Legal Workflow Management: Tools and Techniques for a More Efficient Firm

As a legal professional, your time is one of your most valuable assets. Yet, too often, you likely find your time being eaten up by routine tasks. The solution? Integrating workflow management software—with these tools, you can streamline operations, automate repetitive tasks, and improve efficiency at your firm.

To help you find the best solution, we’ve compiled a list of the top workflow management tools to help keep your firm running smoothly.

Six best workflow management software options for law firms

When it comes to streamlining day-to-day operations, choosing the right workflow management software can make all the difference. Whether handling client intake, managing case timelines, or automating routine tasks, having the right tools in place will help your firm stay organized and focused on your clients. 

Whether you’re looking for a platform built specifically for legal professionals, like Clio Manage, or a more flexible project management tool like Trello or Asana, there’s a solution to fit your firm’s needs. 

1. Clio Manage

Clio Manage is a cloud-based legal practice management software that streamlines case organization, automates tasks, and enhances client collaboration. 

Pros

• Designed specifically for law firms, supporting solo practitioners up to large law firms.
• Provides built-in progress tracking for matter stages with Kanban-style boards to avoid bottlenecks and meet deadlines.
• Offers automation as cases progress, such as automating matter templates, task lists, and document generation—allowing you to stay on track, and reduce errors.
• Captures billable-hours for you as you work reducing manual time-keeping admin and human error.
• Ensures organization with legal calendaring that automatically calculates court deadlines, tracks case milestones, and syncs seamlessly with your firm’s calendar.
• Allows legal professionals to stay connected with their clients, cases, and colleagues even while on the go or when away from the office. Access your data, securely, anywhere.
• Offers faster pay with client-centered billing, trust accounting-compliance, online payments, and flexible billing methods such as split- or bulk-billing.
• Integrates with productivity software lawyers already use, like Dropbox, Microsoft Office,  and Google Workspace.
• Bonus: By adding Clio Duo to your Clio Manage worflow, you can use the power of AI to automate drafting communications, reviewing documents, scheduling appointments, and more.

Cons 

• Certain features may not be available in all regions.

Price

Tiered plan system starting at $39 per user per month. 

Use Clio’s ROI calculator to better understand pricing and explore your firms earning potential with Clio by your side.

2. Trello

Trello is a project management tool that helps organize and automate your workflows with a variety of features like templates, “power-ups”, and planners.

Pros 

• Integrates with other workflow and productivity tools like Google Drive, Slack, and Dropbox using Trello’s “power-ups” feature. 
• Enables automated workflows using a visual Kanban system, customizable boards, lists, and cards. 
• Helps you track key dates and deadlines with a calendar view option. 
• Includes AI features to streamline your workflows with features that generate content, summarize updates, identify action items, and polish spelling and grammar.
• Provides pre-made templates for different workflows, including legal-related ones.

Cons

• Not specifically designed for law firms.

• Time tracking, analytics, and reporting are additional “power-ups” features which may be at an additional cost depending on the price plan.

Price 

Free version and paid plans starting at $5 per user per month.

3. Asana 

Asana can help you organize, track, and manage your work. It offers features like reporting dashboards, capacity planning, time tracking, and integrations to keep your projects on track. 

Pros 

• Integrates with other workflow tools like Google Drive, Slack, and Zoom.
• Offers time tracking and reporting features for data-driven insights. 
• Includes customizable workflows with tasks, project management, and automation.
• Embedded with collaboration features, like shared workspaces, real-time updates, and team notifications.
• Provides pre-built templates for different workflows.
• Includes AI features to streamline workflows, suggest timelines and resources, draft content, manage revisions, and deliver real-time reporting.

Cons

• Not specifically designed for law firms.
• Only one person can be assigned to a task at a time.

Price

 Free for a basic plan; paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month.

4. Monday.com

Monday.com  helps you plan, track, and collaborate on projects and workflows with a customizable platform to manage tasks, set deadlines, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress. 

Pros

• Customizes your workflow to your firm’s needs.
• Integrates with tools like DocuSign and Microsoft Teams.
• Allows you to choose from different task management styles, like calendars, Kanban boards, maps, and charts.
• Provides access to reporting and insights.
• Offers task automations, including task creation, time tracking, and date reminders.
• Offers AI-powered features like automated categorization, file data extraction, and the ability to summarize and translate key information.

Cons 

• Not specifically designed for law firms.

Price 

 Free; a basic plan starts at $9.09 per user per month.

5. Google Suite

Google Workspace is a collection of productivity tools like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Calendar to create, share, and collaborate.

Pros 

• Enables multiple teams to simultaneously collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and emails. 
• Allows you to easily track changes and restore previous versions of documents.
• Provides embedded communication tools like Gmail and Google Calendar. 
• Offers large file storage.
• Integrates with other tools like Slack, Trello, Zoom and Clio—allowing firms to connect their Google Apps directly to their legal practice management tool.

Cons 

• Not specifically designed for law firms.

• Limited offline capabilities.
• Must be a Google account holder.

Price 

Business plans start at $6.43 per user per month.

6. Office 365

Office 365 includes a collection of applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams, along with cloud-based services such as OneDrive. 

Pros

• Extensive applications to cater to a variety of workflows, tasks and needs. 
• Provides the option to integrate Office 365 with other software (like Clio). 
• Allows online and offline workflows. 
• Features customizable workflows with pre-built templates (Use Clio Draft’s Microsoft Add-on to automate document creation, review, and e-signatures). 
• Includes automation and time tracking features.

Cons

• Not specifically designed for law firms.

Price  

Plans start at $5.66 per user per month.

How to automate legal workflows

Automating legal workflows is a game-changer for firms looking to improve efficiency and accuracy. The key is identifying repetitive, straightforward tasks that can be automated to free up time for more strategic work. 

1. Start by assessing the value of each task to prioritize what areas automation can be the most helpful.

Ask yourself: Where are bottlenecks occuring in our current process? Is a certain non-billable task taking up too much time?

2. Then, choose the right automation software that integrates seamlessly with your case management system. 

Software like Clio offers robust automation features, including automated client-intake in Clio Grow, automated document generation in Clio Draft, and now automated workflows in Clio Manage where you can automate routine time consuming tasks as case progress. With automation, lawyers gain hours back each week, meaning more time for billable work—and a little more breathing room.

How to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your workflow management software

Measuring the ROI of your selected legal workflow management tool involves assessing time saved, increased revenue, and efficiency gains, coupled with the price of your software. Clio’s ROI calculator can help you track exactly how much time and money your firm can save with Clio Manage and Clio Payments. And if you’re looking to automate client intake, we also have an ROI calculator for Clio Grow. 

With Clio Manage, you’ll gain invaluable insights into how your firm is performing with the performance dashbaord. Here you’ll not only be able to identify what is working and driving revenue, but also what is not working by identifying bottlenecks, and areas of inefficiency.

With Clio’s case management software, lawyers are saving an average of 8 hours per week. Can you imagine opening up an entire day of your workweek to focus on other things, like marketing your firm, helping more clients, closing cases faster and completing more cases per year? With the right legal technology, you’ll not only save time but boost your firms bottom line and help reduce the access to justice gap.

Final thoughts on legal workflow management for law firms

Implementing legal workflow management software can transform the way your firm operates. With tools like Clio Manage, you can reduce administrative tasks, track client interactions, and create an optimized workflow by automating everyday administrative operations. Doing so will increase your efficiency, growth, and profits and free up time to focus on what truly matters: your clients. 

We published this blog post in April 2025. Last updated: April 15, 2025.

Posted in: Technology