What Is Matter Management Software for Corporate Legal Departments?

Corporate legal teams are under pressure to move faster, do more, and prove their value, all while managing work through email threads and spreadsheets better suited to 2005.

This results in fragmentation, missed deadlines, and no clear way to show what legal is actually doing and how it’s impacting organizational success.

Matter management software promises to fix that. By centralizing requests, tracking work in real time, and making outcomes measurable, legal can scale without losing control.
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Let’s define what matter management software is, why it’s important for corporate legal departments, and what to look for in a platform.

What is Matter Management Software?

Matter management software is a centralized system used by in-house legal teams to track, manage, and report on every legal matter, from the moment it’s requested to the moment it’s resolved.

It captures legal intake, assigns work, organizes documents, tracks progress, and logs outcomes. Whether it’s a contract review, internal investigation, regulatory filing, or the fifth “quick question” of the morning, matter management software creates a structured workflow and a record of everything legal touches.

With built-in reporting capabilities, matter management software can also surface patterns such as where legal demand is predominantly coming from, which lawyers are overloaded, what matters are progressing quickly, and which processes face the most delays.

What to Look For in Matter Management Software

If you’re investing in matter management software, it’s important to choose a platform that does more than just track work. Keep an eye out for features that actually help your legal team move faster, stay organized, and show its value to the business. Here are some key capabilities to look for in a matter management platform:

1. Smart Intake That Meets the Business Where It Works

Legal can’t manage what it can’t see. Intake and triage should be standardized so it’s best to look for platforms that automate intake with configurable forms, triage requests with AI, and route work with accuracy.

2. Customizable No-Code Workflows

As all organizations are unique, your matter management software should be able to be customized to meet your needs and done so by the legal department itself. Matter types, approval flows, and templates should reflect how you work. And with no-code legal workflow automation platforms, legal can build and tweak workflows on their own, without waiting on IT. So when something changes (and it always does), you can adjust quickly and keep things moving.

3. Real-Time Dashboards & Reporting

Visibility into active matters, workloads, turnaround times, and risk areas is how legal shows up as a strategic partner. And when you can turn all that into a clean, easy-to-read report in just a few clicks, you gain efficiency and grab leadership’s attention.

4. Cross-Functional Collaboration

Whether it’s working with sales, HR, or outside counsel, matter management should streamline communication. Look for tools that make cross-functional collaboration simple, with clear task assignments, automated status updates or matter tracking, and document versioning.

Benefits of Matter Management Software for Corporate Legal Teams

Of course, software features are only useful if they translate into actual outcomes. And for legal teams, that means less confusion, more control, and the ability to prove their value with concrete evidence.

1. Prioritization That’s Based on Data

When everything is marked urgent, nothing is. With real-time visibility into matter volume, deadlines, and capacity, legal teams can make smarter decisions about what gets done now, what gets delegated, and what can wait.

2. A Team That’s Not Burned Out (or Invisible)

Workload transparency isn’t just about tracking who’s busy. It’s about preventing burnout and making sure contributions don’t go unnoticed. Matter management software creates a record of what legal actually does, making it easier to balance resources and advocate for headcount when it’s justified.

3. Metrics That Resonate with the Business

Leadership wants to know how legal is driving outcomes. With legal dashboards and analytics that track turnaround time, matter types, and cross-functional demand, legal can easily communicate impact with data that supports the results.

4. Scale With Ease

As companies grow, so does legal complexity. By automating intake, standardizing processes, and streamlining repeatable work, matter management tools allow teams to scale their impact without needing to hire more employees.

Key Takeaways

In-house matter management software helps to reduce friction within corporate legal departments and bring order to legal operations.

Solutions such as Checkbox were built with that goal in mind: to give legal teams a single source of truth, real-time visibility, and the flexibility to run things their way. And with this type of system in place, legal won’t need to choose between being strategic and being efficient.

Want to learn more? Book a demo with Checkbox and see what matter management software can do.