10 Legal Workflow Examples to Streamline In-House Legal Operations

10 Legal Workflow Examples to Streamline Your In-House Legal Operations

Legal workflow automation helps in-house teams streamline operations, reduce manual work, and scale without adding headcount. This blog covers 10 real-world workflows that high-performing teams use to drive efficiency, visibility, and consistency. With the right tools, legal can focus on strategic work and demonstrate measurable business value.

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Legal workflows are structured, repeatable processes that help legal teams handle requests more efficiently. Instead of relying on email inboxes, spreadsheets, or unclear approval steps, workflows define exactly how a task moves from intake to completion.

To manage these workflows at scale, legal teams use workflow automation tools. These platforms standardize how work is submitted, triaged, assigned, and tracked. By having this structure in place, delays are reduced, matter management is effortless, and legal work completed consistently and compliantly.

In this blog, we’ll share 10 real-world legal workflow examples that high-performing legal teams are using today to increase efficiency and reduce operational friction.

1. Contract Review and Approval Workflow

One of the most common bottlenecks for in-house legal teams is contract review, especially for low-risk, routine agreements that follow standard terms. This slows down deal cycles and wastes valuable time on work that doesn’t need legal’s direct input.

A contract review and approval workflow helps fix this by automatically collecting key details of the matter (like contract type, value, and changes to standard terms), using predefined rules that have been previously set by legal to assess its risk, and routing the contract accordingly.

By automating this decision-making process, legal only reviews the contracts that truly require their attention. This reduces review volume, speeds up deal cycles, and frees up legal to focus on more complex work.

📑 Example: Low-Risk Sales Renewal

When a salesperson submits a contract request, the workflow captures key information such as contract type, value, and whether any changes were made to standard terms. Based on predefined rules set by legal (e.g. “If contract value is under $50K and the template hasn’t been redlined, no legal review required”), the workflow automatically determines whether legal input is needed. If it does, the workflow routes the matter to a member of the legal team for assistance. If it’s low risk, the contract skips legal entirely and routes straight to the business approver or signature step.

2. Legal Intake and Triage Workflow

Legal teams often receive requests from across the business through various channels (i.e. email, Slack, meetings, etc.) which makes it hard to track, prioritize, or respond efficiently. And when there’s no structured legal front door, it creates opportunities for delays, duplicated work, and ultimately risk.

A legal intake and triage workflow helps solve this by funelling all legal requests from different channels into a single entry point. The workflow collects key information about the request (like type, urgency, and business function), applies rules to determine where it should go, and routes it to the appropriate legal team member or self-service path.

By standardizing how work is submitted and triaged, legal reduces manual coordination, improves responsiveness, and ensures no request goes unnoticed.

📥 Example: Partnership Agreement Request via Microsoft Teams

Imagine someone from the partnerships team needs legal support on a new vendor agreement so they message the AI-powered legal chatbot in Microsoft Teams. The chatbot asks a series of guided questions to capture key details like contract type, urgency, and the department involved. Based on the predefined logic, the chatbot determines the request is related to a non-standard commercial agreement and automatically routes it to the appropriate legal team member. If it had been a low-risk, template-based agreement, the chatbot could have directed the requester to a self-service option, saving time for both sides.

3. Matter Management Workflow

As legal teams grow and handle more complex, cross-functional work, managing all matters through spreadsheets or email threads becomes unsustainable. Without a centralized system, it’s difficult to track progress, assign owners, find related documents, or manage deadlines.

A matter management workflow provides a structured way to track all legal matters in one place. It standardizes how matters are logged, categorized, assigned, and updated throughout their lifecycle, providing visibility into who’s working on what, what’s pending, and what’s complete.

By automating this process, legal teams improve accountability, reduce manual status checks, and gain real-time visibility into their overall workload and capacity.

🚦 Example: New Product Launch

Let’s say the product team is preparing to launch a new feature and requires legal input across several areas: terms of use updates, privacy review, and marketing approval. Once the request is submitted, it’s logged as a new matter in the system, with each task assigned to the relevant legal team members. Deadlines, documents, and comments are tracked in a single view, and the matter is automatically moved through stages as work is completed. Leadership can see status updates in real time without needing to chase for progress.

4. Compliance Tracking Workflow

Compliance-related tasks, such as conflicts of interest (COI), signing authority, or policy attestations, are often managed manually through emails, forms, and spreadsheets. This creates gaps in oversight, increases the risk of missed steps, and makes it difficult to maintain audit-ready records.

A compliance tracking workflow automates the collection, validation, and routing of compliance submissions. It ensures that disclosures or approvals follow policy rules, low-risk cases are handled automatically, and high-risk ones are escalated to legal or compliance teams for review.

By automating these workflows, legal ensures consistent policy enforcement, reduces administrative overhead, and maintains a clear audit trail for internal and regulatory requirements.

🛡️ Example: Conflict of Interest Disclosure

An employee needs to disclose that they’ve joined the advisory board of a startup. They fill out a quick form prompted by a quarterly compliance reminder, which triggers the COI workflow. The workflow automatically assesses the risk (i.e. whether the company is a competitor or vendor) and routes it accordingly. In this case, the workflow flags the disclosure as medium risk and sends it to the compliance team for further review. The outcome and reasoning are logged automatically, providing full transparency for future audits.

5. Marketing & Advertising Material Approval Workflow

Marketing teams often need legal review for campaigns, ads, or product claims to ensure compliance with regulations and internal guidelines. Without a formal workflow, these requests are handled ad hoc which can expose the business to risk or cause unnecessary delays.

A marketing and advertising material approval workflow standardizes how review requests are submitted, what information is required, and how materials are routed for legal sign-off. It also tracks approvals and version history, so there’s always a clear record of what was reviewed and when.

By automating this process, legal reduces back-and-forth, ensures compliance, and helps marketing move faster without compromising on risk.

📢 Example: Social Media Campaign Approval

The marketing team is preparing a social media campaign promoting a new product. They submit the content (i.e. copy, images, and claims) via an e-form. The system checks whether legal review is required based on campaign type and region. Since the post includes a competitive comparison, the workflow routes it to the legal team for review. Once approved, the system logs the final version, the reviewer, and the approval date, ensuring clear documentation in case of future questions or regulatory inquiries.

6. Employment & HR Workflow

HR and People teams frequently rely on legal for support with employment agreements, policy updates, workplace investigations, and restructures. When handled manually, these requests often lead to long email threads, unclear responsibilities, and inconsistent documentation.

An employment and HR workflow streamlines these processes by automating the creation, routing, and approval of documents and tasks. It ensures the right stakeholders are looped in at the right time, supports bulk actions (like issuing updated employment contracts), and maintains an auditable record of all activity.

By automating HR-related legal workflows, teams can respond faster, reduce administrative burden, and ensure compliance with local labor laws and internal policies.

👨‍💼 Example: Bulk Employment Letter Rollout

Following a company restructure, HR needs to issue updated employment letters to 150 employees across multiple jurisdictions. Instead of manually creating each letter, they use a workflow to upload employee data, apply jurisdiction-specific templates, and route the letters for legal review only when exceptions or high-risk changes are flagged. Once approved, the letters are automatically sent for e-signature. The entire process is tracked in one place, reducing time, errors, and back-and-forth between HR and legal.

7. NDAs and Standard Agreements Workflow

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and other standard contracts like Defense Priorities & Allocations System (DPA), Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs), or vendor agreements are among the most frequently requested documents across the business. When every request goes through legal, it creates bottlenecks, slows down business timelines, and diverts legal’s focus from higher-value work.

An NDA and standard agreements workflow allows business users to self-serve these documents through guided forms. The workflow uses predefined logic to determine the appropriate template (e.g. mutual vs. one-way NDA), applies guardrails to prevent unauthorized changes, and routes the agreement for legal review only when necessary.

By automating the generation and handling of routine contracts, legal significantly reduces manual work while maintaining control and consistency.

🤫 Example: Self-Service NDA for a Sales Meeting

A salesperson needs an NDA in preparation for a meeting with a prospective customer. They open the NDA generator, fill out a few fields regarding the purpose and parties involved, and the system creates the agreement, automatically inserting the correct terms and applying naming conventions. Since there are no edits or redlines, the workflow bypasses legal and sends the NDA directly to the customer for signature. If the user had proposed changes, it would have routed to legal for review.

Related Article: Learn more about how legal automation tools help streamline routine tasks.

8. Data Privacy & Security Workflow

Data incidents, like sending sensitive information to the wrong recipient or experiencing unauthorized system access, require fast, consistent responses from legal and compliance teams. When handled manually, these incidents can be delayed, inconsistently assessed, or missed altogether, increasing regulatory and reputational risk.

A data privacy and security workflow guides business users through reporting potential incidents, collects key facts, and applies predefined logic to assess severity and determine next steps. For high-risk incidents, it notifies the appropriate legal, security, and compliance stakeholders and documents every step taken.

By automating this process, legal ensures timely, consistent, and defensible responses to data breaches and privacy events.

🔒 Example: Misrouted Email Breach Assessment

An employee accidentally sends an internal file containing customer data to an external recipient. They message the AI legal chatbot in Slack and describe the incident. The chatbot asks a series of structured follow-up questions such as what kind of data was shared, how many individuals were affected, and whether it was encrypted. Based on this information, the workflow calculates the risk level and automatically escalates the issue to someone from the legal team. The incident is tracked end-to-end, and a summary report is generated for internal documentation or regulatory reporting if required.

9. Outside Counsel Engagement & Spend Workflow

For some organizations, engaging outside counsel is a routine part of in-house legal operations, especially for complex matters like litigation, employment disputes, or regulatory issues. But without a clear process, these engagements often happen informally, leading to budget overruns, vendor compliance issues, and poor visibility into external legal spend.

An outside counsel engagement and spend workflow standardizes how requests are submitted, reviewed, and approved. It collects key details (such as matter type, estimated budget, and preferred firm), applies business rules for vendor selection, and routes the request for necessary approvals before pushing it to an e-billing or spend management system.

By automating this workflow, legal ensures proper vendor onboarding, budget control, and a complete audit trail of external engagements.

💵 Example: External Counsel Request for Termination Investigation

The HR team needs legal support for a sensitive executive termination and fills out an e-form to submit their request. The legal team determines the matter should be handled externally. The requester is directed to a workflow that collects information about the matter type, urgency, and preferred outside counsel. Once submitted, the workflow routes the request for internal budget approval and, once approved, creates a corresponding matter in the e-billing system (e.g. Brightflag). The selected firm is engaged only after all internal steps are completed, ensuring compliance with vendor policies and budget controls.

10. Reporting & KPI Workflow

Legal teams are increasingly being asked to demonstrate their performance (i.e. how much work is being done, where time is spent, and how legal is supporting the business). Without structured data, most teams struggle to answer these questions, relying on anecdotal evidence or manually compiled spreadsheets.

A reporting and KPI workflow aggregates data across all legal workflows, capturing request volume, turnaround times, matter types, and workload distribution. Legal analytics dashboards update in real time, giving legal teams and leadership the visibility they need to measure impact, identify bottlenecks, and allocate resources more effectively.

By automating reporting, legal can move from reactive reporting to proactive performance management, demonstrating value with concrete data.

📊 Example: Monthly Legal Ops Report for Leadership

At the end of each month, the legal ops manager needs to report on team performance. Instead of chasing down updates or pulling data manually, they use real-time dashboards connected to legal’s intake and matter workflows. The report shows the number of matters opened and closed, average cycle times, request types by department, and top contributors. These insights help the GC advocate for more resourcing, identify workflow inefficiencies, and show how legal is enabling the business.

Key Takeaways

Legal workflows are the backbone of efficient, scalable in-house legal operations. From intake and triage to contract reviews, compliance tracking, and external counsel management, these workflows help legal teams reduce manual work, respond faster, and operate with greater visibility and control.

With the right workflow automation tools in place, legal can eliminate administrative bottlenecks, enable business self-service where appropriate, and focus on the work that truly needs legal expertise.

💡Pro Tip: Workflow automation supports a more responsive legal function that scales with the business.

Want to see how high-performing legal teams are using workflows like these in practice? Book a demo with Checkbox and discover how you can streamline legal intake operations from intake to reporting, all in one platform.

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