Corporate legal departments are facing more responsibilities, tighter budgets, and rising business expectations. Enterprise legal workflow automation can make a big difference to stretched-thin counsel and support staff.‍

Litify builds automation into every part of the platform, from intake through reporting, so legal teams can stay focused no matter how fast the workload grows.

What is legal workflow automation?

Legal workflow automation is the process of using software to streamline rule-based tasks in legal operations. It reduces day-to-day busywork and frees up bandwidth for teams to take on more impactful responsibilities.

From the moment a legal request comes in, automated workflows can proactively route work to the correct team member and then guide it through review, documentation, and completion. This end-to-end process goes well beyond what typical legal matter management systems offer, which often just log the activity rather than move it along.

That difference matters, especially for legal departments in highly-regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or the public sector. Automation gives these teams a more straightforward way to manage their duties and helps them keep up as demand grows.

How enterprise legal management software enables automation

To automate your legal processes from start to finish, you first need a platform that brings all your work and systems together. If you’re constantly logging in and out of multiple systems, then you’re cutting automation off from making your entire process more efficient. Enterprise legal management (ELM) software unifies everything in a single solution, enabling these efficiencies at scale.

When your legal workflow automation software is part of a true ELM platform, you can:

• Assign intake requests to the right team members
• Generate and route documents for review with one click
• Track tasks and deadlines in real-time
• Standardize business procedures across regions or practice areas
• Measure how work gets done and where bottlenecks appear

What legal teams need in a workflow management system

Today’s legal departments require a flexible and scalable workflow management system that can keep up with their teams’ increasing workloads. Here’s how Litify’s enterprise legal management software makes this possible:

Configurable task automation

Many legal responsibilities are repetitive, like reviewing contracts, responding to NDAs, or managing litigation holds. With Litify, users can set up workflows that instantly trigger the right actions based on the type of request. 

For example, when a new legal service request is submitted, the platform can generate a task for intake, assign it to the appropriate team member, and start the review process without anyone manually routing the work. 

These setups are easy to adjust over time and don’t require coding, giving your team control over how they handle their responsibilities.

Seamless integrations

A strong legal workflow management system needs to integrate with the tools your team already relies on. Litify, which is built on Salesforce, can be directly connected to solutions like DocuSign, Workday, Okta, and more.

Information can flow effortlessly between departments, and nobody needs to copy and paste data between applications.

Real-time dashboards

It’s difficult to lead your team when you can’t see what’s happening in real-time. Litify solves that by allowing instant access to live dashboards that show attorney case velocity, backlog, total spend, or matter status — all in one view. Use these practical insights every day to rebalance workloads or catch issues early. Everything you need is already at your fingertips.

You can also automate reports for key stakeholders, delivering them directly to their inboxes, to eliminate the need for manual report generation.

Matter-centric organization

Disorganization in legal operations creates unnecessary risk. When critical information isn’t linked back to the matter it belongs to, updates get lost or deadlines get miscommunicated.

Litify takes a matter-centric approach. Every task, deadline, and document connects directly to a matter, so everyone can always see the full context. 

If someone is out of the office or a handoff happens, the next person already has everything they need to keep things moving.

Enterprise legal workflow automation: Scaling for large departments

If your legal department manages a high caseload, you likely face even more challenges. Requests come in constantly from multiple business stakeholders and with varying levels of urgency. The more pieces there are, the harder it becomes to maintain structure.

As teams expand, their patchwork methods start to break down. Suddenly, requests are getting lost in email inboxes, nobody knows who’s handling what, nothing is documented, and you can’t get the granular insights you need.

Litify is designed to handle this rapid growth without slowing you down, centralizing all these components into one shared solution for legal operations. Business stakeholders can easily log new requests via an online portal. As requests come in, people across the department can easily follow consistent processes and standards. And real-time insights fuel productivity and help prioritize the next best action. That built-in consistency and transparency help everyone stay organized, no matter how much the workload grows.

Overcoming common challenges in legal workflow automation

Concern #1: “It’ll be too complicated to use.”

Some legal departments hesitate to adopt legal workflow automation because they worry it will be expensive or too complex. However, that depends entirely on the platform.

Litify is built for usability. Admins can configure task flows without writing any code, so legal teams don’t have to wait on IT. Most importantly, the automation is built into the user experience. It doesn’t feel like a separate tool, just a faster way to get work done.

Concern #2: “We’re using too many tools already.”

Another common challenge is tool sprawl. Many departments are still switching between different applications to manage intake, generate documents, track matters, and pull reports. That kind of setup slows everything down and makes real automation nearly impossible. 

Litify solves this by bringing all your tools into one solution, enabling enterprise legal workflow automation that’s more reliable and easier to maintain. Unifying your processes eliminates duplicate efforts and paints a clearer picture of what’s happening across the department. 

Concern #3: “Will it be secure enough?”

Security and compliance are absolute priorities, especially when it comes to sensitive legal matters. Litify delivers robust security through its foundation on trusted platforms like Salesforce and AWS, comprehensive data encryption, role-based access, and rigorous compliance measures, ensuring your sensitive legal data remains protected.

Real-world success stories with legal workflow automation

Guardant Health

Litify helped Guardant Health simplify how legal requests are handled. The team uses a centralized portal to track and route tasks, cutting administrative work by 50%. Now, they have better visibility and fewer delays.

Salesforce

Even Salesforce's legal department is benefiting from the power of Litify. They’re using Litify to gain a holistic understanding of their collaboration with each of their law firms. The team is now building better relationships and maximizing results.

EllisDon

At EllisDon, it used to take four days to produce insurance loss run reports through spreadsheets. Now, it takes less than an hour. Automating matter management and document workflows has saved them a lot of time and improved reporting accuracy.

The future of legal workflow automation

The legal industry is at an inflection point, and the widespread adoption of automation is transforming how legal teams operate. This shift isn't just about technology alone — it's about a growing recognition within legal operations that intelligent tools are essential for staying competitive and proactive.

AI-driven tools are starting to surface insights that help anticipate workload spikes and flag potential bottlenecks before they slow things down. Predictive analytics are giving legal ops teams the ability to spot trends across claims, requests, and matters so they can mitigate risk earlier.

Beyond individual tools, the power of integrations is redefining how legal departments connect with the rest of the business. With open foundations and robust APIs, platforms like Litify are gaining traction because they enable seamless integration with the tools that legal teams are already using, centralizing data and processes while giving staff one place to complete their daily work. And since a platform like Litify is built on Salesforce, if the organization is already using Salesforce in other departments, the legal department becomes even more deeply integrated with the broader business ecosystem.

Automation is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s becoming the standard for modern legal teams that want to stay ahead. But to be truly effective, it needs to be implemented across all processes so the team can stay ahead, drive efficiency, and achieve greater strategic alignment within the organization.

What law firms can learn from legal workflow automation

Law firms are feeling many of the same pressures as corporate legal departments. The pace of work is accelerating, resources are tight, and expectations keep rising. Manual processes only add to the strain. 

Law firm automation solutions that can handle legal intake, document generation, and task management will help firms stay on top of their caseloads and avoid falling behind.

Firms also need flexible and scalable solutions that can adapt to how they already operate and keep up with the pace of growth. They need to protect sensitive data and keep the user experience in mind without relying on IT whenever something changes. 

Litify meets those needs by structuring daily responsibilities without adding complexity, giving firms the same kind of control that in-house teams already rely on.

Legal workflow automation is your competitive advantage

Legal workflow automation helps in-house counsel and support staff:

• Respond to legal requests faster and with fewer errors
• Create space for higher-value, strategic work
• Build stronger relationships across the business
• Set the foundation for a scalable legal team

Litify’s enterprise legal management software makes this possible without code, complexity, or compromise.

Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo to discover how Litify can help you automate your legal operations and get more done with fewer resources.

FAQs

What is legal workflow automation?

Legal workflow automation uses technology to streamline legal work. Teams can use software to set up repeatable paths for tasks like intakes, document generation, and approvals (rather than doing this work manually).

It makes day-to-day legal operations more efficient and predictable.

Is legal workflow automation secure?

Yes. A modern legal workflow automation platform like Litify is built with security at its core. That means sensitive legal data is protected with enterprise-grade safeguards, including encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access controls, and detailed audit trails. 

Can legal process automation help small legal departments?

Absolutely. Automation isn’t just for large teams. In fact, small legal departments often benefit even more. With limited headcount and increasing demands, smaller teams can’t afford to waste time on manual intake, document handling, or follow-ups. 

Legal process automation takes care of those repetitive tasks. And because platforms like Litify are no-code and configurable, you can start small and expand as your needs grow.

Contact our team to learn more.