In this article, we will have a closer look at using Teams and SharePoint in law firms. In previous articles, we already talked about running your law practice in the Cloud with law firm management software like CICERO LawPack. We also highlighted how Microsoft 365 was an essential part of that (It was still called Office 365 at the time). For optimal results for a law firm, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the recommended solution.

Since the pandemic started, Microsoft has been steadily improving Microsoft Teams. By now, it can be used as the central communication and collaboration hub of your law firm. It consolidates the available Microsoft 365 tools and streamlines business processes by offering team members a centralized location for all files, documents, and firm information. It allows law firms to share critical communications with their clients and their entire team, quickly, efficiently, and securely! It also enables seamless collaboration for all projects, from in-depth cases to day-to-day work by using SharePoint with other Microsoft 365 tools.

Teams as your communication and collaboration hub

You can use Teams as the dashboard from which you coordinate your communications and collaboration. Teams seamlessly integrates with the other Microsoft 365 apps, like Word, Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, but also with apps like Planner or To Do. Outlook allows you to directly access the ‘Conversations’ of the Teams site, so you can manage all your saved emails through the Outlook interface. Teams comes with its own video chat for virtual meetings, which can be recorded and shared. The free MS Bookings app allows to easily set up meetings.

Integration between Microsoft 365 and your law firm management software is critical. This is not a problem for CICERO LawPack users, who can use the apps they are familiar with, which work seamlessly together with Teams. CICERO LawPack can manage the provisioning of the Teams sites. Groups of people (like clients, lawyers, experts) from the relations app can automatically be added to the Contacts in Teams. Teams can work with several Teams sites (which are really SharePoint project sites). These sites are created by case (cf. the Matters app), which then centralizes all information, and where you have the option to use different Teams channels. In these project sites, you can visualize project tasks, store relevant documents in a project-specific library, and more. You manage your law firm with the CICERO LawPack apps like Relations, Matters, and Agenda, and their data are then used in the Teams apps.

One of the main benefits of using the Teams / SharePoint combination lies in its collaboration functionality.  Your team and clients can share documents and collaborate on them, securely and in real time. It is perfectly possible for several people to simultaneously work or comment on the same document. And because this solution is perfectly scalable, it can be used by law firms of any size. Worth noting is also that collaborating on a SharePoint server is more secure than sending documents by email, and therefore a better solution.