Entity management is how companies stay on top of compliance-related tasks like managing filing deadlines, maintaining ownership structures, and updating and storing corporate records. For many, governance and compliance tasks can be mundane. Still, these functions are important for legal entities to adhere to state and federal mandates. Failure to comply with these rules may lead to penalties, fines, and disruption of the business.
Below are three entity management challenges facing legal teams today, along with ways technology can help to address and overcome them.
Cybersecurity Risks for Legal Entity Management
Organizations are creating, using, storing, and sharing more legal documents and data than ever before. In fact, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every day. However, since the start of Covid-19, 2/3 of organizations experienced a 25% increase in cyberthreats. And in Q2 2022, about 52 million data breaches were reported. The rise in attacks can be attributed to lack of protocols, uneducated employees, and vulnerable data. Essentially, your organization may not be as protected from cyber attacks as you might think, and when you are dealing with legal documents and data, there could be a lot at stake.
Cyberattacks create costly and substantial legal and financial risks for companies. But the costs go beyond just financial. Cybersecurity threats can be damaging to your organization’s reputation, business functions and execution, company relations, employee morale, and more. Thus, organizations must ensure their systems are secure, fully functioning, and accessible only to the internal and external stakeholders who need the information to do their jobs.
How Entity Management Software Can Help:
EntityKeeper is a cloud-based solution, meaning all of your sensitive documents and data are conveniently stored in one secure location. The EntityKeeper platform uses single sign-on (SSO) capabilities to securely authenticate login with one set of credentials. SSO enables you to monitor which apps employees are using, protect important information with secure login credentials, and access your account with added convenience and ease.
Bandwidth Across In-House Legal Teams
Over two years after the onset of The Great Resignation, many legal teams still face the effects of ongoing labor shortages. The pandemic created an opportunity for lawyers to question whether their jobs are fulfilling and whether they’re happy with the work they’re doing. Many who have left their jobs have done so not only to pursue more flexible opportunities that afford them more balance in their personal lives, but also to find opportunities they find more engaging.
Today, the legal industry continues to face challenges especially around areas like talent retention and remote work. Over 40% of in-house counsel report not having the appropriate amount of staffing bandwidth on their teams. Additionally, almost 60% of in-house counsel report being open to a new position.
As the legal industry continues to battle with attracting and retaining talent, bandwidth is anticipated to remain an area of concern for legal teams.
How Entity Management Software Can Help:
An entity management solution like EntityKeeper can automate error-prone manual tasks that impact productivity and waste time and money.
EntityKeeper can help your firm automate several tasks including:
- Managing compliance deadline notifications and alerts
- Creating and maintaining complex org charts
- Collecting and storing documents and data
When your law firm has the right technology, team members can more effectively perform their jobs and dedicate time to value-add activities.
Siloed Data, Functions, and Processes
On average, employees waste 5.3 hours every week waiting for data from their colleagues – or recreating information that already exists. In this time, value-add activities may be neglected, and revenue-generating opportunities may be missed.
One major issue with siloed data is that it can be difficult for legal teams to access and control information for regulatory and compliance purposes. As data becomes trapped in silos across multiple systems, legal departments may encounter challenges such as missed filing deadlines or payments and other compliance risks.
How Entity Management Software Can Help:
Entity management software frees up time for your team to focus on more engaging tasks, such as developing strategy or working with clients. Automated document management tools can help you keep track of important legal documents in a single location. By automating document management, your firm saves time and can avoid mistakes caused by misplaced, siloed, or outdated information. By eliminating manual processes and reducing data silos, your teams can achieve more in less time, boosting performance and productivity.
How Entity Management Software Can Address Entity Management Challenges
Gartner, a research and consulting firm, expects legal departments to increase their spending on legal technology threefold by 2025. This expectation is unsurprising as firms seek new ways to address entity management challenges such as the ones we just discussed.
The benefits of embracing technology are endless. When your organization has the right technology, you can streamline processes and operate more efficiently. Entity management software, like EntityKeeper, offers tools and features that can give your legal team a boost in performance, time savings, cost savings, security, and more.
Read How Law Firms Can Use Automation to Boost Productivity and Reduce Costs to learn how your legal team can use entity management software to navigate the changing demands of today’s legal and compliance environment.
