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Guide to Matter Management
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For mid-sized in-house legal teams, managing legal work is about staying in control.
With growing volumes of requests, more complex matters, and increasing pressure to do more with less, many legal departments find themselves relying on spreadsheets, email threads, and outdated tools that weren’t built for scale.
If you’re in a similar boat, then it’s time to start exploring legal matter management systems that are built to organize, track, and simplify everything in one place.
Let’s compare the features of top legal matter management systems suitable for mid-sized in-house legal departments and how the right system can drive efficiency, visibility, and impact.
What is a Legal Matter Management System?
A legal matter management system is a platform that helps in-house legal teams organize, track, and manage all their legal work in one place. It centralizes everything from intake and task assignments to collaboration, documents, and reporting. The goal is to reduce manual effort, improve visibility across matters, and help legal teams operate more efficiently and strategically.
Related Article: Learn more about cloud-based matter management software and find out whether it is right for you.
Specific Requirements for Mid-Sized Legal Teams
Not all legal matter management systems are built with mid-sized teams in mind. The needs of a 10-person legal department supporting a fast-growing business are very different from those of an enterprise team with hundreds of lawyers.
Mid-sized in-house teams often sit in a tough spot. They’re big enough to deal with high volumes and complex matters, but too small to have dedicated resources for process, tech, or headcount expansion. That means any system you choose has to be easy to adopt, flexible enough to fit your workflow, and powerful enough to surface insights without extra admin.
At a minimum, the right platform should help you:
- Centralize legal work so it’s no longer scattered across inboxes and spreadsheets
- Standardize intake and triage so requests are routed quickly and consistently
- Track progress and team workload in real time
- Report on legal’s performance without pulling data manually
💡Pro Tip: Create a checklist of your team’s top 5 pain points before reviewing demos. This keeps conversations focused on real problems and helps you cut through the noise faster.
How Do Top Legal Matter Management Platforms Compare?
Not all legal matter management tools are built with mid-sized in-house teams in mind. Here’s a comparison of the key features offered by leading platforms, and how they measure up when it comes to solving the real challenges legal teams face every day.
1. Intake and Request Management
Checkbox stands out with no-code, customizable intake flows built specifically for legal. Intake can be tailored by matter type, automatically routed, and even self-served where appropriate, reducing back-and-forth and freeing up legal’s time.
It also includes request tracking, giving teams visibility into the status, ownership, and progress of each matter from submission to resolution.
ServiceNow Legal, Zendesk, and ticketing tools offer intake via generic forms or portals. These work well for basic triage but often lack the legal-specific logic or flexibility to handle nuanced requests.
Ironclad and Apttus include intake, but primarily in the context of contract workflows. Less so for broader legal matters.
2. Matter Tracking and Visibility
Checkbox lets teams define and visualize each stage of a matter lifecycle with live dashboards, workload breakdowns, and customizable fields that reflect how your team works.
Clio and Legal Tracker offer solid matter tracking, but are more commonly used in law firms or large enterprise environments where volume is higher and customization is limited.
LawVu and SimpleLegal provide good visibility, but teams often need to adapt their processes to fit the tool.
3. Collaboration and Workflow
Checkbox offers a secure single source of truth platform that combines in-matter collaboration with task assignment, comments, and shared visibility across business users.
SharePoint and Asana are often used to coordinate legal work, but lack legal-specific features like role-based access, matter confidentiality, or audit trails.
LawVu includes collaboration tools, but teams often report limited configurability.
4. Reporting and Insights
Checkbox delivers auto-generated, real-time reports on matter volume, cycle times, and team workload. These are fully customizable to show exactly what your GC or CFO wants to see.
Legal Tracker and SimpleLegal offer reporting capabilities, but dashboards can be static or hard to customize without technical support.
LawVu has pre-set dashboards, but flexibility is limited unless paired with external tools.
| Platform | Customizable Legal Intake | Matter Tracking & Workflow | Collaboration Tools | Reporting & Dashboards | Mid-Sized Team Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkbox | ✅ Legal-specific, no-code | ✅ Fully customizable stages | ✅ Secure, legal-focused | ✅ Real-time & exportable | ✅ Yes, purpose-built |
| LawVu | ⚠️ Standard forms | ✅ Solid tracking | ⚠️ Basic internal tools | ⚠️ Limited flexibility | ⚠️ Suited more for larger teams |
| SimpleLegal | ⚠️ Ops-focused intake | ✅ Workflow rules supported | ⚠️ Minimal tools | ✅ Legal ops metrics | ⚠️ More ops than legal-centric |
| Legal Tracker | ❌ No native intake | ✅ Enterprise-grade | ❌ Not supported | ⚠️ Customizable, but complex | ❌ Enterprise focus |
| Clio | ✅ Law firm-style forms | ✅ Basic workflows | ⚠️ Not in-house focused | ⚠️ Simple analytics | ❌ Law firm-centric |
| ServiceNow | ⚠️ IT-dependent setup | ⚠️ Highly customizable | ⚠️ Generic tools only | ✅ Strong enterprise insights | ❌ Too heavy for most |
| Ironclad | ✅ Contract-specific intake | ❌ Contracts only | ⚠️ Workflow-limited | ❌ Contract reporting only | ❌ Focused on CLM |
This comparison makes one thing clear: mid-sized in-house legal teams need more than just a place to store matters.
You need a platform that makes intake easier, tracks work the way your team actually works, and gives you the visibility to make smarter decisions.
Checkbox is built for legal teams that are growing fast and need a system that helps them stay in control without slowing them down.
Want to learn more? Book a demo to see how Checkbox can help your team work with clarity, confidence, and impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
What unique automation features does Checkbox offer for in-house legal departments?
Checkbox provides no-code automation for legal intake, triage, and workflow routing. This lets legal teams build self-service tools and automated processes without relying on IT to reduce manual work and increase responsiveness across high-volume legal requests.
How do integration options differ between Clio and Checkbox for seamless workflows?
Clio offers strong integrations for law firm tools but limited flexibility for in-house teams. Checkbox supports API-based and out-of-the-box integrations with key business systems, enabling seamless alignment with internal workflows like HR, finance, and sales.
Which system provides better risk and contract management capabilities for corporate legal teams?
Checkbox provides reliable risk and contract management capabilities for corporate legal teams as it allows lawyers to manage contract workflows, automate risk assessments, and ensure compliance through custom legal workflows and logic.
How do user reviews compare regarding ease of use and customization in both platforms?
Clio is praised for its simplicity, particularly for smaller law firms, but may feel restrictive for in-house teams. Checkbox consistently receives high marks for ease of customization and flexibility, especially for legal departments needing tailored workflows.
What is the best legal matter management system for mid-sized in-house teams?
Checkbox is one of the best legal matter management systems for mid-sized teams, offering scalable features like customizable intake, real-time tracking, and actionable reporting.
How can legal matter management software improve visibility for in-house legal teams?
Matter management software centralizes legal work, giving teams a real-time view of workloads, statuses, and performance. This visibility helps legal operate more proactively and demonstrate value to business stakeholders.