a portfolio of proven products designed to solve specific needs. Bringing them together was the natural next step, creating a more cohesive experience and a stronger ecosystem for every customer. One website. One brand. One Onit. This unified approach allows us to innovate faster, support customers more effectively, and show how our solutions fit together to move legal operations forward.
Legal operations built for today and ready for tomorrow
The unified Onit experience is built on an adaptable, AI-native foundation that grows with our customers. From spend management to document automation, every solution within the Onit family works together to help legal teams stay focused, strategic, and future-ready.
What does this mean for you? Moving forward together
Unifying our brands marks more than a milestone. It represents our long-term commitment to customers, partners, and the future of legal technology. Whether you manage spend with SimpleLegal, collaborate in SecureDocs, or track matters with BusyLamp, your experience remains the same: trusted, consistent, and stronger with Onit.
Legal matter management software gives legal ops a central hub to track every matter, budget, document, and vendor decision in one place. It replaces spreadsheets and manual updates with real-time visibility, helping teams control spend, reduce risk, and forecast with confidence.
Project management has become one of the most strategic responsibilities for legal operations teams. Legal matters are often their largest, most complex projects — with countless moving parts, multiple vendors, and budget pressures that demand precise tracking and visibility.
Mastering matter management is now the foundation of effective legal operations and spend control. Legal departments that manage matters with data-driven tools save an average of 12–18% in legal spend, according to recent industry benchmarks. The ability to analyze matter data across firms, practice areas, and timekeepers transforms legal work from reactive to proactive — turning information into measurable ROI.
This guide covers the essentials of legal matter management in 2025 — and how modern legal management software helps teams centralize data, automate workflows, and make smarter financial decisions.
What is legal matter management?
Legal matter management is the process of organizing, tracking, and analyzing all matters handled by your legal department — both in-house and with outside counsel.
It’s more comprehensive than traditional case management, which focuses on individual cases and documents. Matter management encompasses all related data: budgets, timekeepers, invoices, risks, key contacts, and outcomes.
It provides a single operational view across all work, giving legal teams and finance shared visibility into cost, performance, and progress.
Creating legal matter records
Every matter begins with a structured record — a centralized place to track who’s involved, what’s being done, and how much it costs.
A standard matter record should include:
Matter title and ID
Date opened and current status
Practice area(s)
Budget and spend-to-date
Assigned counsel (in-house and external)
Support staff and invoice approvers
For litigation, add plaintiff/defendant details, jurisdiction, and judge information. For contracts, include counterparty, contract type, and risk level.
Accurate matter records enable smarter forecasting. By analyzing spend by matter type, practice area, or vendor, legal ops can set realistic budgets and prevent cost overruns.
To maintain control:
Use historical analytics to estimate future matter costs
Enforce outside counsel billing guidelines
Require timely invoice and accrual submissions
Standardize invoice formats and approval workflows
Well-structured budgets eliminate surprises and strengthen collaboration with finance. The more granular your matter data, the more confidently you can predict spend and allocate resources.
Tracking and updating legal matters
Keeping matter data current is critical for operational accuracy. It’s also important for creating effective reports for the GC. Updates should include:
New or revised documents
Received invoices and payments
Budget adjustments
Staffing changes
Upcoming deadlines or milestones
Real-time visibility ensures that reports and dashboards reflect the most recent information — especially for executive briefings or accrual forecasts.
Reporting on legal matters
Matter reporting gives leadership a clear view of department performance. With objective metrics — such as matter lifecycle time, spend by firm, or variance from budget — legal teams can identify cost drivers, improve vendor management, and demonstrate ROI.
These insights support stronger collaboration between legal, finance, and the C-suite. They help explain where money goes, justify budget requests, and provide transparency around outside counsel efficiency.
Three ways legal management software solves matter management challenges
Even well-organized legal teams encounter inefficiencies when managing hundreds of matters manually. Modern matter management software addresses these pain points with automation, integration, and analytics.
1. Centralizes data into a single source of truth
A digital platform consolidates all matter data — budgets, invoices, and communications — into one system. Legal and finance can access the same information instantly, improving collaboration and accuracy.
Integrations with tools like Power BI, Tableau, and document management systems further reduce manual work and eliminate data silos.
2. Reduces manual work through automation
Automation eliminates repetitive legal management tasks such as data entry, document tagging, and budget tracking. Features like matter templates, smart search, and OCR (optical character recognition) simplify workflows and make information instantly searchable.
This not only saves time but also improves job satisfaction — a critical factor as legal ops teams face increasing workloads with limited headcount.
3. Provides real-time insight into spend and performance
With up-to-date data feeding dashboards automatically, teams can spot cost overruns, track matter progress, and measure outside counsel performance. Instead of retroactive reporting, they can take proactive action — reallocating budgets, enforcing guidelines, or adjusting staffing based on live data.
End-to-end legal management platforms transform reporting from an administrative task into a strategic advantage.
Why effective matter management proves the value of legal ops
Strong matter management doesn’t just save time — it demonstrates legal’s impact on the business. By uniting people, process, and technology, legal operations can manage spend strategically, enforce compliance automatically, and surface insights that support executive decisions.
For more resources on optimizing your legal operations, request a demo of Onit’s legal matter management solution to see how modern legal departments are transforming matter management.
Legal eBilling is how modern legal teams bring order, accuracy, and transparency to their spend. It replaces manual billing chaos with automated workflows that capture data, enforce billing rules, and help teams understand exactly where their money goes. For departments under pressure to do more with less, eBilling provides structure, accountability, and time back in the day.
What is legal eBilling?
Legal eBilling is the electronic submission, review, and approval of invoices between law firms and corporate legal departments. Instead of exchanging invoices through email or spreadsheets, firms upload invoices directly into a secure eBilling platform. Most use a standardized format called LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard), which helps organize billing data consistently.
Once received, the eBilling system automatically checks each invoice against company billing guidelines, rate cards, and budgets. If something doesn’t match, it gets flagged for review. The invoice is then routed through an approval process where reviewers can accept, reject, or adjust line items as needed.
This structure creates consistency across the entire billing cycle. Invoices are processed faster, fewer errors slip through, and teams can focus on analysis rather than administration.
How legal eBilling works
A legal eBilling workflow is built around automation and visibility. Here’s what it typically looks like:
Law firms submit invoices electronically. They log into the eBilling platform and upload invoices using approved formats like LEDES.
The system validates automatically. Pre-set rules flag issues such as incorrect rates, missing matter codes, or out-of-scope tasks.
Invoices move through approvals. The platform routes them to the right reviewers based on your internal workflows.
Legal teams monitor progress. Dashboards and reports provide real-time updates on pending, approved, or rejected invoices.
Finance syncs with legal. Once approved, invoices flow into accounting systems for payment, keeping budgets and records aligned.
This process eliminates repetitive tasks, reduces human error, and creates a digital record of every billing action taken. Law firms benefit too because they process payments faster, and set clear billing rules upfront.
Why legal billing matters for modern legal teams
Billing is one of those processes that can quietly drain hours from a legal department each month. And so, without automation, it’s easy for mistakes to pile up. Rates may differ from agreed terms. Tasks that fall outside of policy get billed. In many cases, approvals stall because the right person doesn’t see an email in time.
Legal eBilling fixes that by standardizing and streamlining how invoices move through review. As a result, the system enforces rules automatically and provides visibility into each invoice’s status. Then, teams can track pending items, approved expenses, and real-time spending.
This visibility is a game changer for legal ops. It allows teams to track spend by matter, law firm, or region, and uncover insights that drive smarter decisions. With clean, reliable data, legal departments can forecast budgets, monitor trends, and show measurable value to the business.
What to look for in a modern eBilling system
The best eBilling solutions are flexible, intuitive, and built to support collaboration between legal teams and law firms. Key features to prioritize include:
LEDES support and global capability: Ensure compatibility with industry standards and multiple currencies.
Configurable billing rules: Set your own policies, rate structures, and approval workflows.
Dashboards and analytics: Access spend reports and compliance tracking in real time.
Vendor collaboration tools: Make it simple for law firms to submit and track invoices.
Integration readiness: Connect seamlessly with matter management or financial systems.
An effective legal eBilling platform should be easy to implement, simple for firms to use, and powerful enough to scale with the department’s needs.
The benefits of legal eBilling
Once legal eBilling is in place, the improvements are felt quickly. Teams spend less time chasing down invoices and more time analyzing results. Finance gains accurate, up-to-date data, and law firms have a smoother experience submitting bills.
Some of the biggest benefits include:
Faster approvals: Automated routing reduces delays and shortens payment cycles.
Better forecasting: Real-time data makes budgeting more predictable and accurate.
Improved visibility: Every invoice and matter is tracked and searchable.
Reduced rework: Standardized processes catch errors before they cause problems.
Together, these benefits add up to measurable ROI. Legal departments that adopt eBilling typically see a faster invoice turnaround, fewer disputes, and greater alignment with finance.
Common misconceptions about eBilling
It’s common for teams to assume eBilling is too complex, too expensive, or only for large enterprises. The reality is that modern solutions are far easier to deploy and maintain than they used to be. Cloud-based platforms now offer intuitive interfaces, built-in templates, and quick onboarding for both internal users and law firms.
Another misconception is that eBilling is only for tracking costs. While cost control is a major benefit, the true value lies in visibility. With the right data, legal ops teams can benchmark performance, justify budgets, and drive continuous improvement across their department.
The future of legal eBilling
Legal eBilling continues to evolve alongside the rest of legal technology. Automation and AI are already changing how invoices are reviewed and analyzed. Smart systems can now identify unusual billing patterns, predict potential overspend, and suggest optimization opportunities before issues arise.
These advances will make eBilling even more proactive in the years ahead. Instead of simply managing invoices, it will help legal teams make strategic decisions about where to invest time and budget.
Why it matters
Legal eBilling isn’t just about paying bills more efficiently. It’s about gaining the clarity and control that every modern legal department needs. It gives teams confidence in their data, alignment with finance, and the time to focus on higher-value work.
For growing legal ops teams, eBilling is the foundation for smarter, more strategic operations.
Ready to see how Onit helps legal teams simplify billing and spend management? Book a demo today.
Budget season is here, and that means the ROI of legal eBilling is under the spotlight. Legal teams that can prove their value with data will keep control of their budgets. Those that can’t will ultimately face harder conversations about spend and impact.
Every department is expected to speak the language of ROI, but many legal teams still struggle to connect their work to measurable business outcomes. Modern legal eBilling technology gives them a way to do it. It links efficiency, visibility, and spend control to results that matter to the business.
For too long, legal has defended its budget with reports and anecdotes that don’t hold up in financial discussions. Finance teams, on the other hand, move fast with data and metrics that speak in real numbers. That’s the gap modern legal operations is closing.
Modern eBilling technology makes legal eBilling ROI much clearer. It turns spend management into measurable proof of value and gives legal a stronger position when it’s time to plan for next year.
You can’t defend what you can’t measure
Manual invoice review once felt manageable. Someone checked rates, spotted errors, and chased approvals. Today, that process drains productivity and introduces unnecessary risk. Every minute spent tracking invoices by hand is time that could be spent improving strategy or partnering with the business.
Without automation, spend data becomes fragmented, outdated, and unreliable. Spreadsheets hide errors, and by the time finance asks for numbers, legal is already behind. That lack of visibility makes it difficult to prove the ROI of legal eBilling or any operational investment when it matters most.
Automation changes the outcome. Modern legal eBilling platforms centralize invoices, flag billing violations automatically, and give teams real-time visibility into spend. When every dollar is tracked and analyzed, the ROI of legal eBilling becomes clear and defensible.
The ROI of legal eBilling starts with control
Success in legal operations depends on control, not just cost cutting. The ROI of legal eBilling comes from giving teams the visibility and structure to manage spend with precision.
Automated workflows keep billing consistent across regions and vendors. AI-driven review tools identify overbilling and enforce guidelines before invoices reach approval. Dashboards and analytics reveal where spend goes and how to optimize it for the future.
This is where the legal eBilling ROI begins to grow. The more visibility legal gains, the more leverage it has in vendor negotiations, budget planning, and strategic forecasting.
Finance believes data, not declarations
CFOs want measurable outcomes. Legal teams that can quantify their impact through metrics such as billing accuracy, time saved, and improved forecasting accuracy will always have stronger footing in budget discussions.
Modern legal eBilling technology provides that level of proof. It creates a single source of truth for all spend data and makes the ROI of legal eBilling quantifiable. Legal can show how automated reviews reduce manual time, how billing compliance improves, and how accuracy leads to better financial forecasting.
Manual spend management wastes time and hides risk. When approvals, budgets, and vendor communications are spread across email and spreadsheets, errors slip through and create surprises later. By the time finance catches them, the damage is already reflected in the budget.
Legal eBilling’s ROI grows from eliminating those risks. Automation enforces compliance consistently, keeps data accurate, and prevents overbilling before it happens. With a centralized platform, everyone sees the same information at the same time. Transparency builds trust, and trust builds credibility when budgets are on the line.
The ROI of legal eBilling proves more than savings
The ROI of legal eBilling is about more than reducing spend. It proves how legal creates value for the business. The most forward-thinking teams now measure their return on investment in decision intelligence: how quickly they identify trends, adjust to them, and use insights to shape business strategy.
With modern legal eBilling tools, teams can track spend trends in real time, benchmark vendor performance, collaborate with finance on forecasting, and quantify efficiency gains across the department. These capabilities demonstrate operational maturity and strategic alignment that resonates with executive leadership.
Legal isn’t just improving efficiency. It’s proving its contribution to the business in financial terms, and that is the kind of ROI leadership understands.
In budget season, proof wins
Budget planning no longer revolves around defending last year’s expenses. It focuses on proving the value of every dollar spent and demonstrating how future investments will multiply that value.
When legal operations can show the ROI of their legal eBilling efforts with accurate data, the conversation with finance shifts from cost to opportunity. Instead of justifying expenses, teams highlight measurable results, forecast future savings, and make the case for continued innovation.
Manual processes cannot deliver that level of credibility. Teams that adopt modern legal eBilling systems enter budget season with proof in hand and confidence in their outcomes.
Make your case with real numbers
Want to see how top-performing legal teams are proving ROI? Explore our ROI of Legal eBilling Tech whitepaper to learn how modern spend management delivers measurable business results.
Ready to quantify your own success? Use our ROI calculator to estimate how much your department could save and how quickly the investment could pay for itself.
Budget season rewards clarity, not claims. The teams that can prove the ROI of legal eBilling will be the ones shaping what comes next. Are you going to be one of those teams?
If your legal intake process lives in your inbox, it’s already costing you time, credibility, and control.
Modern legal teams need more than email threads and spreadsheets to keep up. They need a smarter, structured way to manage requests from the start. Every vague “quick question” or one-line email from the business creates hidden friction. Before you know it, your team is buried in requests, half-tracked approvals, and missing context that slows everything else down.
For many legal departments, this is just how work happens. It’s the status quo. But when your legal intake process chaos becomes the norm, you stop operating strategically. You’re reacting, not prioritizing. The real cost isn’t just time, it’s credibility. And that’s not something you want to lose.
So let’s talk about what’s actually slowing your team down and how to fix it.
A poor legal intake process equals lost time, lost context, lost visibility
Manual legal intake probably feels simple. People send requests, you respond, things move forward. But behind the scenes, those small inefficiencies compound fast.
When service requests come through scattered channels like email, chat, or hallway conversations, it’s nearly impossible to see what’s in the pipeline or who’s handling what. Critical details get lost. Work gets duplicated. Business partners feel like they’re waiting in line without updates.
And for legal ops leaders, that means no visibility into metrics that matter: request volume, turnaround times, or workload distribution. Without data, it’s hard to justify budget, identify bottlenecks, or even show how much the team is handling day to day.
A modern legal service request (LSR) system fixes that by replacing the patchwork with something standardized, automated, and trackable.
How modern legal ops software transforms legal intake
Modern legal ops software is built to take the busywork out of intake. Instead of managing dozens of requests scattered across inboxes, it centralizes everything in one digital workspace that connects directly to enterprise legal management systems.
That means:
Fewer missed details. Requesters complete guided intake forms that capture the right information every time.
Faster routing. Requests are automatically assigned based on category, matter type, or workload.
Smarter prioritization. Dashboards show what’s pending, urgent, or overdue without relying on manual tracking.
Better visibility. Leaders can instantly see volume trends, turnaround times, and performance metrics.
Legal ops teams using LSR tools to modernize their legal intake process tend to move faster because the system handles the flow. The technology doesn’t just collect requests, it gives you control over how work comes in, moves through, and gets completed.
Signs your intake process is holding you back
You don’t need to overhaul everything at once to modernize. But you should pay attention to early warning signs that your current legal intake process is costing you efficiency.
If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to take a closer look:
You spend hours each week triaging requests instead of managing outcomes.
Your team constantly follows up to clarify missing details.
Work requests pile up without a clear way to track or prioritize them.
You can’t quantify how much work comes through intake or how quickly it gets done.
When your legal intake process feels like it’s grounded in guesswork, that’s your cue. Modernizing doesn’t just save time; it strengthens your department’s foundation. It helps you work on your terms, not your inbox’s.
From inbox chaos to legal intake clarity
A legal service request system is more than a tool, it’s a shift in how legal teams operate. It builds discipline into your process without adding friction. It shows business partners exactly how to engage with legal. And it gives your team the data to work smarter and prove value.
The result is faster response times, clearer accountability, and a department that looks organized and proactive, not reactive and overextended.
Your legal intake process doesn’t have to drain your time or your team’s energy. With the right system, it can finally work the way you do.
See how modern legal intake actually works
If you’re unsure where to start, Onit’s Legal Service Request Checklist is a quick way to assess where your current intake process might be slowing you down. It highlights key areas to evaluate before you modernize.
Ready to find out how Onit’s AI-native legal service request system eliminates bottlenecks and helps legal work faster? Talk to one of our experts today.
Enterprise legal management (ELM) is the framework corporate legal departments use to bring structure, visibility, and strategy to their operations. It connects key functions like legal spend management, matter tracking, vendor oversight, and workflow automation in one cohesive platform.
For today’s in-house teams, ELM is more than an organizational tool. It is the foundation of a data-driven legal department that can manage complexity, respond faster to business needs, and demonstrate tangible value across the company.
Why ELM matters for modern legal ops teams
Corporate legal teams are balancing more matters, tighter budgets, and growing demands from leadership. Without the right system in place, work gets lost in inboxes, reporting becomes manual, and spend control slips through the cracks.
Enterprise legal management brings order to that chaos. By centralizing activity and automating routine work, ELM helps teams:
Gain visibility into legal spend, matters, and outside counsel performance
Improve accuracy and compliance with defined workflows
Replace manual data entry with automation
Collaborate easily with finance, procurement, and business units
Measure and report on the value legal delivers to the organization
In short, ELM allows legal operations to scale efficiently and stay aligned with business priorities.
What enterprise legal management includes
Enterprise legal management software combines several core capabilities into a single environment. While each solution may vary, the most common components include:
Matter management: Track all legal work in one system, from internal projects to litigation and contracts
Legal spend management: Review invoices efficiently, enforce billing guidelines, and forecast budget with accuracy
Vendor management: Evaluate outside counsel based on performance and cost-effectiveness
Legal service request intake: Streamline how the business submits requests and route them automatically to the right team
Compliance and risk management: Maintain oversight of regulations, obligations, and potential exposure
Analytics and dashboards: Translate data into actionable insights that improve decisions
These features work best when connected through a unified platform that supports integration across the company’s legal tech stack.
How enterprise legal management software works
Enterprise legal management software acts as a central hub for all legal operations. It gathers data from multiple systems, automates repetitive workflows, and gives legal professionals real-time access to information they need.
A well-designed ELM platform typically:
Centralizes matters, spend, and vendor data in one system of record
Automates approval processes and invoice review
Integrates with enterprise tools like ERP, CLM, and document management systems
Uses analytics to highlight spend patterns, cycle times, and workload distribution
Supports secure collaboration across departments and outside counsel
With these elements in place, legal teams can focus more time on strategic work and less on administrative tasks.
What makes modern ELM software different
Not all enterprise legal management solutions are created equal. Legacy tools often require heavy configuration, lack AI capabilities, or force teams to adapt to rigid workflows.
AI-native: Built with intelligence that accelerates tasks like invoice validation, matter triage, and reporting
User-friendly: Intuitive interfaces help teams adopt new technology quickly
Configurable: Tailored to match each organization’s structure and processes
Connected: Seamlessly integrates with core business and legal systems
Insight-driven: Turns operational data into metrics that demonstrate value
The result is a legal department that operates efficiently, stays aligned with business goals, and makes data-backed decisions.
How Onit redefines enterprise legal management
Onit’s enterprise legal management software helps legal teams operate on their own terms. Designed by legal professionals, it brings together everything needed to manage matters, spend, and vendors in a single, AI-native platform.
With Onit, legal departments can:
Gain full transparency into spend and outside counsel activity
Automate manual review processes and approval workflows
Monitor vendor performance through detailed analytics
Connect seamlessly with finance, procurement, and compliance systems
Report on outcomes with dashboards that track time, cost, and efficiency
By putting automation and insight at the center of every workflow, Onit enables legal teams to work smarter, not harder.
Ready to see what ELM can do for you?
Use Onit’s ROI Calculator to estimate the value enterprise legal management could deliver to your department.
Ready to see Onit’s ELM in action? Book a demo today with one of our experts.
Everyone has something to say about AI in legal operations. It’s a hot button issue. But talk is cheap. The departments that are moving ahead are the ones treating AI as more than a pilot. They are cleaning up data, replacing outdated systems, and preparing their people to work in new ways. That is what separates the talkers from the doers: legal teams that add measurable value instead of chasing hype.
Treat Data as a Strategic Asset
The teams making AI in legal operations work well begin with the one thing that powers it all: data.
They are cleaning up timekeeper rate inconsistencies, standardizing matter metadata, tracking vendor performance with accuracy, and enforcing billing guidelines that too often slip through the cracks. It’s not glamorous work, but it is essential. AI relies on information that is clean, structured, and accessible. Without it, models return unreliable results and adoption stalls.
The most effective teams don’t treat this as a one-time project. They embed governance into their operations, assign owners to critical data sets, and create rules that keep information accurate as new matters, vendors, and invoices enter the system. They also prioritize integrations that keep data flowing in real time, not stuck in silos or spreadsheets.
Instead of drowning in disconnected platforms, they consolidate. They invest in centralized environments where data can fuel multiple functions at once, from invoice review and accrual tracking to forecasting legal spend. This shift gives them visibility they never had before and sets the stage for legal ops teams to create real business impact.
Replace Tools that Lag
Legacy systems weren’t designed for intelligent automation or embedded AI. Some were built decades ago, long before today’s demands for flexibility and speed. High-performing departments know this, and they aren’t waiting for outdated platforms to bolt on partial fixes.
They’re replacing rigid, one-size-fits-all systems with enterprise legal management software that’s AI-native. These modern platforms allow legal operations teams to build, automate, and adapt workflows on their own terms. That means no waiting on IT tickets for every small adjustment. No rigid templates that block experimentation. Just intuitive tools that legal and operations can control directly.
Equally important, these systems are not isolated. They integrate with finance, procurement, and contract management systems so that data and automation can flow across the business. This connection ensures AI in legal operation is not a siloed effort, but part of a larger digital strategy.
When tools are flexible and connected, adoption is not only easier, it’s sustainable.
Redefine Efficiency
For leading legal teams, efficiency isn’t just cutting headcount. It’s removing the friction that slows everyone down.
They deploy AI for high-volume, repeatable tasks like invoice routing, matter intake, or compliance checks. This reduces the hours spent on administrative work and frees legal professionals to focus on strategic advice, risk management, and collaboration with the business.
But they also know speed alone is not enough. They measure results in terms of impact:
How much time is actually being saved?
How much rework is being avoided?
Where can legal add more value to the business now that routine tasks are automated?
For these departments, efficiency means precision and purpose, not just productivity. It’s a redefinition of legal’s role, moving from reactive support to proactive business partner.
That’s why the most successful departments invest in team readiness alongside system rollout. They don’t assume new tools will automatically be used correctly. Instead, they offer training sessions, set shared definitions for what AI will be used for, and make sure different functions — legal, finance, IT, procurement — are aligned from the start.
Many are creating new roles to guide adoption. Some are formal positions like legal tech program managers or AI operations leads. Others are informal champions within practice groups who normalize change, collect feedback, and help translate new use cases into day-to-day results.
They also establish clear accountability. Someone is responsible for tracking AI performance, handling exceptions, and feeding insights back into the system. That structure ensures adoption does not stall when workflows shift or regulations change.
When teams feel prepared, adoption does not feel like forced change management. It feels like progress.
Choose the Right Vendors
Not every platform is ready to support AI in legal operations. The strongest departments know this and ask sharper questions before they buy.
They want platforms their teams can configure without relying on expensive professional services. And they want AI features that are fully integrated, not patched on. They want models that are transparent enough to audit. And most importantly, they want partners who understand how legal teams actually operate.
The best teams go further. They evaluate what happens after the contract is signed:
Will the vendor evolve the system as priorities shift?
Are upgrades included or locked behind additional fees?
What kind of training, documentation, and human support are available?
Departments that succeed in AI adoption are not just out there buying shiny technology. They’re choosing long-term partners who can help them adapt as their strategy matures. That’s how they keep adoption scalable and defensible.
Focus on Problems, Not Pilots
High-performing departments don’t pursue AI for its novelty. They focus their efforts on recurring problems that slow down the business and apply AI to solve them.
Examples include:
Flagging noncompliant invoice line items automatically
Summarizing matter updates for business stakeholders
Predicting budget overages based on historical patterns
They test, measure results, and scale from there. This grounded approach is what makes AI adoption in legal ops stick. It’s always tied to real business needs, not abstract experiments.
Use Frameworks that Keep You Aligned
The most effective teams don’t improvise. Instead, they use frameworks like the AI Buyer’s Checklist to stay focused and ensure adoption does not lose direction.
They ask questions like:
Is our legal data clean, consistent, and centralized?
Can our workflows adjust as priorities change?
Are our teams aligned on how AI will be governed?
Can our platform support automation without adding complexity?
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s clarity. And clarity is what makes momentum sustainable.
What Drives the Adoption of AI in Legal Operations?
Well, it certainly isn’t hype. It’s intent.
The departments that are getting AI right are aligning people, data, and systems to scale intelligently. They set expectations early, bring business stakeholders into the fold, and ensure AI is part of broader strategy, not just a side project for legal.
They aren’t just implementing a new feature, but rather, they’re building new ways of working.
So, the question is: are you a team of talkers or doers when it comes to AI adoption?
If you are ready to assess where your team stands, the AI Buyer’s Checklist is the best place to start. It will help you evaluate your data quality, workflow flexibility, stakeholder alignment, and vendor fit. Use it to spark internal discussions, compare options with confidence, and design a smarter plan for AI in legal operations.
Because lasting adoption isn’t about chasing all the trends. Instead, it should be about preparing for what comes next, on your terms.
The future of legal operations refers to the shift from traditional process and spend management toward a strategic, AI-first model where legal departments drive business value. This future is already unfolding. Artificial intelligence is no longer limited to pilots or side projects. It is embedded in workflows, analyzing contracts, managing spend, and even completing tasks independently.
For legal ops leaders, this means technical knowledge is not enough on its own. To succeed in the future of legal operations, leaders need a new skill set that blends AI fluency, adaptability, and strategic leadership.
The future of legal ops requires leaders to develop new skills beyond technical expertise. The most important include AI fluency, strategic decision-making, adaptability, collaboration, and leadership. The AI Buyer’s Guide helps legal ops teams assess readiness and build a roadmap for success.
Why does the future of legal operations require new skills?
The future of legal operations requires new skills because the role of legal departments is evolving. Tasks that once depended entirely on humans — like reviewing contracts or processing invoices — are now supported or completed by AI. As a result, leaders must focus less on manual execution and more on orchestration: deciding which tasks belong with humans, which belong with AI, and how the two can work together.
This shift means the most valuable legal operations skills are no longer limited to compliance oversight or matter management. Leaders must now prioritize continuous learning, collaboration across functions, and the ability to guide teams through technological change.
What AI skills are essential for the future of legal operations?
The essential skills for the future of legal operations combine technical fluency with leadership and adaptability. The five most important AI skills for legal ops leaders are:
AI fluency and prompting – understanding how AI systems work and how to interact with them effectively.
Strategic decision-making with AI insights – interpreting Generative AI outputs within business context.
Adaptability in hybrid human and AI teams – evolving roles and responsibilities as automation grows.
Collaboration across AI-augmented workflows – aligning legal with other enterprise systems.
Leadership for the AI era – coaching, hiring, and inspiring teams through change.
Each of these skills ensures that legal departments can use AI not just to reduce costs but to elevate their role as a trusted business partner.
1. AI fluency and prompting
AI fluency means knowing how to use AI responsibly, effectively, and efficiently. Prompting is a core part of this skill. The way a request is phrased can determine whether an AI tool produces a generic output or a tailored, actionable insight. Legal ops leaders need to model this fluency for their teams and provide frameworks that help staff improve. With the right AI prompting skills, legal departments can move beyond surface-level outputs to gain meaningful guidance that supports strategy.
2. Strategic decision-making with AI insights
AI tools can process thousands of contracts, invoices, or data points in seconds. But they cannot replace human judgment. The future of legal operations depends on leaders who can take AI-driven insights and apply them in the right business context. For example, when AI highlights risk in a contract, a skilled leader knows how to weigh that risk against revenue timelines, supplier relationships, or market pressures. This balance of data-driven insights and human judgment is where legal ops adds its greatest value.
3. Adaptability in hybrid human and AI teams
As AI takes on more tasks, legal departments will increasingly become hybrid teams — with humans and AI agents working side by side. Adaptability is the skill that allows leaders to evolve roles, reallocate responsibilities, and help people focus on higher-value work. Legal ops leaders must prepare their teams for constant evolution, ensuring they are comfortable shifting into new responsibilities as AI expands. Adaptability is no longer a soft skill; it is a critical capability for operational success.
4. Collaboration across AI-augmented workflows
Collaboration has always been central to legal operations, but in the age of AI it extends beyond people. Legal must now coordinate with AI systems that integrate into finance, procurement, and compliance functions. Strong collaboration skills ensure that legal data and workflows align with enterprise systems rather than existing in silos. Leaders who foster cross-functional trust and transparency will position their departments as true business partners in the future of legal operations.
5. Leadership for the AI era
The most important skill for the future of legal operations is leadership itself. AI adoption requires guiding teams through uncertainty, setting a clear vision, and rethinking how to hire and coach talent. Instead of recruiting only for technical expertise, leaders must now prioritize curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset. Coaching teams means not just teaching them how to use tools, but helping them challenge assumptions, question outputs, and continuously learn. Leaders who embrace this approach will build legal departments that thrive in any environment.
How can legal ops leaders prepare today?
To prepare for the future of legal operations, leaders need both awareness of critical skills and the right frameworks to assess their technology and team readiness. This is where practical guidance makes the difference. Onit’s AI Buyer’s Guide offers a clear framework for evaluating whether your current solutions and processes are ready to support AI-driven legal operations. It helps you identify gaps, prioritize investment areas, and build a roadmap that positions your team to succeed in the years ahead.
Leading the future of legal operations
The future of legal operations will not be defined by technology alone. It will be shaped by the leaders who know how to combine AI tools with human skills. Legal ops leaders who build fluency in AI, make strategic decisions with confidence, adapt to hybrid teams, collaborate across the enterprise, and lead through change will set their departments apart. These are not skills for tomorrow. They are the capabilities legal teams must begin strengthening today.
The future of legal operations belongs to leaders who act now.
Download the AI Buyer’s Guide to start evaluating your current environment and take the first step toward building the skills and systems that matter most.
You’ve seen the shift coming for a while… now it’s right at your desk. AI for legal teams isn’t a someday conversation anymore. It’s the reality smart legal ops leaders are stepping into right now. But if you’re still waiting for the perfect tech stack to drop from the sky, you’re looking in the wrong place. Probably somewhere between the fax machine and the fantasy budget.
But you know what? The most important thing to get right before anything else isn’t the tool. It’s the team.
AI for Legal Teams Begins with Who, Not Just What
The legal tech market is loud and noisy. Everyone’s promising smarter processes, faster turnaround, and less manual work. But here’s what often gets overlooked: no matter how advanced a tool is, it doesn’t know your business. Not like your team does.
Bringing AI into legal operations is less about shiny features and more about empowering the people who already understand where the work slows down. The ones reviewing line items, redlining NDAs, chasing outside counsel for timekeeper adjustments. They’re the ones who know what needs to change.
Legal ops leaders who succeed with AI aren’t scrambling for new hires. They’re rethinking how their current team is structured and supported. That starts with trust, context, and a framework that gives people permission to question the way things have always been done.
Clarifying Roles Creates Real Capacity
Most legal departments have talent that’s underleveraged, not underqualified. The challenge is clarity. When responsibilities are vague, opportunities for automation fall through the cracks. Time gets lost in follow-ups, escalations, and duplicated effort: the triple threat of legal inefficiency.
AI for legal teams becomes exponentially more effective when roles are aligned to the work that AI can actually support. Think about the person who’s always customizing approval workflows or manually reviewing every invoice line. They don’t need a replacement. They need to be freed up for higher-value analysis, exception handling, or cross-functional collaboration.
That’s not just good for efficiency. It’s good for morale. Empowered legal teams feel the shift when they stop fighting systems and start owning them.
Leadership Is the Difference Between Experiment and Execution
Implementing AI in legal operations isn’t just an IT decision. It’s an operational transformation, and legal ops leaders are uniquely positioned to drive it.
It starts with asking better questions. What’s repetitive and rules-based? What drains the team’s time without moving legal forward? What’s being done “because we’ve always done it that way”? If that phrase had a frequent flyer program, legal ops would have lifetime status.
The answers to those questions will uncover more than just inefficiencies. They reveal opportunities for AI that actually make a difference. The kind that increases transparency, reduces legal spend, and improves collaboration across departments.
That’s how you move beyond experimentation and into meaningful execution.
Great Legal Ops Teams Don’t Work in a Vacuum
AI for legal teams doesn’t exist in a legal-only bubble. The most effective teams are the ones building smart bridges across functions, especially with IT, compliance, procurement, and finance. And not just after the fact, but from the start.
If legal wants to own its AI roadmap, it needs allies who understand the business case and the operational needs behind it. That means getting IT out of reactive troubleshooting mode and into collaborative planning. It means helping finance see spend control not as a reporting exercise, but as a strategic lever.
The best legal ops teams don’t just ask for buy-in. They show their cards. They bring forward a plan backed by realistic implementation steps, accountability, and expected ROI. And they come to the table understanding the risks, concerns, and language of each partner.
The result is fewer roadblocks, smoother execution, and legal that’s no longer seen as “different,” but as an integrated part of the enterprise strategy.
What Forward-Thinking Legal Ops Teams Are Doing Now
If you’re not overhauling your department overnight, good. The smartest legal ops leaders know that progress doesn’t come from massive changes. It comes from small, strategic shifts made consistently and visibly.
Start by documenting where your team spends the most time, especially on tasks that feel manual, repetitive, or invisible to the business. Look for areas where you are double-handling data, reviewing things that should never have made it to your desk, or chasing down missing details from vendors.
Then talk to your internal partners. Find out what IT needs from you to support AI projects more smoothly. Ask finance what data would help them feel more confident in legal’s spend strategy. Look for the low-friction, high-impact changes that set the stage for bigger moves.
The best part? You don’t have to do it all on your own. With the right framework and the right partners, your team can move faster than you think. It all starts with clarity, intent, and the decision to lead.
Of Course Tools Matter, But Timing and Ownership Matter More
Yes, your team needs tools that are explainable, configurable, and purpose-built for legal work. That’s why we created a tech stack checklist to help legal ops leaders evaluate what fits.
Before you dive into demos or explore AI agents with IT, map the workflows your team owns, the bottlenecks that slow you down, and the outcomes that legal leadership actually cares about. Then match solutions to those realities.
A tool with the wrong team is just shelfware: expensive, impressive, and utterly unused. A focused team with the right structure can unlock results in weeks, not quarters.
The Playbook for Legal Ops Teams Who Want More Than Buzz
The AI Legal Ops Playbook was built for legal teams who want to lead with intention, not react to pressure. Inside, you’ll find:
A strategic framework for team design and role alignment
A buyer’s checklist for evaluating legal AI solutions
Tips for communicating ROI to the GC, CIO, or CFO
Real examples of how AI is helping teams reduce review cycles and tighten spend controls
It’s built for real teams doing real work, not hypothetical tech stacks that assume more resources than you actually have.
The Teams That Will Win Are the Ones That Move with Purpose
AI for legal teams is not a side project anymore. It’s the main event. The training wheels are off and the spotlight is on.
Legal’s no longer in the corner. You’re front and center on the transformation stage. Time to step into the ring and bring it.
AI is already reshaping how the best legal teams operate, and everyone else is just racing to catch up. But real change doesn’t start with tools. It starts with a team that’s aligned, confident, and ready to lead with clarity.
If you’re tired of AI content that talks around legal, this cuts through it. It’s made for you: the team doing the real work and ready to lead. We kept it tight, useful, and totally focused on legal ops. Think of it as your shortcut to strategy, minus the 50-slide internal pitch deck.
There was a time when managing legal spend was supposed to transform the way legal teams worked. But what they actually got were clunky interfaces, disconnected tools, and manual workflows disguised as “digital solutions.”
That ends now.
Onit’s 2025 summer release marks a new era for legal operations, one where legal spend is easier to control and optimize.
Introducing Unity, the AI-native framework built from the ground up to bring legal’s most critical workflows — spend, vendors, and data — within a more unified and intuitive experience. And yes, it actually does the work.
This is what legal looks like, on your terms.
What Makes Unity Different?
With Unity, legal teams get a more connected interface. It’s designed to bring together work across legal spend, vendors, and data over time. And it offers AI agents that automate tasks and understand legal context, along with configurable workflows that scale.
Say Hello to Unity e-Billing
The first spend management pillar launched on Unity is our new ELM e-Billing experience. This was designed to help you manage outside counsel spend with precision, speed, and total control.
ELM e-Billing centralizes all your spend management in one place. So this brings vendor data, invoice review, and budget tracking together for a clear, real-time view of legal spend. AI-powered automation speeds approvals and enforces billing guidelines. While flexible reporting and budgeting tools help you track performance, forecast accurately, and make smarter spend decisions as your team grows.
Meet Spend Agent: Your First AI Assistant for Legal Spend
Spend Agent is your new AI-native reviewer for legal spend invoices. It interprets billing guidelines in plain language, flags issues on incoming invoices, and generates crystal-clear justifications. It even helps vendors understand and fix issues faster.
Spend Agent offers instant compliance without the complexity; audit-ready transparency; smarter decision-making with less manual effort.
CounselMatch: Find the Right Firm, Fast
When outside counsel selection feels like guesswork, CounselMatch steps in. With access to more than 400,000 attorneys and 5,800+ firms, it lets you filter by performance, billing model, diversity, and practice area, then integrates your choice.
In addition to Unity, this release brings major upgrades across the broader Onit ecosystem:
SimpleLegal now keeps internal and external budgets in sync with matter-specific rate settings that put you in the driver’s seat. And the redesigned budget view makes it faster to filter, sort, and take action because budgeting should move as fast as the rest of the team.
ContractWorks now offers folder-level auto-tagging (Beta) for instant metadata capture, Retry AI Processing to refresh legacy contracts, and self-service tag activation for faster implementation and value. Contracts API adds e-signature support, enabling packets to be sent from external systems with fewer steps for quicker execution and a smoother path from draft to done.
BusyLamp now allows users to track invoice revisions; automate WIP archiving; simplify dropdowns; tighten access controls to protect sensitive data.
Built for Scale and Designed for Legal, by Legal
Unity is more than a product. It’s a signal that legal tech software is finally evolving and that it’s evolving on legal’s terms.
With Unity, legal departments gain more control over legal spend across your department; improved workflows across every part of the legal lifecycle; real-time visibility into vendors, matters, and contracts; automation that speaks legal’s language; a connected experience that replaces siloed systems.
Why Legacy ELM Fell Short
For years, enterprise legal management software made promises it couldn’t keep. Legacy systems were built for a different era, before AI, before flexible workflows, and certainly before legal ops became the strategic driver it is today. They were hard to configure, harder to adopt, and forced legal teams to work around technology instead of with it.
The result? Fragmented systems, manual workarounds, and limited visibility. Innovation stalled because the software didn’t move at the speed of legal.
Unity changes that.
Moving Legal Workflows Toward Connection and Scale
Many legal ops teams struggle with time-consuming invoice reviews, vendor management spread across spreadsheets, and point solutions that do not connect. Unity is being built to address these challenges by bringing core legal workflows closer together in an AI-native environment that can scale over time.
With Spend Agent reviewing invoices in real time as an add-on to Unity e-Billing and OnitX ELM, and contract data extracted in seconds via ContractWorks, legal teams are gaining back time and putting it toward higher-impact work. They’re spending less time fixing broken workflows and more time driving strategy.
Who Unity e-Billing is Built For
Unity e-Billing is designed for legal teams that want a lightweight, simple, and fast legal spend management solution. It’s built for in-house teams looking to enforce billing guidelines, accelerate approval workflows through automation, and gain clear insights into vendors and legal spend.
Whether you’re a GC looking for visibility across departments, a legal ops lead managing complex budgets, or a contract manager streamlining workflows, Unity e-Billing was built with you in mind.
Why Onit Built Unity
At Onit, we’ve always believed legal should lead, not follow. That’s why we built Unity from the ground up: to deliver a truly AI-native solution that’s powerful enough for enterprise scale but flexible enough to meet teams where they are.
Unity combines intelligent automation, hands-on support, and a modular structure that adapts to each customer’s needs. It’s more than software. It’s a commitment to helping legal teams modernize on their terms with trusted intelligence, connected tools, and expert guidance at every step.
Ready to See Unity in Action?
Whether you’re rethinking spend management, centralizing vendors, or ready to use an AI spend agent, Unity gives you the tools to move faster, smarter, and with more confidence than ever before.
