Selecting in-house legal matter management software has become increasingly complex. With many vendors, overlapping feature sets, unclear ROI, and varying levels of maturity across tools, legal teams often struggle to understand which solution genuinely fits their needs. Meanwhile, the challenges persist: tool sprawl, scattered email-driven workflows, siloed work and poor visibility, and limited reporting capabilities.

A structured evaluation approach is critical. Whether you are building a shortlist, comparing vendors, or preparing a business case, this playbook provides the essential steps, comparison tables, feature definitions, and vendor questions to guide your team with confidence.

To help you evaluate solutions that consolidate corporate legal work, reduce risk, and scale with your organization, this guide covers:

• How to identify your team’s needs
• What features matter most and why
• How vendors compare
• The right questions to ask
• How to connect evaluation to ROI

Download the matter management guide

Step 1: Define your legal team’s needs (and the business’s needs)

Before comparing vendors, establish a clear picture of how your team and business operate today.

Assess legal team maturity

• Team size and roles
• Key workflows (intake, approvals, document workflows, reporting)
• Tools in use today (email, spreadsheets, DMS, CLM, ticketing, e-billing, Outlook, SharePoint, Salesforce, Slack, or Teams)
• Capacity, bottlenecks, and workload patterns

Understand stakeholder workflows

Different departments rely on legal differently:

• HR: employment advice, investigations, policy reviews
• Sales/Revenue: contract turnaround, escalation approvals, NDAs
• Procurement: vendor onboarding, negotiation support
• Marketing: content, risk review, approvals, event and talent agreements

By mapping these workflows, you uncover the essential intake structures, automation requirements, and system integrations needed to support your team.

Self-assessment checklist

Before you begin comparing platforms or scheduling demos, it’s essential to understand your current state. A clear view of your legal team’s workflows, maturity, pain points, and stakeholder expectations will help you evaluate vendors against real needs – not hypothetical ones. Use the following checklist to ground your assessment and highlight the functional requirements, integrations, and reporting capabilities that matter most to your team.

• We know our top legal request categories
• We can measure workload and turnaround times
• Stakeholders have a consistent way to engage legal
• We know our reporting requirements
• We have clarity on required integrations

For more background reading:

• Implementing matter management software for in-house teams: 3 steps to success

• Understanding the importance of legal matters for in-house counsel

• How the right matter management software can optimize the efficiency of your legal operations

Step 2: Key features of matter management software

Below are the foundational features every modern matter management platform should include.

#1 – Matter management features across vendors

To read more about core features here, check out our article 7 essential features of effective legal matter management software.

Step 3: Features mapped to benefits

#2 – Features → practical benefits → examples

For additional reading, check out Five ways to save time and deliver move value to the business with effective matter management.

Step 4: Evaluating vendors

How to shortlist vendors

1. Define must-have vs nice-to-have features
2. Focus on platforms purpose-built for in-house legal
3. Review G2 or Gartner:
   1. ease of implementation
   2. configurability
   3. recent support feedback
   4. quality of product updates
4. Watch product demos then ask vendors to demo your specific workflows
5. Look at relevant customer case studies
6. Request customer references, ideally within your industry
7. Ask vendors about their security posture, data privacy, and certifications

LawVu was recently recognized in the 2025 Gartner Market Guide for E-Billing and Matter Management Technology, demonstrating category maturity.

#3 – Vendors at a glance

For more related reading, check out our article on legal management vs case management to discover the difference and why it matters.

Step 5: Questions to ask before you buy

Vendor evaluation checklist

1. Does this integrate with our existing tools (Microsoft 365, email, Slack, Salesforce, Docusign)?
2. How do business users submit requests?
3. What reporting is included by default?
4. Can we configure workflows without IT?
5. What is the implementation timeline?
6. What support is included (24/7, dedicated CSM, training)?
7. Which security standards (SOC 2, ISO) do you meet?
8. How does AI operate within the platform – and how is data secured?
9. Can you provide customer references?

You may also want to review taking charge of legal requests.

Step 6: Measuring impact and building the business case

Leadership expects clarity on value, efficiency, and operational impact. Measuring the before/after effect of matter management software is essential.

Key metrics to measure

• Volume of matters by type
• Intake-to-close cycle times
• Matter ownership breakdown to measure workload
• Contract cycle time
• Outside counsel spend
• Requestor satisfaction

Why reporting matters

A platform like LawVu provides:

• Real-time insights on OOTB dashboards
• Easy to use and highly customizable platform to meet legal team’s needs
• Full visibility across intake, matters, contracts, and spend
• Embedded AI features that speed up work across multiple legal workflows Customizable legal portal for business to engage and collaborate with legal

The GC Dashboard consolidates KPIs into a single view.

LawVu’s analytics and reporting empowered us to drive more actionable insights and speak the language of the business through data. – Charmaine S., Contracts Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.), G2 user review

Explore more G2 reviews that cover matter management.

Further resources – Showing the value of your in-house legal team with Matter Management

Step 7: Next steps

The right matter management software brings clarity, efficiency, and measurability to legal operations and your business. Following a structured evaluation process – identifying needs, comparing features, assessing vendors, and building a strong business case – means you’ll be well equipped to choose a platform that supports your team’s long-term success.

With LawVu we can scale, and that’s going to help us in very significant ways as volume continues to increase. – Dan Hegwood, General Counsel, Cockroach Labs