Essentially matter centricity refers to consistent matter workflow between these different systems. The idea is to be able to organize matter content into electronic case files. A matter could be a lawsuit, a commercial transaction or even an internal project. It's common to find a specific matter's data spread between different e-billing, matter management and document storage systems. Data integrity is usually a very real problem, along with duplicate or triplicate manual data entry in some cases. E-mail management is often a major problem, with multiple copies and document versions spread among multiple users' e-mail accounts.

Centricity Consistency

However in a matter centric system, the matter name, number and other related metadata are consistent and "flow through" these systems, nearly seamlessly to the end user. Here's an example: A new matter is opened in the matter management system. From there, a new matter "workspace" is automatically created in the document management system, using the same name and matter number. You can visualize a workspace as a predefined set of document folders, similar to those you see in Windows Explorer or your e-mail program. In matter-centric systems, these subfolders are automatically generated for that type of matter. For example, a litigation matter could have document subfolders titled "Pleadings," "Correspondence" and "Discovery," among others, so their usage and spelling is consistent across matters.

Now legal staff can simply start saving files into these shared electronic or virtual folders. No more hunting for the paper file, missing a string of e-mails or dealing with unruly network file folders. This consistency enables more productive searches as well.

Integration with a suitable e-billing system would use the same information. As mentioned this eliminates duplicate or triplicate manual effort and inconsistent data entry, while increasing data access. While a legal assistant may be working in the matter management system, attorneys can be working on the related documents in the document management system, and others on the team may be reviewing outside counsel invoices electronically. The result allows people to "see" the entire case file electronically. It also allows multiple points of entry for knowledge workers by using the program with which they are most comfortable, whether it be the matter management, document management or e-billing system. With proper security, mobile access is greatly enhanced.

Recent Innovations

Just so you're aware, major law firms have been jumping on the matter centricity bandwagon in droves over the past several years. As corporate law departments tend to lag behind, however, it's relatively new to them. As companies are becoming more globalized with their legal staff distributed internationally, matter centricity provides a consistent approach and far better collaborative access than previous approaches.

Legal software vendors have begun to work together to make their systems "talk" to each other. This type of integration is not always easy, however, so a careful examination is necessary to identify how deep the integration needs to be and how it will work. Some matter and document management systems can be integrated directly with each other, while others need the help of a third-party server appliance to be the digital glue to pass the information between the various legal systems.

Newer document management systems have also made it much easier to auto-profile your documents with the shared matter-specific information. With the right system, it's no longer necessary to have to fill out multiple fields to properly catalog your documents. Simply saving the document to the appropriate matter-centric document folder will automatically apply the correct information. This is a huge time-saver, and employees really appreciate not having the drudgery of completing document profile screens just to save their document.

Browsing the Market

To get started exploring whether matter centricity is right for your law department, check out several of the leading legal document management vendors who have pioneered matter centricity. If your organization is exploring Enterprise Content Management (ECM), make sure your law department is involved in the RFP, evaluation, testing and selection process. Some of the available ECM systems have potential for matter-centricity, but they need to be evaluated closely so that your legal department's needs are met.

In terms of a business plan, return on investment can be measured in staff time reductions in looking for case information and prior documents or recreating them from scratch because they couldn't find them in the prior system. Improvements in risk management can also be factored in, but also consider new risks such as data privacy concerns, especially if the data or data access will cross international borders.

Also consider engaging experienced consultants who have implemented matter-centric systems for other corporate law departments. They can help you navigate the system selection process, identify problems such as network bandwidth limitations, and most importantly, work with you to develop a matter-centric design that addresses your law department's particular way of doing business. If you're concerned about cost, then approach the consultant about a fixed-fee arrangement and define mutually agreeable and specific project milestones for payment. This approach has many benefits, such as improving the consultant's accountability and efficiency, providing an incentive to get the job done and making budgeting and forecasting a lot simpler and easier.

Today's legal professionals are knowledge workers. When implemented effectively, matter-centric systems have great potential for increasing your department's efficiency and accuracy in providing world-class legal services your organization.

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Jeff Beard is the former Legal Services IT Manager with Caterpillar Inc., where he worked with legal management on strategic planning, practice support, project management and implementation of numerous legal systems. He is also a former practicing attorney and accountant. He is a frequent national author and presenter on contemporary legal technology and practice management issues.