Presenting… the Arkivy Legal Matter Management System!

Are you fed up using legal software that makes you feel like an IT data clerk?

Do you currently have a comprehensive matter management application?

If not, how do you manage your cases? A paper and binder shuffle on your desk, between file cabinets and individual offices? Do you have an organized system? How do you share matter information with your colleagues, courts, and clients? What do you do when you need matter information while on the move or someone else needs it in your absence?

If yes, does your current system feel dated? Is it complex or overkill for your needs – or on the flip side too simple? Do you feel it turns you into an IT data entry clerk instead of keeping your focus on law? Is it a patchwork of digital products loosely organized for computer productivity but not really meant to address legal needs, eg, Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspaces? Can it handle the modern benefits of shared collaboration and digital safe-keeping?

With excitement, this is our first blog entry on going to market and we’re excited to provide the legal and arbitration communities a new application to make their lives easier!

You can read about our product details elsewhere on the site but in this first blog post, we want to let you know our guiding principles behind the creation and design of the product.

Origins

The Arkivy Legal Matter Management System (The “MMS”) was created as a response to the needs of a large Swiss law firm that felt that their current IT products did not properly fit their needs. On the one hand, they had heavy-duty e-discovery products to handle specific content for investigations and on the other, they had an enterprise content management system that was twisted into shape to supposedly help their firm manage the human resource and operational case level aspects – however, the two systems did not work together and there was a constant IT and data entry struggle between the two.

Of course, this made managing matters a bit of a headache! Especially from the perspectives of both overall case and human resources management. On the finance side; the license, support, and maintenance of these products are expensive. They needed a better solution and we were tasked to create a solution.

Principles

Upon launch of the development of the MMS, we defined the following guiding principles:

Legal Focus

• Matter management should reduce your mental workload.
• You should focus on the work, not the administration of data entry, you’re a legal professional, not an IT worker!
• Legal strategy design is more interesting than paperwork.
• Stop micromanaging your staff, let them show you the work.

Features and Usability

• Software should reduce both your IT system and legal risks.
• The user interface should be fast and not visually complex while still allowing for detailed data management.
• The most relevant information for your matter should be in front of you, with access to more, only as needed.
• Searches should be robust.
• Access control should be simple but scalable to large firms.

In the coming blog posts, we will go into much more detail about how we are designing the best legal matter management software for legal and arbitration professionals.