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.
Consistent formatting is key to maintaining data integrity and accurate reporting.
Establishing and maintaining budgets
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.
