In legal matter management, few things are as vital as a well-designed intake process.

Without it, instructions can arrive from various channels like emails, phone calls, or in-person conversations (and often all of them!).

When there is no systematic method to capture this information, it often remains scattered across emails or locked away in people's minds. Consequently, it must be repeatedly entered into different documents or systems at different times.

This lack of organisation can lead to delays, necessitating clarifications and additional information requests. Moreover, it can spark disputes, with the business believing they provided instructions much earlier than the legal team believes is the case or with conflicting recollections about the requested information.

The absence of reliable data makes it more challenging for the legal team to actively manage matters, conduct reporting and analytics, and demonstrate their effective management of legal risks and opportunities for the business.

This post is part of a series of posts aimed at providing practical options for organisations that don’t want, can’t use, or cannot obtain a full legal matter management solution and are looking for guidance on what they can do with the tools they have and some reasonably priced add-ons. For more background and context, please see this introductory post.

The Importance of an Effective Intake Process:

Given these crucial factors, an efficient matter intake system should be a core feature of any comprehensive matter management solution.

Unfortunately, not all solutions live up to their marketing promises in practice.

Common complaints include intake forms that are either too inflexible and request insufficient information for the legal team's needs or demand excessive information that the business is unwilling or unable to provide.

Additionally, a lack of form design and styling flexibility can frustrate users and impede uptake.

When the intake process fails to meet user needs, it leads to non-use, significantly undermining the entire matter management process.

Exploring Alternative Solutions based around SharePoint:

Understanding the significance of these issues and being interested in maximising the potential of Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and complementary tools, we have investigated alternative solutions that fulfil the key requirements for matter management at affordable costs.

One combination that works very well is SharePoint, Power Automate, and Cognito Forms.

The Power of SharePoint, Power Automate, and Cognito Forms:

As demonstrated in the video below, Cognito Forms seamlessly integrates within SharePoint pages, ensuring easy access for all organisation members.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click for sound

 

 

 

 

 

 

11:32

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, instead of requiring the business to find and access a form via the legal team’s site, the same form could be embedded in different business unit pages, simplifying the process for them. If the form is updated, it will update in every location. There are no additional licensing costs for organisation-wide (or even external) use of Cognito Forms, which is a big plus.

If business users aren’t willing to use a form, or if some lawyers in the legal team still prefer to gather information in person, then legal can still use the form to initiate the matter and set it up for successful management.

With Cognito Forms, building dynamic and visually appealing forms that align with the legal team's information needs for different matter types is remarkably straightforward. We’ve found building forms in Cognito Forms easier than in other form-building solutions.

Cognito Forms’ workflow features enable customised questioning, so business users are only prompted for relevant information. Other questions can be hidden from their view. When the entry is emailed to the legal team, based on their role and the workflow link they receive, the legal team encounter specific questions tailored to their additional requirements.

Although we explored Microsoft Forms as a potential solution, we found them too limited for practical use in legal scenarios. In contrast, Cognito Forms integrates easily and delivers the flexibility and functionality necessary for streamlined legal operations. It makes sense – designing great forms is the core of what Cognito Forms do, not an add-on.

Integration with SharePoint and the Microsoft Universe:

Microsoft Power Automate is the key to addressing the important question of seamlessly transferring information into SharePoint and the broader Microsoft ecosystem.

The information captured through the Cognito Form can be leveraged to automatically create a subsite for the matter in SharePoint while updating a SharePoint list of all matters created, including all the captured metadata.

The legal team can retain the flexibility to choose whether a separate matter needs to be created or not. Lawyers can opt not to create a separate matter for more minor, quickly addressable queries.

Some matter management systems fail to capture these high-frequency requests, preventing the legal team from showcasing the value they add daily by promptly addressing small enquiries and preventing the data from revealing high-frequency queries that could be addressed in some other way. However, with Cognito Forms, every form entry can be captured and logged within Cognito Forms itself or through SharePoint lists that data is posted to via Power Automate. This comprehensive intake tracking empowers the legal team to capture and report on every interaction, elevating the system's overall value and ensuring a cost-effective solution.

Conclusion:

While many legal teams focus on the high-tech aspects offered by matter management systems, the key to success often lies in fixing the intake process and focusing on what needs to be improved now.

Without a robust intake process that users are genuinely satisfied with, the overall system's value diminishes, rendering it an expensive investment with limited returns.

By prioritising the implementation of a well-designed intake process and leveraging tools like SharePoint, Power Automate, and Cognito Forms, legal teams can establish a strong but flexible foundation for effective matter management without the cost of an expensive separate system.

This approach streamlines operations, enhances collaboration between business units and legal departments, and ensures the successful navigation of legal risks and opportunities.

If you want better legal matter management outcomes and want to look at your options and get a practical assessment of which options will best suit you, get in touch. We can recommend and introduce you to full matter management solutions or help with more targeted interventions, depending on your needs.

Knowing what to do and knowing how to do it are different things. We would love to work with you to help you achieve the best outcomes, with certainty of costs and delivery.