Category: Uncategorized

Unlocking The Value of Legal Case Management Software in Public Sector Legal Operations: Part One

Posted on July 14, 2025 by - Blog, Uncategorized

Metro Fall

When today’s emerging legal technologies combine with proven business principles—you get what most legal teams strive for: smart, strategic and streamlined legal operations. 

Legal operations professionals face more demands than ever—ranging from strategic planning and change management to budgeting, compliance and document management. They are the glue holding legal organizations together, tasked with increasing productivity while managing growing caseloads and shrinking resources.

To meet these challenges, legal teams are increasingly investing in legal software that delivers measurable efficiencies. According to Gartner, legal technology spend is on the rise, with the global legal technology market expected to reach $50 billion by 2027. 

So, how can your legal operations team keep pace with the rapidly evolving public sector legal landscape? 

Why Government Legal Operations Teams Are Turning to Legal Case Management Software

Legal case management software provides government organizations with a fully customizable solution to manage critical legal information—cases, matters, contacts, emails, complaints, etc.) from a centralized system. It combines all the sought after tools that professionals are seeking today: document management, spend management, e-billing, contract lifecycle management, legal matter management and more. With legal operations teams focused on a variety of tasks, legal case management software enables teams to streamline operations, reduce risk and deliver better outcomes. 

Here’s how:  

  • Strategic Planning and Organizational Alignment: Legal case management software supports long-term planning by centralizing crucial data, enabling leads to analyze trends and anticipate future leads needs. Built-in analytics and report tools help teams:

track case progress, performance metrics; manage budgets and resources effectively and align legal work with broader agency goals. 

  • Centralized Legal Database: A single, secure place for all your case documents eliminates data silos, ensuring consistency and accessibility across your organization.
  • Version Control: The last thing you need is multiple versions of the same document floating around. With Version Control, you can ensure that everyone works with the most up-to-date versions of documents, minimizing errors and improving collaboration. 
  • Easier Access and Retrieval: With advanced search functionality, you can enable quick searching and retrieval of specific case details and documents, helping reduce manual searching. 
  • Streamlined Workflows and Task Management: Optimizing workflows is key to increasing productivity and reducing costs. Legal case management software allows teams to:
  • Automate Repetitive Tasks: Save time and increase efficiencies of scheduling, billing, document generation and sending reminders.
  • Centralize Information: With all your case-related information in one place, including documents, deadlines and communications, you can easily access and organize your workday and caseload. 
  • Track Tasks and Deadlines: Maintain accountability and avoid delays.
  • Enhanced Communication and Collaboration: The way in which your team communicates can be the difference between success and failure. Effective communication is essential to building strong relationships between internal and external contacts to ensure that communication lines stay open and there are no miscommunications or errors. 
  • Internal Collaboration Tools: Enables teams to work together with no complications, with the ability to share updates and collaborate on cases in real-time. 
  • Centralized Communication History: This is an important feature that maintains a record of all client interactions, improving accountability and reducing communication errors. 
  • Secure Client Portals: Features secure communication and document sharing with clients, increasing transparency and overall satisfaction. 
  • Data-Driven Decision Making: Legal operations professionals who have accepted that technology is essential to being successful are more likely to utilize it to make informed decisions, streamline workflows and demonstrate all the legal operations team has to offer. By implementing legal case management software, team members can use the data they have captured to track performance, identify trends and make recommendations.  
  • Analytics and Reporting: Monitor case progress, performance and financials, enabling better decision-making. 
  • Custom Reports: Tailor insights to meet your agency’s specific requirements to guide operational improvements. 
  • Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Successful legal operations enhance compliance and risk management, protecting the organization from legal and regulatory issues. Legal case management software offers several tools to help mitigate risk and enhance compliance in the government sector: 
  • Secure Data Storage: Legal case management software offers robust security features to protect your most sensitive constituent information and ensures compliance with data protection regulations. 
  • Compliance Reporting: The software has the ability to monitor adherence to legal standards and generate compliance reports, which helps minimize the risk of non-compliance. 

Empower Your Legal Team with the Right Legal Software

The right legal case management software helps your legal operations eliminate manual tasks, improve visibility and stay aligned with agency goals. With customizable dashboards and integrated tools, your team can stay focused on what truly matters—serving your constituents, meeting compliance deadlines and delivering legal services efficiently.

Legal Files brings nearly 35 years of experience supporting agencies at every level of government—federal, tribal, provincial, state, county and municipal—across the U.S. and Canada. Legal Files is designed to help government and public sector organizations manage a higher volume of work with the same or fewer staff—by as much as 40 percent! If you’re seeking a trusted legal tech partner, Legal Files is here to help.

“Everyone has access to the information they need. Legal Files gives us the ability to easily see the types of cases DEP is handling, the number of cases, as well as determine the related costs. If we need to know the number of active cases in a particular area, or how many items we cannot bill, Legal Files can help us do that too.”

Lynn Dunlap, a Legal Files Customer
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection 

Request a Demo

Discover how Legal Files can help your agency improve legal operations and manage what matters most. Request a demo today. 

How to Select the Right Government Legal Case Management System: Part Two

Posted on June 6, 2025 by - Blog, Uncategorized

The federal government currently employs nearly 35,640 attorneys, making the need for efficiency and effectiveness in public administration more critical than ever. According to a recent Government Law Agency Survey, 47 percent of respondents identified a major challenge: spending too much time on administrative tasks and not enough time practicing law.

This is where legal case management software is making a difference. By consolidating all essential legal data in one place, government legal professionals can more easily meet deadlines, stay compliant with regulations, and achieve more in less time.

However, with so many technology options available, choosing the right software can be a challenge. In this post, we’ll dive deeper into a few more important features to consider when selecting legal case management software for your department.

How to Select the Right Government Legal Case Management Software

In government legal administration, the need for efficiency and effectiveness has never been higher. In a recent Government Law Agency Survey, 47 percent of respondents cited a major challenge facing their department: spending too much time on administrative tasks and not enough time practicing law.

Legal case management software is transforming how government legal professionals work. By consolidating all essential legal data into one secure, centralized system, legal teams can more easily meet deadlines, comply with regulations and accomplish more in less time.

But with so many legal software options available, it can be difficult to know which solution is the right fit. In our previous blog post, we discussed three essential features to look for in a government case management software system. In this post, we’ll continue the conversation by exploring two more critical features and how they can help your department boost efficiency and performance.

Three Must-Have Features in Legal Case Management Software

1. Easy-to-Use Interface
An intuitive user interface is essential. A system that’s hard to use will likely be ignored or underutilized. A clean, user-friendly UI encourages adoption and ensures your team can quickly access the information they need.

2. Collaboration Tools
Modern legal software makes it easier to collaborate across departments. With everything stored in one place, there’s no more guessing who’s responsible for what or where documents are located. Team members can work together effectively—no matter where they’re located.

3. Legal Service Request Management
A strong system enables you to automate and streamline legal service requests. Requests are routed to the correct team members instantly, reducing bottlenecks and ensuring that all relevant information is included up front.

Two More Critical Features to Consider in Legal Software
Let’s take a look at two more powerful features that can significantly impact how your legal team manages cases and achieves its goals.

4. Dashboards: Turn Your Data into Action
Dashboards offer a centralized, visual view of your organization’s caseload and operations. They make it easier to track progress, meet deadlines and manage priorities.

Key Dashboard Capabilities:

Case Management

  • Case Status Updates: Monitor progress, deadlines and critical dates in real time.
  • Document Management: Access and version-control key legal documents.
  • Timeline of Events: Visualize filings, calendar events and communication logs.

Reporting & Analytics

  • Performance Metrics: See billing trends, attorney productivity and case profitability.
  • Workload Tracking: Identify where resources are overextended or underutilized.
  • Customizable Reports: Tailor insights to your department’s specific needs.

Collaboration & Communication

  • Team Access: Share up-to-date information across departments.
  • Communication Tools: Leverage internal messaging, client portals and secure communications.

Task Management

  • Deadline Tracking: Never miss an important date again.
  • Task Assignment: Assign tasks and track completion within the system.
  • Reminders: Receive alerts for upcoming tasks and milestones.

Dashboards help you tell the story behind your data, enabling smarter decisions and clearer visibility into performance metrics.

5. Reporting: Insight That Drives Results

With legal case management software, reporting becomes faster, more accurate and more actionable. You can track trends, evaluate performance and make informed decisions based on real-time data.

Types of Reports You Can Generate:

Caseload & Workload Reports

  • Caseload: See how many cases are active, opened or closed within a time frame.
  • Workload: Evaluate assignments and deadlines across teams or individuals.

Performance & Efficiency Reports

  • Cycle Time: Measure how long key case stages take—from review to settlement.
  • Case Outcomes: Track the success of cases (won, lost, settled) and related costs.
  • Team Performance: Identify high performers and areas needing development.

Compliance & Risk Reports

  • Compliance: Monitor deadlines, procedures and regulatory benchmarks.
  • Risk Assessment: Spot potential risks in high-profile or sensitive cases.

Financial Reports

  • Billing & Invoicing: Review hours billed, expenses and client invoices.
  • Expense Tracking: Manage budgets by tracking expert fees and other costs.
  • Financial Summaries: Gain an overview of profitability and financial health.

These reports eliminate the need for tedious spreadsheets and provide high-impact, visual insights.

Why Legal Case Management Software Matters for Government Legal Teams
The benefits of using case management software in government agencies are extensive—more accurate data, advanced analytics and greater operational efficiency, just to name a few. With the right legal software in place, your legal professionals can spend less time on administrative burdens and more time practicing law.

Why Legal Files?
Legal Files serves as a comprehensive hub for government and public sector legal teams. It makes your information more accessible, reduces redundancy and streamlines collaboration across departments. Custom dashboards help guide your daily priorities, enabling your team to stay focused on serving constituents and meeting compliance deadlines.

With nearly 40 years of experience supporting federal, tribal, provincial, state, county and municipal agencies across the U.S. and Canada, Legal Files helps organizations do more with fewer resources—by as much as 40 percent. If you’re looking for a trusted, consultative partner in legal case management software, you’ve found one in Legal Files.

Legal Files has streamlined our process by centralizing all of the Department’s information, creating a high level of standardization. The consistent field names and naming conventions have made our work so much easier.

Ryan Saxby
City of Tucson, a Legal Files Customer 

Request a demo to learn more about how we help government organizations like yours manage what matters most. 

How to Embrace Change and Effectively Adopt Legal Case Management Software: Part One 

Posted on February 4, 2025 by - Blog, Uncategorized

Technology has been reshaping industries worldwide, and the legal field is no exception. Once considered to be an industry resistant to change, the legal profession has been rapidly evolving to meet growing demands in recent years. This includes adopting software tools like legal matter management systems to be more efficient and better meet client needs. 

But change can be hard when breaking away from years of traditional methods, and routines don’t just happen overnight. While adopting new legal technology is one piece of the puzzle, you also must ensure that your team members are eager to adopt it and utilize it in their daily lives. This is where legal technology change management comes in to help. 

The Importance of Change Management in Adopting Legal Software 

According to Forbes, 70% of digital transformation projects fail. This statistic is staggering and prompts the need to understand why this happens and how to prevent it. 

Legal technology change management is the process of implementing new legal technology in a legal organization. This involves planning, execution and oversight to processes, policies and existing technologies in order to make the organization more efficient and productive. 

When it comes to the legal field, many traditionalists believe that new technology may be a disruption rather than an improvement to their antiquated work processes. They also aren’t sure how they will be able to squeeze in time for the adoption of something new. By understanding these normal concerns and possible challenges, your legal organization can then develop a coordinated approach to change management.  

Three Proven Ways to Manage Change While Adopting Legal Software

Here’s a look at how you can approach the process of adopting a legal case management system with as little disruption as possible. 

  1. Develop a clear vision. 

If you want to succeed with implementing legal matter management software, you need to ensure all your staff members support the new system. One way to do this is by establishing a list of requirements for the system and what you want to accomplish with it. For example:

  • Understand the Goal: Why are you introducing new technology? Do you want to automate your contract process to alleviate the amount of time employees spend creating them? Is risk management your ultimate goal? Take the time to really understand what you aim to achieve with the software.  
  • Envision What Success Looks Like: How does this technology change your team members’ daily lives? Do you want to develop custom reports so you can easily communicate to upper management how your organization stacks up on key initiatives? 

Whatever your goals may be, establishing them from the beginning will serve as a great reference point for staying on track as you configure the technology to meet your organization’s specific needs. Later, it will help you determine if you were actually successful in accomplishing everything you set out to do. 

  1. Get key stakeholders involved early. 

A successful change management strategy relies on involving the people affected by the change and getting their buy-in. This is made possible in the following ways: 

  • Secure executive management support: An executive sponsor can help you garner the support you need for the technology adoption to be successful. This person is also responsible for the project’s success and can help you navigate any challenges that may arise. 
  • Seek change champions. These individuals are influential and can help motivate peers to better receive and utilize the new technology. By getting them involved early, these individuals can help advocate the need for new technology and help address the concerns of other team members. 
  • Garner feedback from team members. It’s important to gather input from potential end-users. They might have recurring issues that a legal matter management system can resolve, and you’ll want to be able to configure the system to meet their needs. By giving your team members a voice, they will be more likely to adopt the new system. 

It is crucial to involve key leaders from every department or function from the start, as they will provide valuable insight and ensure the technology meets needs across the organization — not just one area. 

  1. Deliver comprehensive training tools and resources. 

The best legal technology solution will fail if no one knows how to use it. That’s why training is essential in your software adoption process. Here are a few tips to ensure training is successfully delivered to your team: 

  • Adopt user-friendly technology. Don’t settle for less than the best when it comes to your legal software. Look for a solution that is easy to use, offers vast customization options and online training support long after you sign the contract. With legal professionals often working remotely, you also want the training to be accessible to all your team members regardless of their location. 
  • Seek customizable training offerings. Since you have a variety of roles within your organization, training needs will also vary. Since what will suit your general counsel may differ from your in-house legal team, look for a provider who offers one-on-one training as well as customizable online training options. 
  • Adapt training offerings to different learning styles. It’s important to choose a provider who offers a variety of training options and styles to suit the varied needs within your organization. On-demand training videos and comprehensive “help” resources will ensure that your users can access the type of training information they need at any time. 
  • Look for ongoing training opportunities. As users proceed through the software adoption process, new questions will undoubtedly arise and additional training will be needed. Ensure that your provider offers ongoing support personnel to be there when you need them. Look for opportunities to gain feedback from your team on what’s working and what isn’t and continually train your team so that they can grow with the software and maximize the software’s utility. 

Adopt Legal Software Seamlessly With The Right Provider and Tools 

With the right support and change management processes from Legal Files, the process of adopting a new legal technology system no longer has to be daunting. As the legal industry continues to evolve, using Legal Files will help keep your organization updated on the latest technology changes, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. By effectively managing change, you can reap all the benefits that come from driving technology adoption and gaining trust from your team by involving them from the start and giving them the tools they need to be successful. 

Legal Files’ training and implementation specialists are experts at setting your team up for success. Their purpose is to give you the resources you need—whether remotely or onsite. Legal Files Software offers customized configuration and implementation assistance, technical training courses provided by full-time, in-house professionals and annual maintenance and support. Knowing you’ll receive regular software upgrades and unlimited support from Legal Files employees will provide peace of mind. 


Legal Files Software Inc. offers 30+ years of experience supporting organizations across all types of industries. Based on our years of experience helping other organizations improve and thrive through legal software, we can help you manage change and configure a system that is uniquely designed for your organization.

“Legal Files provides a very robust and customizable matter, contract and document management system. It has more functionality than our previous system and interfaces nicely with Microsoft Office applications. Legal Files customer support made the conversion painless, and has been there for us throughout the implementation.”


Alan Greenspan, Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits LLC, a Legal Files Client 

Request a demo to learn more about how we help organizations like yours manage what matters to you.

How Legal Software Helps You Streamline Repetitive Tasks with Automation 

Posted on October 31, 2024 by - Blog, Legal departments, Uncategorized

As a legal professional you are likely managing loads of legal documents and paperwork on a daily basis. It can be a challenging task to keep everything orderly and consistent—even for the most organized legal professionals. But, with legal document automation, you can put an end to the document chaos. Legal document automation enables you to streamline the legal document creation process by creating smart templates and forms that work for you automatically.

Through a centralized location for all your legal correspondence, agreements, contracts, advisory opinions and other legal documents you can boost your team’s productivity and efficiency as you spend less time creating documents from scratch and more time focusing on resolving your critical cases and matters. 

There are numerous advantages to implementing legal document automation within your organization. Here are four easy ways to streamline repetitive tasks through document automation: 

Four Ways Automation Can Help Alleviate Repetitive Tasks 

  1. Self-service document generation. 

If you are like most legal professionals, you work with a large number of documents each day. The amount of time spent drafting, customizing and editing each document can be extensive and repetitive.  

Legal document automation can save you time and valuable resources by streamlining this process through the use of automated templates and forms. This occurs through the following steps:

  • Template Creation. Users set up templates for standard documents that are frequently used or needed (i.e. Wills, agreements, contracts, forms and letters).
  • Input Answers to Questions. Users input specific information in the template or automatically utilize information already contained in the file.
  • Document Generation. Once the information is obtained, the document is automatically generated with the specific information that was provided. 
  • Document Finalization. Once you have reviewed the document that was created, you can make any changes as well as save all the necessary formatting changes. 

There are no limits to the customizations and requirements that can be established to ensure each document is precisely tailored to your specific needs. Subsequently, when team members

need to access a standard document or contract, they simply need to respond to a few prompts,

and the document will be automatically generated with just a few clicks.

  1. Maintain compliance within all your legal documents. 

Legal documents rely on consistency. One of the best ways for legal professionals to cut down on errors and discrepancies is through incorporating standardized templates and forms. You can ensure your legalese and formatting is consistent across all documents through built-in legal document automation. 

With this feature, you can utilize any data stored in your cases or matters as a merge field for document assembly. Fully integrated with standard programs like Microsoft Word, the best legal

case management systems help you create and edit documents without ever having to log out of your system. You have full access to all the features of Microsoft Word for creating and formatting your standard templates. 

Legal document automation has thousands of data fields (tokens) that can be customized to create master templates in line with your unique practice requirements. Users can also create their own tokens that prompt for data insertion when a document is generated. These options allow you to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time focused on resolving your legal cases and matters. 

  1. Automated legal matter intake. 

The advancements in legal technology today enable legal professionals to design a framework for intake that is seamless for both the requestor and the legal team. This new way to work eliminates the stressors that come with dealing with manual data entry and lost pieces of paper.

Legal automation can help you create a customized template for intake requests to capture all the necessary information you need to open new files without picking up the phone or a pencil.

The options are endless when it comes to the types of data you can capture. Typically, the following information makes up an intake request: 

  • Personal Information: This section includes fields for personal and contact information as well as department details if necessary. 
  • Legal Services Requested: This section can include a checklist of services offered so that the client can select any and all that may apply. You can also include a brief description of each service offered on the form. 
  • Case Explanation: This section provides the opportunity for the client to describe the incident or help needed. There may be specific prompts to include based on your unique organization to ensure you get all the information you need.

The beauty of customizable legal document automation is the opportunities are endless when it comes to creating intake forms that work for your unique department or organization. 

  1. Approval workflow automation.

Once you have established the right templates and forms for all your various needs, legal case management software allows you to establish a customized workflow to help ensure standards are followed and deadlines are met. 

Legal team members can configure workflows to trigger an unlimited number of responses to specific actions. Based on users’ responses, your legal case management system will trigger actions such as the creation of calendar items, tasks, email notifications, approvals and more. This automated workflow helps the legal process run more smoothly and saves you time as the system sends automated notices to team members to review or approve documents, complete certain tasks, indicate deadlines, etc.

One critical aspect to legal automation is the ability to alert each legal team member of calendar notifications, due dates or tasks through the legal case management system. This takes team productivity and efficiency to new heights as you can set your workflow up once and let the system work for you thereafter. 

Legal Software That Works to Move Your Cases Along Automatically 

In a world that moves fast and is continually asking legal professionals to do more with less, it is essential to consider how legal automation can help you become more efficient and productive. If you have consolidated your legal data in one location, why not leverage it to your advantage through automation?

Legal Files has built-in legal document automation features to help you get the most from your data—so you can spend less time on administrative, repetitive tasks and more time on larger, strategic goals and legal operations.  


With Legal Files Software, you can utilize tools specifically designed to help legal teams be more productive through automation, workflows, standardized templates and more. You can also have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your data is secure. 


With more than 30 years of experience supporting organizations across a number of industries, Legal Files gives you the security, peace of mind and much-needed collaboration that can only come from a unified, centralized platform for all your legal cases, matters, issues or projects. 

“We wanted, and needed, a corporate legal software with a workflow system. We developed a whole process for legal holds using Legal Files, up to, and including, the end of the cycle with a file closing procedure that reminds us to release the legal hold. We created the appropriate workflow wizards to trigger reminders at specific intervals and document templates to generate legal hold memos.”

Alayne P. Russom, a Legal Files Customer

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans 

Request a demo to discover how we assist organizations like yours in managing what matters to

you.

2021 Guide to UTBMS Codes and ABA Codes

Posted on September 26, 2024 by - Uncategorized

The Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) details a series of code sets that law firms use to classify services on electronic invoices that they send to clients, such as legal operations and corporate legal departments.

UTBMS codes make detailed spend reporting possible by ensuring that each task and expense is categorized. That way, when you notice in Q1 that spending is out of control, you’re able to identify and solve the problem before Q4. Of course, in order for reporting to be accurate, you must first fully understand UTBMS codes and how to use them.

What are UTBMS codes?

UTBMS codes are a set of codes originally developed by the American Bar Association (ABA), the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Now, UTMBS standards are maintained by the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) Oversight Committee, also known as LOC.

The creators designed UTBMS Codes to standardize the categorization of legal services and expenses so that legal work and the associated costs could be easily identified and analyzed. You can learn more about the LEDES file format and LOC here (https://www.simplelegal.com/blog/ledes-file-format-defined).

UTBMS codes are used in many legal systems around the world, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For this article, we will focus on UTBMS standards for e-Billing set by the ABA and LOC.

American Bar Association UTBMS codes

When used consistently and properly, ABA UTBMS task codes allow you to monitor legal spending and associated activities.

All ABA UTBMS codes are broken into categories and phases. Categories are identified by the beginning letter (e.g., L for ABA litigation codes) while phases are specified by the number (100s for phase 1, 200s for phase 2, etc.). While some UTBMS codes are fairly self-explanatory, others require a deeper explanation. We’ll walk you through all of the ABA UTBMS codes, and provide more insight when necessary.

Activity

Activity codes identify the type of activity associated with a cost.

  • A101 Plan and prepare for
  • A102 Research
  • A103 Draft/revise
  • A104 Review/analyze
  • A105 Communicate (in firm)
  • A106 Communicate (with client)
  • A107 Communicate (other outside counsel)
  • A108 Communicate (other external)
  • A109 Appear for/attend
  • A110 Manage data/files
  • A111 Other

Although not all clients require the use of UTBMS activity codes, this code set is useful for segmenting specific types of work. For instance, the four separate communication codes ensure more accurate spend tracking for both the counsel and the client. In situations where you may need to consult with an expert as well as outside counsel, codes A108 and A107, respectively, would allow you to categorize time spent on each type of communication.

Bankruptcy

Derived from the code set published by the U.S. Department of Justice, bankruptcy UTBMS codes are intended only for bankruptcy matters. All adversarial tasks are covered by the litigation code set. The 21 bankruptcy ABA task codes are broken up into four phases.

B100 Administration

UTBMS codes in the B100 phase include administrative work during preparation, such as research, fee applications, and communication with creditors.

  • B110 Case Administration: Preparation of coordination and compliance matters, financial affairs statements, and general creditor inquiries
  • B120 Asset Analysis and Recovery: Identification and review of potential assets including causes of action and non-litigation recoveries
  • B130 Asset Disposition: Sales, abandonment and transaction work related to asset disposition
  • B140 Relief from Stay/Adequate Protection Proceedings: Matters relating to termination or continuation of automatic stay under 362 and motions for adequate protection
  • B150 Meetings of and Communications with Creditors: Preparing for and attending the conference of creditors, the 341(a) meeting and other creditors’ committee meetings
  • B160 Fee/Employment Applications: Preparations of employment and fee applications for self or others; motions to establish interim procedures
  • B170 Fee/Employment Objections: Review of and objections to the employment and fee applications of others
  • B180 Avoidance Action Analysis: Review of potential avoiding actions under Sections 544-549 of the Code to determine whether adversary proceedings are warranted
  • B185 Assumption/Rejection of Leases and Contracts: Analysis of leases and executory contracts and preparation of motions specifically to assume or reject
  • B190 Other Contested Matters (excluding assumption/rejection motions): Analysis and preparation of all other motions, opposition to motions and reply memoranda in support of motions
  • B195 Non-Working Travel: Non-working travel where the court reimburses at less than full hourly rates

B200 Operations

B200 codes cover business matters, such as document review, employee benefits, cash collaterals, real estate, and tax issues.

  • B210 Business Operations: Issues related to debtor-in-possession operating in chapter 11 such as employee, vendor, tenant issues and other similar problems
  • B220 Employee Benefits/Pensions: Review issues such as severance, retention, 401K coverage and continuance of pension plan
  • B230 Financing/Cash Collections: Matters under 361, 363 and 364 including cash collateral and secured claims; loan document analysis
  • B240 Tax Issues: Analyses and advice regarding tax-related issues, including the preservation of net operating loss carry forwards
  • B250 Real Estate: Review and analysis of real estate-related matters, including purchase agreements and lease provisions (e.g., common area maintenance clauses)
  • B260 Board of Directors Matters: Preparation of materials for and attendance at Board of Directors meetings; analysis and advice regarding corporate governance issues and review and preparation of corporate documents (e.g., Articles, Bylaws, employment agreements, compensation plans, etc.)

B300 Claims and Plan

The B300 codes are used for all work related to claim inquiries and preparing disclosure statements and business plans.

  • B310 Claims and Administration Objections: Specific claim inquiries; bar date motions; analyses, objections and allowances of claims
  • B320 Plan and Disclosure Statement (including Business Plan): Formulation, presentation and confirmation; compliance with the plan confirmation order, related orders and rules; disbursement and case closing activities, except those related to the allowance and objections to allowance of claims

B400 Bankruptcy-Related Advice

All advice, analyses, and consultations related to bankruptcy matters fall under the B400 code set.

  • B410 General Bankruptcy Advice/Options: Analysis, advice and/or opinions regarding potential bankruptcy related issues, where no bankruptcy case has been filed
  • B420 Restructurings: Analysis, consultation and drafting in connection with the restructuring of agreements, including financing agreements, where no bankruptcy case has been filed

Counseling

Counseling is one of the broader categories of UTBMS codes. This code set is designed to cover time used by attorneys preparing to provide legal advice. Generally, the counseling ABA task codes do not attribute time to a specific matter. Instead, they serve as a catchall billing code for time spent on research throughout a monthly billing period.

  • C100 Fact Gathering: All initial inquiries, meetings, and data/information collection related to the assignment
  • C200 Researching Law: Time spent researching relevant case law or general investigation as well as consultations with experts
  • C300 Analysis and Advice: Analysis of work performed under C100 and C200 along with providing opinions and advice to client
  • C400 Third Party Communication: Discussions with third parties such as regulators or parties to contracts with the client

Expense

Expense UTBMS codes help with budget tracking by categorizing types of spending.

  • E101 Copying
  • E102 Outside printing
  • E103 Word processing
  • E104 Facsimile
  • E105 Telephone
  • E106 Online research
  • E107 Delivery services/messengers
  • E108 Postage
  • E109 Local travel
  • E110 Out-of-town travel
  • E111 Meals
  • E112 Court fees
  • E113 Subpoena fees
  • E114 Witness fees
  • E115 Deposition transcripts
  • E116 Trial transcripts
  • E117 Trial exhibits
  • E118 Litigation support vendors
  • E119 Experts
  • E120 Private investigators
  • E121 Arbitrators/mediators
  • E122 Local counsel
  • E123 Other professionals
  • E124 Other

Expense UTBMS codes are generally combined with a related activity code. For example, an invoice might include activity code A102 paired with expense code E101. A102 categorizes the time spent researching, while E101 specifies money spent on printing copies of that research.

This code set not only facilitates educated budget planning but also simplifies the process of submitting attorney expenses.

Litigation

ABA litigation codes are broken into five phases and encapsulate the entire litigation process.

L100 Case Assessment, Development, and Administration

  • L110 Fact Investigation/Development
  • L120 Analysis/Strategy
  • L130 Experts/Consultants
  • L140 Document/File Management
  • L150 Budgeting
  • L160 Settlement/Non-Binding ADR
  • L190 Other Case Assessment, Development and Administration

During the initial stages, L100 codes could be combined with activity UTBMS codes. For example, A106 (Communicate with client) might be paired with L110 or L120 because client communication would help formulate the litigation strategy.

L200 Pre-Trial Pleadings and Motions

  • L210 Pleading
  • L220 Preliminary Injunctions/Provisional Remedies
  • L230 Court Mandated Conferences
  • L240 Dispositive Motions
  • L250 Other Written Motions and Submissions
  • L260 Class Action Certification and Notice

Expense codes often accompany L200 codes, such as E112 (Court fees) associated with filing for class certification (L260) or filing a pleading (L210).

L300 Discovery

  • L310 Written Discovery
  • L320 Document Production
  • L330 Depositions
  • L340 Expert Discovery
  • L350 Discovery Motions
  • L390 Other Discovery

L400 Trial Preparation and Trial

  • L410 Fact Witnesses
  • L420 Expert Witnesses
  • L430 Written Motions and Submissions
  • L440 Other Trial Preparation and Support
  • L450 Trial and Hearing Attendance
  • L460 Post-Trial Motions and Submissions
  • L470 Enforcement

This phase also calls for the use of expense fees, such as E114 (Witness fees) when interviewing an expert witness (L420).

L500 Appeal

  • L510 Appellate Motions and Submissions
  • L520 Appellate Briefs
  • L530 Oral Argument

L600 e-Discovery
In 2011, LOC and ABA ratified the litigation codes to include a sixth phase for an e-Discovery code set. Each parent task code has sub-task codes for more granular tracking. To keep this brief, we’ll list only the parent tasks.

  • L600 Identification
  • L610 Preservation
  • L620 Collection
  • L630 Processing
  • L650 Review
  • L660 Analysis
  • L670 Production
  • L680 Presentation
  • L690 Project management

Project

For non-litigation matters, project codes are used for administrative filings, transactions, and stand-alone projects. The project code set includes eight phases.

  • P100 Project Administration: All initial administration work such as developing, negotiating, and revising the plan and budget for the matter at hand
  • P200 Fact Gathering/Due Diligence

Codes within the P200 phase are used for time spent on fact investigation, document retrieval, and preparation of reports with clients. They also cover coordination with third parties related to these activities.

Each P200 UTBMS code designates time spent on fact investigation/due diligence from a specific perspective, such as tax or environmental.

  • P210 Corporate Review
  • P220 Tax
  • P230 Environmental
  • P240 Real and Personal Property
  • P250 Employee/Labor
  • P260 Intellectual Property
  • P270 Regulatory Reviews
  • P280 Other

P300-P800 make up the additional codes within this phase.

  • P300 Structure/Strategy/Analysis: Time spent on analysis done for the purposes of developing the strategy for a project or transaction. This includes all steps taken to create a written outline or description of the strategy
  • P400 Initial Document Preparation/Filing: Tasks performed to prepare documents and opinions before being sent to third parties. This includes filing documents, related communications with the client, and review of client-generated transaction documentation
  • P500 Negotiation/Revision/Responses: Time spent negotiating and revising P400 transaction documentation, including all related document review, meetings and client communications
  • P600 Completion/Closing: All tasks related to transaction pre-closing and closing, project completion or filing acceptance, such as attendance at closing
  • P700 Post-Completion/Post Closing: All post-completion or post-closing tasks such as amendments to final documentation and resolution of post-closing issues. Also includes all implementation tasks (e.g., funds held in escrow) and preparation of closing binders (i.e., primarily clerical actions)
  • P800 Maintenance and Renewal: All tasks related to subsequent maintenance and renewal requirements under the terms of the transaction or project such as monitoring of lease agreements, routine waivers and coordination of UCC requirements

Workers’ Compensation

The workers’ compensation code set was not originally included but was defined by a 2010 ratification. Many tasks include a “Commentary & Practice Tips” subset that shares the same code as the parent task. For example, WC 110 could refer to Fact Investigation/Development or the Commentary & Practice Tips related to that task.

This UTBMS code set includes a total of five phases and 27 ABA task codes. For the sake of brevity, we will provide a high-level description of each phase. It’s important to note that the Workers’ Compensation code set does not include phase-level parent tasks (WC 100, WC 200, WC 300, etc.)

WC 100 phase: All actions related to researching the case matter, strategizing, consulting with experts, and settlements.

  • WC 110 Fact Investigation/Development
  • WC 110 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 120 Analysis/Strategy
  • WC120 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 130 Experts/Consultants
  • WC130 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 150 Budgeting
  • WC 150 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 160 Settlement/Resolution
  • WC 160 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 180 Alternative Fee Arrangements

WC 200 phase: Time spent preparing and filing pleadings, conferences with judge, negotiating alternative fee arrangements.

  • WC 210 Pleadings
  • WC 210 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 230 Conferences with Judge
  • WC 230 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 280 Alternative Fee Arrangements

WC 300 phase: Time spent on all discovery motions, document production/acquisition, and depositions.

  • WC 310 Written Discovery
  • WC 310 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 320 Document Production/Acquisition
  • WC320 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 330 Depositions
  • WC 330 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 334 Deposition Report
  • WC 340 Expert Discovery
  • WC 340 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 350 Discovery Motions
  • WC 350 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 360 Discovery On-Site Inspections/Visits
  • WC 360 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 380 Alternative Fee Arrangements

WC 400 phase: Time spent on preparing for and communicating with witnesses, drafting written motions, and preparing for and attending hearings.

  • WC 410 Fact Witnesses
  • WC 410 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 420 Expert Witnesses
  • WC 420 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 430 Written Motions/Submissions
  • WC 430 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 440 Hearing Preparation and Support
  • WC 450 Hearing
  • WC 450 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 460 Post-Hearing Conferences/Motions/Submissions
  • WC 460 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 480 Alternative Fee Arrangements

WC 500 phase: Time spent on all appellate proceedings.

  • WC 510 Appellate Proceedings/Motions Practice
  • WC 510 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 520 Appellate Briefs
  • WC 520 Commentary & Practice Tips
  • WC 530 Oral Argument

Easily track legal spend by UTBMS code with SimpleLegal

With SimpleLegal, you can easily process invoices using UTBMS codes to help customers better categorize outside counsel activity and track spend at a more granular level. Custom task, activity, and expense codes can also be used if your department leverages them.

When invoices are categorized, you can run standard or ad-hoc reports for matter-level comparisons of legal spend by task code as well as other insights, such as views into spend by tasks for your practice areas or specific vendors. SimpleLegal also provides a Spend Dashboard that quickly identifies your top task codes in use and provides information about average rates and how much was billed to each task code.

UTBMS codes also allow you to enforce billing guidelines and control spending. You can set limits and create warnings associated with specific codes in SimpleLegal’s platform so t expenses can be automatically approved, rejected, or adjusted.

Start using UTBMS codes to streamline spend management

Modern and intuitive, SimpleLegal provides all of the financial tools legal teams need to easily categorize spending, run detailed reports, enforce billing guidelines, and analyze budgets. Schedule a demo to see how you and your team can leverage SimpleLegal to gain total visibility into your legal spend.

Do You Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in Place?

Posted on November 28, 2023 by - Uncategorized

Case and matter management software systems like Legal Files serve as the technology backbone for many legal departments, universities, government agencies and other organizations. They offer a centralized platform for storing and sharing documents, data and other critical information. These collaborative systems replace traditional methods like email inboxes, network/shared drives, local hard drives and handwritten notes. They facilitate streamlined coordination among staff, reinforce risk management and compliance capabilities and provide valuable metrics for monitoring and optimizing operations.

The importance of having your valuable case and matter data in a software system such as Legal Files can’t be overstated. In fact, the American Bar Association recommends that organizations establish plans for storing all files electronically and recovering data in the event of a disaster.

Today, cyberattacks are on the rise, server failures are a possibility and network problems can arise unexpectantly. While no one likes to think about losing important information and files, it’s crucial to be prepared for worst-case scenarios. A well-structured disaster recovery plan that encompasses routine network and server backups is indispensable for safeguarding your data and minimizing staff downtime.

Whether your organization’s matter management system is hosted internally or hosted with an external vendor or a service (such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace or others), you need to check to make sure that your IT department or your vendor has an emergency backup plan in place and regularly tests its backup recovery processes.

Here are some proactive steps you can take to help plan for and respond to a technology disaster:

  • Conduct a business impact analysis to anticipate the consequences of a technology failure, ransomware attack or any other type of intrusion and develop recovery strategies and procedures.
  • Create multiple backups to restore critical systems in case your files are destroyed or unrecoverable.
  • If you are the target of a ransomware attack, promptly contact law enforcement, including the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
  • Provide ongoing training and education for your employees on how to identify and respond to suspicious emails and conduct phishing exercises to gauge their preparedness.

With a proper disaster recovery plan in place, you can protect your organization’s critical case and matter information, ensuring its security and availability to your staff.

Foolproof Your Legal Matter Management Implementation in Five Easy Steps

Posted on September 14, 2023 by - Uncategorized

Legal software investments have continued to rise in recent years due to the increasing pressure to better manage the growing legal workload and drive efficiency. Gartner estimates in a recent report that legal departments will increase their spend on technology threefold by 2025. In today’s economic climate, where hiring additional staff is often challenging, adopting legal software empowers teams to achieve more, streamline workflows and meet the rising productivity requirements.

Once you’ve decided to make an important investment in legal software, the next step is implementation. A successful software implementation process is critical to your organization’s success—so it is important to do it right. Here are five steps you can take to help your software implementation process go seamlessly: 

1. Assess your current legal operations. 

Just like any good goal-planning session, understanding your current position is vital for determining where you aim to be in the future. If you take the time to assess your current technology usage, processes and staffing, you can better understand what areas are working and where improvements need to be made. It’s important to choose a legal software partner who can join you in this assessment process and can provide expertise where you may be lacking. Armed with a comprehensive understanding of what works and what doesn’t, you can take this information to your team of legal software experts and they can help you build a customized platform for your organization’s unique needs. 

2. Examine your legal operations workflow.

A legal organization’s workflow consists of the many tasks and information processes that occur for each case/matter. A common workflow is submitting a request for legal services. It’s important to assess how your organization manages its workflow so that you can uncover possible areas of improvement. If you always do the same thing, you will get the same results. Since you are in the mode of analyzing your processes, this is a key area to keep in mind since many legal software providers offer automation tools to help your workflow process run automatically behind the scenes—eliminating extra work for you and increasing efficiency in the process.  

3. Evaluate tracking needs. 

Legal organizations vary in the type of information they need to track and why. This can be related to government regulations or industry-specific standards. No matter the case or the industry, it is essential to understand what information your organization needs to track to stay in compliance and ensure that no critical piece of data gets overlooked. By determining your tracking and reporting needs for each department or area, you can make a list of daily tracking and strategic needs. 

This information will be critical in setting up your legal software with the best possible chance of success in capturing all the information you need it to. Sometimes it is a good idea to get best practices and advice from your legal software provider who can provide an outside perspective of what a good tracking/reporting program looks like. There may be gaps you haven’t even thought of that can give you a new perspective on data you have previously overlooked or neglected.

4. Consider ROI.
When assessing the potential return on investment (ROI) of legal software, several categories should be considered. You’ll want to see how the legal software can lead to process efficiencies that make life better for your organization and also result in cost savings. Some of the key areas to look at include: workload, risk management, response time and spending versus savings.

By selecting the right legal software provider, you can track metrics that help you determine the true value you are receiving from your investment. You can also possibly avoid costly issues by ensuring compliance and being proactive in setting up a program that works for you. Good legal operations combined with the right legal technology leads to less risk and more reward overall.

5. Help facilitate positive organizational change. 

The transition to a new legal software program doesn’t happen in a day. It takes time to transition your team to a new way of working so you will want to be patient with yourself and your team members as you adjust. By having the right mindset that there will be bumps along the way, you can better respond to problems or issues as they arise. 

The best way to transition your organization is to partner with your software provider to guide employees through the multi-step process. Ideally, you will want to slowly make changes and move to the next step once everyone has mastered the previous step. By incrementally rolling out new features, you can build competency slowly before hitting your staff with more complex features they will encounter. How detailed and complex your system becomes is all based on your organization’s unique needs. The best legal software system is designed to manage what matters to you. 

Foolproof Your Implementation Process with Trusted Tools and Advice   

If you want a better way to manage your legal activities and are looking to increase efficiency and productivity, then legal case management software is the tool you are looking for. You can lay the foundation for successful legal operations by implementing basic functions while having the freedom to adapt and add-on as your organization evolves. Finally, you can say goodbye to siloed systems and manual, outdated processes that no longer serve you.

With Legal Files Software, you can consolidate all your contacts, email, file progress and documents into manageable, collaborative containers that give you a 360 degree view of your cases/matters. With support for an unlimited number of cases, matters, documents and users, there is no limit to what Legal Files can offer you.

As a partner in the implementation process, Legal Files Software, Inc. offers 30+ years of experience supporting organizations across numerous types of industries. Expertise is offered by full-time, professional team members who are committed to your success. Based on our years of experience helping other organizations improve and thrive through legal software, we can help you configure a system that meets your unique needs.

All About Analytics: How Legal Software Can Help You Look Back and Move Forward

Posted on April 3, 2023 by - Uncategorized

Legal analytics is an important feature when selecting the right software for your legal team. At the start of every new year, legal managers are looking to answer important questions like “Where was I last year?” and “Where am I going this year?” With the right legal technology and analytics capabilities in place, managers can answer questions like these and more. 

What is Legal Analytics?

Legal analytics is the process of utilizing data to make decisions on topics that affect in-house legal teams and legal departments, such as resource management, matter forecasting and legal strategy. 

How Legal Software Analytics Can Help You Make Informed Decisions

Legal case management software tracks all your key qualitative and quantitative data in a single location, giving you the ability to run reports at any time. With easy access to data and the ability to quickly understand it, managers can identify and analyze trends on the fly and observe patterns that help them make better decisions about forecasting, how to allocate resources and improve operations.   

There are numerous analytics reports that legal managers and in-house teams can take advantage of within legal case management software including: 

Trend ReportingExpense Reporting
Budget ReportingTime Reporting
Allocated Resources ReportingRisk Management Reporting

Five Ways Legal Analytics Can Help You Work Smarter, Not Harder 

The adoption of legal analytics tools has taken off in recent years, with approximately 70 percent of law firms taking advantage of them today. There are numerous reasons for the increase in adoption and here are a few of the ways that utilizing legal analytics can benefit your organization specifically: 

  1. Increase client satisfaction and marketing to clients.

Your clients are valuable—and if you are like most legal departments—you want a way to serve them in the most effective way possible. One of the best ways to do this is to utilize the data you have captured about them to uncover trends so you can modify operations if necessary and allocate your resources more responsively. For example, you can run trend reports that uncover information such as: 

  • Average days open per file
  • Open files by cost center, department, division, etc. 
  • Team calendar report
  • Conflict check report
  • Team to-do report 

With this information, you can determine who your clients typically are, what problems they need addressed and how long is the typical cycle for that kind of issue, how many (and types

of) matters and cases you’ve opened and closed, and how many cases your team is currently managing. This can help you uncover where your team is needed most, learn more about what works and what doesn’t, and how to make improvements. These helpful tools can also help with benchmarking against previous years or other departments to see how your team is performing.

  1. Conduct insightful legal research.

Legal research is a standard part of the legal professional’s life, as is the practice of regularly digging through cases to find valuable wisdom. What if this process could be easier? With legal case management software, you can access your entire legal library through built-in document management features, within minutes, from anywhere you are located. This capability, combined with legal analytics, saves you valuable time and effort by giving you access to all of your current and past cases to pull valuable data and insights to inform your approach and strategy. You can search by numerous criteria such as:

  • Case date
  • Location
  • Practice area
  • Number of times a term appears in opinion/case.

Legal analytics provides an easy way to sort through legal cases, pleadings and more to gain the valuable insight and research you are looking for.

  1. Boost productivity among team members.

Legal managers are constantly managing the daily flow of intake and case assignment. Legal analytics streamlines this process by giving managers access to the data they need to make better decisions about resources, promotions and performance issues among team members. A few of the types of reports you can run to better manage people and assignments include: 

Allocating Resources Reporting
Past Due To-do’s by Team
Open To-do’s by Team
Open To-do’s by Team Member		Time Reporting
Time Budgeted vs. Actual
Total Time Per Team/Team Member
Total Time Per Team by Task/Activity 
Total Time Per Team Member by Task/Activity 

Managers can get a glimpse into how much time a professional spends working on a specific case as well as how many cases each individual or team is managing to make more informed decisions about who should be working the incoming cases or projects. These types of reports are invaluable in better managing your team and increasing efficiency and productivity across the department.  

  1. Streamline budgeting and forecasting.

Managers are always looking for ways to simplify the budgeting and forecasting process. Now, you can ditch the spreadsheets and opt for legal case management software that gives you easy access to all your key data and insights from a single dashboard. You no longer have to worry about whether you have the latest spreadsheet or whether changes still need to be made because updates occur in real-time. Here are a few of the budgeting and expenses reports you can access: 

Budget Reporting
Budget by Case
Budget by Vendor
Budget-Expenses by Cost Center



 		Expense Reporting
Expense Query Report
Expense Summary Report
Expense Detail Report
Expense Amounts Report 
Expenses Budgeted vs. Actual
Expense Update Report
Expenses By Vendor 

Through these reports, what has traditionally been a long and arduous process with budgeting and forecasting no longer has to be. It can actually be a task that your team looks forward to as new insights and improvements are seen from the enhanced efficiency that technology has to offer. 

  1. Better manage risks. 

With the variety of issues and complaints that arise on an almost daily basis, having a system that tracks each one is becoming a necessity in today’s world. Legal case management software is the solution you are looking for to better manage these risks and more. Within a single platform it is now possible to track all of the issues, complaints and conflicts that your team deals with as well as the specific steps taken, team member assigned and outcome. A few standard risk management reports that you can expect to find are: 

  • Complaints Report 
  • Issues Report 
  • Advanced Conflict Search Report

Through legal analytics, you can help your organization or department decrease risks, solve conflicts proactively and reduce complaints—leading to happier clients and legal team members.

Get the Insight You Have Been Looking For With Legal Case Software

Forecasting, budgeting and resource planning are essentials in the legal world. But, without the right data and analytics feeding it, your forecast and planning goals will always fall short. To get the valuable insight you need, you have to select the right legal case management platform. With Legal Files Software, you can turn forecasting into a competitive advantage through a single platform for all your cases and files, real-time access and visibility and the expert analytics tools that you need to make your data work for you. 

Legal Files offers 30+ years of experience supporting organizations across a number of industries. Legal Files gives professionals the legal analytics features, forecasting and budgeting capabilities needed to focus on the bigger picture of increasing client satisfaction, team productivity and overall effectiveness. 

What is legal operations?

Posted on October 28, 2021 by - Uncategorized

In 2021, more than half of legal departments (54%) spent more internally than they spent on outside costs. Where did that budget go? Toward funding their legal operations.

Legal operations (also called “legal ops”) is the combination of all the business activities, processes, and people that empower an in-house legal team to serve a company’s legal needs using a strategic business approach.

Unlike the legal administration team in law firms, which focuses on admin tasks like answering calls, drafting documents, and conducting legal research, legal operations teams support in-house counsels with skills like planning, financial management, vendor management, matter management, technology management, and legal data analytics.

How legal ops has changed over the years

Before 1990, in-house legal departments were more focused on risk management than on maximizing resources. The goal was simple: Reduce outside counsel costs.

The ’90s through the mid-2000s saw the development of an official, more complex legal operations department that facilitated heavier use of outside counsel even though keeping costs low was still a goal.

The major transformation began in the mid-2000s and carried on to 2019.

Legal ops began to focus on not just reducing costs but also on the granular breakdown of those costs and the ROI they delivered. By embracing technology and automation, legal ops teams could break down spend by matter type and evaluate outside firms by their past performance.

Because of the strategic insights legal ops delivered, legal departments could now see the value in having a legal ops team. Whereas only larger legal departments could afford a formal legal operations team before 2000, a formal legal operations team has become more common now, even at smaller companies.

In our own customer base, we’ve seen formal legal operations manager job titles in legal departments with as few as five people. But some teams are even smaller. A 2022 Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) report found that 60% of legal departments have at least one legal operations professional on the team. (For comparison, in 2018, only 47% of departments had at least one legal ops professional employed.) On average, legal ops departments contain around four employees.

The 12 key functions of a legal ops team in 2022 and beyond

According to the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium’s (CLOC) “core 12” competencies list, these are the 12 key legal operations functions:

1. Business intelligence

Legal ops collects and analyzes business intelligence data based on important metrics to glean actionable insights for more strategic decision-making.

2. Financial management

Legal ops also plans legal spend, creates budgets, implements and monitors e-Billing for legal services, manages accruals, and forecasts expenses, among other things.

3. Firm and vendor management

Legal ops professionals choose the right firms by performing due diligence, uncovering opportunities, negotiating better rates, handling contract management, and, overall, onboarding new vendors quickly.

4. Information governance

With the goal of reducing corporate risk, legal ops is tasked with creating clear information governance policies, communicating those policies to employees, and managing data security and compliance.

5. Knowledge management

Legal ops also engages in knowledge management by facilitating knowledge hubs, creating templates, and preventing knowledge loss, e.g., from staff departure or role changes.

6. Organization optimization and health

Legal ops creates a hiring vision for cultural fit, encourages team members’ work/life balance, and maintains a good pipeline of talents — all in the interest of optimizing the health and productivity of their department.

7. Practice operations

Legal ops manages the practice by allocating tasks to the right skill level for better speed and efficiency.

8. Program and project management

The legal ops team comes up with ways to manage projects, workflows, and programs quickly (without compromising on quality).

9. Service delivery models

Legal ops defines and structures service provider relationships, breaks down larger projects into assignable tasks, and reduces reliance on more expensive law firms.

10. Strategic planning

Legal ops creates team goals that align with the priorities of internal and external stakeholders.

11. Legal Technology

Legal ops vets and leverages legal software to automate time-consuming and repetitive tasks and to increase accuracy in data collection.

12. Training and development

Legal ops also creates training resources for new hires and facilitates career development for employees.

Ideally, a good legal ops department will be able to carry out most of these functions to improve logistics and processes and, overall, allow your law team to focus on being better lawyers for your organization.

How do you build a legal operations team?

Building the right legal ops team for your department involves understanding what you need, hiring the right person for each role, and equipping them to do their job.

Determine what your department is ready for

There are three levels of legal operations:

  • Admin
  • Optimize
  • Strategizer

They all have different responsibilities. The admin-level focuses on basic management activities, such as vendor management, payments, compliance, and reporting. The optimizer-level focuses on improving those processes, and the strategizer focuses on maximizing results. Understanding your legal department’s maturity level will help you pinpoint what position you need to be hiring for.

Choose what role to hire for based on your needs

It can be overwhelming to try to build a complete team from scratch, and the time investment can be a drain on your internal resources. If you are just starting out (at the admin level), you need a manager more than you need an analyst.

Empower your team with the right tech

Legal operations is not nearly as effective without technology, and it seems like key decision-makers have begun to take notice. According to Gartner, the shake-up felt during the beginning of the pandemic led many business leaders to reevaluate their legal department’s tech use, with an eye toward increasing departmental capabilities to make strategic, data-driven decisions.

Tech allows you to automate manual legal work, streamline document management, and simplify data collection and reporting, to name a few benefits. Your team will need dedicated legal ops software that features e-Billing, reporting and analytics, spend, matter, and vendor management to run efficiently.

Typical legal ops jobs

There are three main legal operations jobs within corporate legal departments: the legal operations manager, the legal operations specialist, and the legal operations analyst. There’s a fourth position — the director of legal operations — who would be the overall head of the legal ops department, but it’s common for the department to be led by the legal operations manager.

These positions work together to manage, improve, and analyze activities in the legal ops department.

Here’s a brief rundown of what each role does.

Legal operations manager

Also called the legal operations director, the legal operations manager manages and supports the team around tasks like vendor management, budgeting, and staffing. Where there’s no director of legal operations (the head of legal operations), the legal operations manager also reports directly to the general counsel and oversees tasks like resource allocation, change management, and decision-making.

Legal ops managers may spend their day-to-day directly overseeing other members of the legal team. For the rest of the organization, they are the go-to source for project status updates, budget questions, and productivity reports.

Legal operations specialist

If the legal ops manager oversees the department, the specialist is the expert who executes on departmental projects and goals. The legal ops specialist works with the legal operations manager to create and improve processes for an efficient and effective legal team, facilitate change, and control costs. Specialists tackle the hands-on work of legal ops and report on their work to their manager.

Specialists may handle a variety of tasks, including updating each individual matter. Or they might handle the outreach to stakeholders in other departments who are needed to complete each step of the process.

Legal operations analyst

If a legal ops team uses a tech suite to track and understand analytics, the legal ops analyst would be the expert on those tools.

The legal ops analyst regularly examines the legal team’s operations to identify room for change and helps implement those changes. The analyst may study changes in the team’s budget to identify areas where they could better allocate resources and save costs. They may also handle other departmental reporting on core key performance indicators (KPIs), like average time spent per matter.

Qualities of good legal ops leaders

Legal ops leaders also have an increasingly important role to play as strategic advisors within the C-suite of the organization. According to the ACC, 98% of chief legal officers (CLOs) are consulted on important business decisions that affect the entire organization — not just legal. 36% say they spend more than one-third of their time advising business leaders on strategic initiatives, and 77% say they “almost always” attend board meetings.

Good legal operations leaders tend to fit one of four distinct personas:

  • The uber-analyst who brings quantitative rigor to the legal department
  • The MBA who brings additional operational and financial discipline to the legal department and their vendors
  • The lawyer who has chosen a more business-focused career path
  • The highly analytical JD/MBA who is valued for their legal and business expertise

And while a JD or an MBA is a great addition, the people you require for these roles don’t need to have those degrees. What they need to have is:

  • A strong understanding of the core business
  • The ability to translate the needs of business departments into legal requirements
  • The ability to manage outside law firm performance
  • A commitment to using the internal legal department to grow the company

It’s clear that, from the top down, business leaders have begun to see the strategic value in giving legal ops a seat at the decision-making table.

If building your legal operations team is something you want to focus on, we have four legal ops job description templates you can look at to get you started.

It’s time to embrace legal operations for a value-driven legal department

Legal departments have a company-wide responsibility to protect and grow the business while also managing internal and outside counsel budgets. They face increasing pressure to do more with less. That’s where the legal operations role comes in: these professionals drive efficiency and create value not just for their team of in-house lawyers but for the entire organization.

But a legal operations team is only as effective as the technology available to them. In fact, CLOC lists technology as one of the core competencies for effective legal operations professionals.

Want to empower your legal ops team with software that makes it easier to get results? SimpleLegal helps modern legal teams better manage their spend, matters, vendors, and so much more for efficient legal operations. Schedule a demo of SimpleLegal to learn more about how dedicated legal operations technology can help your team function.