In-house legal teams are being asked to do more with less: handle rising matter volumes, deliver faster turnaround, and provide clearer reporting on workload and risk. Yet many teams still run intake and triage through email – often a shared Outlook mailbox – making it hard to prioritise, allocate work consistently, and evidence the value (and capacity constraints) of the function.
In this edition of Transformation & Tech, Soobiya Siddiqui from our Legal Ops & Tech Consulting team spoke with Christine Butler, Group Legal Operations & Technologies Lead at Menzies Aviation and Sophie Lance, a Principal Implementation Services Manager at LawVu, following a recent joint LawVu matter management implementation delivered by LawVu and DWF.
Below, you’ll find the conversation: first Christine’s practical reflections on the business case, delivery experience and early outcomes, followed by a short set of questions we put to Sophie to expand on the themes that they see which matter to legal leaders.
Q&A with our client, Menzies Aviation:
What prompted you to implement LawVu?
Christine Butler (Menzies Aviation): Trying to manage a busy in-house legal requirement in a rapidly growing business, all through a shared mailbox in Outlook, was becoming an impossible task. We knew we were all busy, but had no real understanding of just how busy we were. Data points required a lot of time extracting data manually, to try and quantify what requests were coming through the shared mailbox or going direct to team members. Those data points provided a snapshot, but not the real picture.
My priority and initial ask, was simple, find a platform that would help me easily migrate all incoming matters from Outlook and allow the team to add their direct requests with ease too, whilst not disrupting the business norm.
We viewed many matter management providers, but LawVu was the only platform that could provide an almost seamless interaction between Outlook and its matter intake platform. This was exciting, but only the tip of the iceberg, as the developers had clearly focussed on the complete lifecycle of a matter, from intake to conclusion. This was so much more than I had hoped for. Not only was this going to help me manage the daily matter intake and allocation but allow the team to do the same. The off shoot of this was, for the first time, we would not only have clarity on the day to day workload, but be able to gather statistical evidence to show just how busy we are and highlight areas to target for efficiency – backed by real data. LawVu could show us this and so much more: what types of matters we were working on; where in the business our requests were coming from; what regions are busiest, (the data analysis goes on) and all at the click of a button.
What was the experience like working with DWF and LawVu?
Christine Butler (Menzies Aviation): With a niche business, we were never going to fit into an out-of-the-box solution. From the minute we were introduced to the DWF implementation team, they took time to understand our unique business needs. They worked tirelessly to provide us with exactly what we needed, nothing was too much trouble. Turnaround was quick, they were available at short notice for calls, and responsive to emails with questions and requests for updates and changes. Most importantly, we built an immediate rapport with the team; they were personally invested in making our implementation a success, which in turn made this a truly enjoyable project, even our IT team said so!
What impact or outcome have you seen so far?
Christine Butler (Menzies Aviation): Tidy! LawVu has helped tidy up an otherwise messy process and given structure to the intake, allocation and collaboration across all of our matters.
Knowing that there is one place to find everything connected to a matter was the ultimate goal and LawVu has scored for us (yes, an awful pun, but it is the year of the World Cup!).
The impact, for me, was immediate – giving me visibility of requests and workflow. With buy-in from the in-house legal team and our Legal Service Providers, a smooth and efficient process has developed.
Oh, and boy are we busy - the statistics tell us so!
If you could give one piece of advice to another in-house team still managing intake through a shared mailbox, what would it be?
Christine Butler (Menzies Aviation): Start by getting really clear on what you need to see and measure, then design your intake accordingly so capturing that information is easy and consistent. Once you have one place for requests and a simple way to allocate work, the visibility (and the data to drive smarter decisions) comes quickly.
Q&A with LawVu:
For legal teams moving from a shared mailbox to a matter management platform, what does ‘good’ intake design look like in practice?
Sophie Lance (LawVu): Good intake design starts with a simple but critical question: what information does the legal team need to complete the work quickly and effectively? That should be the foundation. The next consideration is reporting; what do you need visibility over? For example, if you produce a monthly board report, what are the key metrics that matter? Those data points should be built into the intake form and made mandatory. From there, we also recommend additional fields that enable more advanced reporting, ensuring teams can extract long-term value from the platform as their maturity grows.
What are the most common pitfalls in implementations, and what can in-house legal teams do early to avoid them?
Sophie Lance (LawVu): The biggest pitfall we see is hesitation around decision-making. The most successful implementations are those with a clear timeline and an upfront view on how matter and contract types will be structured. While we can absolutely provide guidance, examples and best practice along the way, progress ultimately depends on the team’s ability to make timely, informed decisions. That decisiveness keeps momentum high and ensures the project stays on track.
Which metrics do you see legal leaders using most to evidence value and capacity – both to the GC and to the wider business?
Sophie Lance (LawVu): Workload visibility is a real game changer. Being able to see how work is distributed across the team highlights capacity issues and supports better resourcing decisions. We also see strong value in understanding where work is coming from – identifying which departments submit the most requests allows legal teams to target training or self-service resources and ultimately reduce demand. Finally, turnaround time reporting, particularly within the contracts module, is incredibly powerful. It helps legal teams clearly demonstrate where time is being spent and often reframes the perception that legal “takes weeks” to review contracts. In reality, delays are frequently driven by negotiation stages that sit outside of legal’s control. Having this data makes those conversations with the business far more constructive.
What this means for in-house legal teams (and how DWF can help)
Menzies’ experience highlights three practical lessons that apply well beyond one organisation:
- First, if intake is happening through email, you may be underestimating volume, effort and turnaround times because the data is fragmented.
- Second, a successful implementation is as much about process design (triage, allocation, consistent data capture) and adoption as it is about configuration.
- Third, the fastest route to sustained value is to align the platform to how the business already works, then use reporting to make workload visible and drive targeted efficiency.
