What Specialized Tools Centralize Request Management for Legal Departments?

Legal departments today are veering away from using shared inboxes to manage legal intake and moving towards using software solutions to achieve structured workflows.  

Tools like Checkbox, Onit, and DISCO Request give legal teams a way to capture, organize, and track requests from every channel.

Let’s break down how these tools work, how they compare, and what features matter most if you want to reduce manual work, improve visibility, and build a system that scales.

What is Centralized Request Management?

Centralized request management is the process of capturing, organizing, and tracking all legal service requests in a single, unified system.

It is primarily considered part of legal intake, but foundational to matter management.

This aims to enhance visibility, reduce manual work, and improve response times for legal departments.

Why Do Legal Teams Want to Centralize Request Management?

You can’t improve what you can’t see. And for most legal departments, visibility is the first thing lost when requests come in from various sources such as email, messages, conversations, and spreadsheets.

When intake is fragmented, a few things start to happen:

• Higher risk of missed requests as there’s no consistent way to log or prioritize work.  

• Time is wasted on manual triage and chasing clients for information.

• Leadership can’t access data on workload or performance.

Centralized request management creates a structured system where all requests (regardless of source) are captured in one place, routed intelligently using predefined rules, and tracked from open to close.

This does two things:

1. It removes friction from legal’s day-to-day work by reducing noise and manual follow-up.

2. It creates leverage which enables legal to scale its support without needing to expand the team.

Which Tools Centralize Legal Request Management?

For maximum efficiency, legal departments must ensure every request is routed into a consistent, trackable workflow. Some tools that exist to help with this are Checkbox, Onit, and DISCO Request. Let’s compare the three to see which is best for centralizing request management.

Checkbox

Centralize, Automate, and Track in One Platform

Checkbox is built to give legal teams a single source of truth. Whether requests come in via email, Slack, Teams, or a custom portal, Checkbox captures and routes them through configurable workflows.  

Powered by AI and automation, it reduces manual triage and allows legal teams to focus on strategic work, rather than on chasing down matter details. Real-time dashboards provide instant visibility into request volume, matter status, and team performance.

Best for legal teams looking to scale with automation and show measurable value to the business.

Onit

Enterprise Workflow Software

Onit offers a suite of enterprise legal management tools, including intake and matter management. It’s customizable and integrates with other systems used by corporate legal.  

However, implementation can be complex, and many teams may need IT or consultant support to get started.

Best for large enterprises with the resources to invest in customization and integration.

DISCO Request

Lightweight Intake Tool Focused on Discovery

DISCO Request is an add-on to the DISCO eDiscovery platform. It provides a simple interface to capture legal service requests and route them into the eDiscovery workflow.  

While effective for discovery-related matters, its capabilities are narrower compared to broader intake and workflow platforms.

Best for legal teams heavily focused on litigation and eDiscovery.
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Ready to centralize your request management across every channel and free your team from manual follow-ups? Book a demo and see how Checkbox can help.