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Case Study

How HCC Unified Legal Operations Across 90 Branches with Onit

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Lack of Centralized Legal Operations at HCC Before 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.”

Solution

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.

Results and ROI

Onit’s Legal Files now supports HCC’s legal operations across all 90 branches, enabling faster response times, greater consistency, and better collaboration:

Graphic representation of a unified legal ecosystem, symbolizing Medtronic's transition to Onit’s Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions, emphasizing streamlined operations and reduced vendor complexity.
Unified legal operations

Unified legal operations with standardized workflows across departments and locations.

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Faster contract management

Faster contract management through smart reminders and email/document integration.

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Improved visibility and tracking

Improved visibility and tracking of mergers, litigation, HR matters, RFPs, and compliance activity.

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Real-time reporting

Real-time reporting on legal spend, workload, bid success rates, and contract types.

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Enhanced responsiveness

Enhanced responsiveness across the organization, even when team members are unavailable.

“Onit touches everything we do,” Samantha said. “We’re now able to step into each other’s roles seamlessly. We’ve built consistency, improved response times, and earned greater trust across the company.”

Unexpected Benefits

HCC has also used Legal Files to digitize and automate processes previously managed in Excel. “Now we track legal budgets, expenses, and trends directly in Legal Files—by matter, type, or department,” said Samantha. “It’s dramatically improved the accuracy and detail of our board reporting.”

Legal Files also improved cross-functional collaboration. “With 30-, 60-, and 90-day contract alerts, we’ve removed the need to manually chase down renewals. Legal Files notifies field teams automatically, freeing us to focus on more strategic work.”

About Heritage-Crystal Clean

Headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, Heritage-Crystal Clean is a national leader in sustainable environmental services for industrial businesses. Serving thousands of customers across 45 states, HCC’s legal department leverages Onit’s Legal Files to scale operations, maintain compliance, and deliver strategic legal support to every corner of the organization.