Heritage-Crystal Clean Unifies Legal Operations Across 90 Branches with Onit

Heritage-Crystal Clean (HCC) is a leading provider of parts cleaning, oil recycling, and waste management services for the automotive and manufacturing sectors. With over 91,000 customer locations and operations in 45 states, HCC’s legal department plays a critical role in managing contracts, compliance, and operational risk across a national footprint.

Before Legal Files, the department lacked a centralized legal or contract management system. “We were using manila folders and random file naming,” said Samantha Corso, Legal Operations Manager. “Documents and emails were scattered—some digital, some in hard copy. Reporting was manual and time-consuming, and locating information often meant hours lost to routine tasks.”

With the arrival of a new General Counsel, HCC’s legal team initiated a structured approach to selecting and implementing a legal matter and contract management system. The team documented stakeholder needs across legal, contracts, and compliance, then evaluated options through the lens of flexibility, searchability, and reporting.

Legal Files, part of the Onit ecosystem, stood out immediately for its configurability, integrated document and email management, and powerful automation capabilities. 

HCC’s phased implementation allowed the team to:

• Centralize all legal matters, contracts, and compliance records on one platform.
• Configure the system for different user groups including legal, compliance, and contract admins.
• Enable mobile notetaking, expense tracking, and automated bid monitoring.
• Create searchable, shareable records with built-in document version control.
• Set up automatic alerts for contract expirations, renewals, and deadlines—pushing reminders even to non-users in the field.