The University of Notre Dame Selected Legal Files Software for Legal Matter Management
Legal Files Software helps the University of Notre Dame stay on track
Staying organized is important in any legal department, but it’s absolutely essential in the Office of General Counsel for a large university. Minimizing a university’s exposure to legal risk, while also managing everyday legal affairs requires legal matter management software that helps you become both more organized and more efficient.
When the University of Notre Dame was seeking a new software system, it selected Legal Files because it contains both legal matter management and contract management functionality in one system.
Notre Dame needed a more organized and efficient matter management system
Notre Dame, has been the nation’s leading Catholic university ever since it was founded in 1842. The Office of General Counsel provides legal support for the University in every area imaginable. In addition to working with Notre Dame to minimize the University’s exposure to legal risks, the Office also provides day-to-day legal support for University operations.
All of this legal work is performed by the Office’s seven attorneys and a support staff comprised of professional and administrative employees. While the Office had a centralized file sharing system, these legal professionals realized they needed a more organized and efficient solution for legal matter management.
Associate General Counsel Timothy J. Flanagan had IT experience, so he was assigned the task of finding a more effective solution. According to Flanagan, “After some research, we identified three systems we thought could meet our needs and put them through their paces. In the end, we selected Legal Files because of its web-based nature, which gave us the ability to access our data from anywhere, plus it offered minimal intrusion on the rest of Notre Dame’s IT environment.”
The Office of General Counsel was not disappointed when they selected Legal Files
At first, the Office only used Legal Files Software for legal matter management, but it soon realized that the system was capable of much more. According to Flanagan, Legal Files Software allows the Office to combine “our matter management system with our contract management system, using just one solution.”
For legal contact management, Legal Files Software allows the Office to quickly identify its authorized signatories, and it has helped the Office create a central contract repository that other business units can use. As for matter management, Flanagan praised the system’s organized approach. “Now we have the ability to integrate all the different elements of a case. Before it was impossible to associate email with a case; now we can, and since Legal Files handles all types of documents—everything related to a case can be found in one place,” he said.
Flanagan explained that the Office values Legal File’s ability to provide an overview of each case. According to Flanagan, “We can get up to speed quicker and get a better handle on the status of a case. We have a better focus on our resources.”
Speaking of managing resources, the Office has also started to use Legal Department Software to track outside counsel expenses. “Although there may be other software more perfectly suited for tracking some of the accounting, I don’t feel we need to pile on another cherry. Why buy something if we don’t have to?” said Flanagan.
The bottom line for Notre Dame? “We’re really happy with our purchase of Legal Files,” said Flanagan. Praising both the software itself and the supportive team at Legal Files, Flanagan said that Legal Files Software has become the “backbone of the office.”