This beginner’s guide breaks down legal tech and the tools available to in-house legal teams.

Legal teams have always played a vital role in protecting the business. But as organizations scale and business moves faster, legal’s work is becoming increasingly complex, and as workloads continue to grow it is harder to manage and do the work using only email and spreadsheets.

Nowadays, legal technology (legal tech) is commonly adopted by in-house teams to help manage growing workloads and scale legal service.

What is legal technology?

Legal technology refers to software and digital tools that help legal professionals manage their work more efficiently, accurately, and strategically. It includes everything from contract management platforms and e-signature tools to AI-powered document review and workflow automation.

While legal tech began as tools used mostly by law firms, the tech has rapidly evolved to meet the growing needs of in-house legal teams too – and today’s legal tech landscape is inundated with a diverse range of tools that empower in-house teams to streamline legal operations, reduce risk, and better support the business.

Types of legal technology available to in-house legal teams

Here’s an overview of the most common types of legal tech tools available.

Broadly speaking, in-house legal technology is often referred to as “enterprise legal management tools”. But it’s worth noting that tools that help teams manage in-house work can be sold as standalone point solutions (solving one workflow issue), or in unified platforms that support more than one workflow and a plethora of use cases.

Common tools in a legal team’s tech stack include:

1. Contract lifecycle management (CLM)

CLM helps legal teams and their business draft, negotiate, sign, and track contracts with a single secure repository, reducing cycle times and ensuring compliance.

2. Matter management

Matter management centralizes all legal work including history, policy documents and data in one system for visibility and control.

3. Spend management and e-billing

Spend management and e-billing tools digitize invoices, help to control and report on legal spend, and automates workflows for work with outside counsel.

4. Document management

Document management supports the organization and storage of legal documents in a secure, searchable, and centralized system.

5. Legal intake and self-service (legal front door)

Legal intake and self-service, otherwise known as the ‘legal front door’, provide the business with a structured way to raise requests for legal service and self-serve legal work (for example, with central access to a legal knowledge base, chatbot or contract automation).

6. Artificial intelligence (AI)

Fortunately, purpose-built AI now exists for in-house legal teams seeking to eliminate repetitive, low-value tasks. The variety of AI available includes standalone tools, those targeted at a specific use case, or AI that’s embedded in a more robust platform to increase its capability.

7. Unified legal workspaces

A unified legal workspace brings multiple capabilities together in one platform, including: legal intake and self-service, CLM, matter management, spend management and e-billing, document management.

Key benefits of legal technology

Let’s identify some of the top benefits legal teams gain from adopting purpose-built legal software:

• Save time and reduce admin burden: Automate manual work like contract tracking, intake triage, or document creation.
• Scale legal operations without adding headcount: Handle more requests and matters with fewer bottlenecks.
• Improve collaboration with the business: Make it easier for stakeholders to engage legal, and for legal to say yes faster.
• Enable visibility with insights and reporting: Understand workloads, cycle times, and trends to make informed decisions and showcase the impact of the legal function.
• Allows the legal team to adopt AI safely and securely 
• Reduce legal risk: Standardize processes, ensure compliance, and keep documentation in order.

Tip! Use this calculator to determine how much time your team could be saving and delivering better service with the right legal tech.

Common myths about legal tech

Despite growing adoption, some myths continue to hold legal teams back. Let’s clear them up:

• “Legal tech is only for big teams.” Even small legal teams benefit from tech – especially when resources are tight.
• “It’s too hard to implement.” Many tools are cloud-based, intuitive, and easy to roll out with little IT involvement.
• “It’s expensive and not worth it.” Think of legal tech as an investment, not a cost. The ROI often comes from time saved, risk reduced, and faster business enablement.
• “We can just use internal tools like Excel or SharePoint.” Generic tools aren’t built for legal workflows – which leads to workarounds, duplication, administrative burden, and loss of control.
• “People won’t use it.” When legal tech is designed for usability and aligned to the real needs of legal teams, adoption is high – especially if legal leads by example.

Getting started with legal tech

Whether you’re starting to explore options or looking to modernize your current stack, taking that initial step can unlock major benefits for your team and your company.

You can take the first step by learning more about why legal tech is no longer optional for in-house legal teams or use this step-by-step guide to walk you through the buying process from start to finish. It also includes a FREE business case template so you can ensure you’re making the right investment for both your legal team and the wider business.