Understanding
Legal Project Management
It’s no secret at LinkSquares that in-house legal already has a lot on their plate. And while budgets and headcount seem to be shrinking, their to-do lists are getting longer. With the increasing demand to do more with less and unending requests coming in from every department in your organization, how do you even begin to prioritize all that work? That’s where legal project management comes in. But what exactly is legal project management? How can your in-house legal team use it in the most impactful way? And what are the benefits of harnessing the power of these tools?
What is legal project management?
In the simplest terms, legal project management involves the use of tools designed specifically to centralize, automate, and manage a variety of work for in-house legal teams. The main idea is to help you juggle the complexities of your roles with ease, from simple routine tasks to long-term legal projects.
Use cases for teams to use legal project management software
Legal project management tools aren’t just for show — they’re extremely practical and applicable to a broad range of functions. For instance, let’s say your team needs to manage requests across the business, track recurring tasks, or oversee ongoing legal projects. A legal project management tool can easily handle all these activities at once.
Common tasks managed with these tools include but aren’t limited to:
- Reviewing marketing and PR content
- Handling privacy and compliance responsibilities
- Addressing intellectual property questions
- Dealing with HR concerns
- Managing contract review and approval
You can also use them to track recurring legal tasks like entity management, governance, and board meeting responsibilities. For long-term legal projects like litigation, these tools are vital for effective documentation, coordination, and performance reporting.
The benefits of legal project management software
So, why should an in-house legal team really care about legal project management software? It promotes efficiency, organization, and transparency — three essential elements to enhance the performance of any legal team.
You can streamline and automate processes, reducing the risk of human error and making sure critical tasks are completed on time. Plus, these tools facilitate visibility, allowing team members to see the status of tasks and projects in real time.
Not to mention, your team can trade the burden of manual processes to focus on more important work.
How is legal project management software different?
You’ve probably used tools like Monday.com, Asana, Jira, Excel, and Zendesk in your career, and while they can be helpful, they’re not built for legal needs. In-house teams need a strong legal project management solution to stay on top of it all — and it helps when it’s tailored to your workflows. Let’s look at the options legal teams have for managing projects.
Manual task management
This is often the starting point for small, scrappy in-house legal teams — from a paper to-do list to a desk full of post-it notes, or even an inbox full of requests from teams across the business. While manual task management is often free or low-cost, tracking and reporting on tasks can be a challenge. As the to-do list and team expand, legal teams often outgrow these manual processes.
Generic project management tools
While Jira was built with software developers in mind, tools like Monday.com and Asana were created to meet the needs of teams across a business. And while legal teams can jerry-rig the products to manage their work, even robust project management tools can fall short when it comes to your specific needs.
Legal project management
Unlike a one-size-fits-all project management tool, legal project management is built specifically to manage the legal workload, so teams can spend less time tailoring a tool to their needs and more time getting things done.
A noteworthy legal project management tool
Ready to bring these benefits to your team? Allow us to introduce LinkSquares Prioritize, a legal project management tool designed to streamline your legal processes and solve productivity problems.
Going beyond intake, LinkSquares Prioritize provides legal with one place to receive, track, and manage all their tasks. As requests come in, the legal team can assign tasks to the right team member, flag high-priority work, view related documents, and collaborate with their team.
With a tool built to support legal workflows, teams can avoid time spent modifying a generic tool for legal-specific needs. LinkSquares Prioritize also integrates with the LinkSquares CLM, allowing teams to manage tasks in one place. A birds-eye view of everything on your team’s plate lets you monitor their workload to show what’s getting done and by whom so you can identify roadblocks and report on your team’s impact to the business.
Remember, the right tools can transform your business. When armed with an effective legal project management tool, your team can become the strategic partners they were meant to be, leading to better business outcomes and a thriving organization.
Start using LinkSquares Prioritize today to see the difference it makes.
