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Legal affairs management is a software-based means of tracking legal expenses, attorney collaboration, and overall legal performance. Corporate legal departments are often the largest consumers of legal affairs management software, although the systems can also be useful for independent law firms. They are mainly used for budgeting and cost management. In managing legal matters, a simple online platform streamlines internal and external billing, expenses and fees.
For many legal departments, managing the data needed to run a successful business can be challenging. Different projects are outsourced to different places, and many attorneys may be working on multiple cases at any given time. Issue management is a way of bringing all of a company’s legal data together in one place so that it can be easily accessed and analyzed online.
“Legal matter” is a broad term that covers almost all elements of legal practice and procedures that are not specific to a case. Legal departments and law firms are, of course, focused on individual cases and disputes, but there is a lot going on that is unrelated to or independent of the specific details of those cases. This often includes billing and invoicing, daily workflow, and overhead. The main objective of a legal affairs management system is to give operators a broad view of all activities, accounts and open cases at the same time.
There are many similarities between legal affairs management and legal case management, although the two have important differences and law firms often need both. Case management typically provides a broad overview of all materials related to a single case file. Issue management involves similar concepts, but refers to all activities in all cases at the same time. It is not uncommon for law firms and corporate legal departments to be involved in many different cases, often in many different locations, simultaneously.
One of the biggest advantages of a legal affairs management system is the ability to capture employment statistics quickly and easily. Most programs store data over time and can compile reports and produce comparisons across categories. Managers can quickly calculate how many hours were billed in a given quarter, for example, and compare that number to the same quarter in previous years. Expenses attributed to the company, project and result are also available, often with little more than a click of the mouse.
At its core, managing legal matters is simply managing information technology: simplifying and storing data. These types of programs can be an immensely valuable means of knowledge management and data accessibility. Most programs can be optimized for certain business needs, and almost all are customized for specific departments or legal departments.