The Cost of Keeping Everyone in the Loop

Legal cases rarely unfold within the walls of a single office. For most firms, day-to-day casework involves a growing web of clients, co-counsel, funders, lienholders, and third parties who all need visibility, but not all in the same way, or at the same time. Keeping everyone informed has become a job in itself. And the more parties involved, the more time legal teams spend sending updates, chasing signatures, and managing expectations.

This coordination tax isn’t just annoying—it’s expensive, and it’s growing.

When Coordination Becomes the Work

Ask any paralegal, case manager, or associate where their time goes, and the answer won’t just be legal research or document prep. It’s fielding check-in emails. Leaving voicemails. Downloading documents from one system just to upload them into another.

Legal professionals are highly skilled, but a surprising portion of their day is spent doing things that simply keep work moving forward. These tasks are essential, but they’re not where value is created. The cost shows up in overtime hours, missed deadlines, duplicated efforts, and client frustration.

The Compounding Effect of Extra Stakeholders

Each new party added to a case doesn’t just increase workload by one unit—it adds a layer of coordination that compounds. A single update may need to be reframed and resent three or four times. A document uploaded to a firm’s internal system might also need to be sent to a funder, shared with a co-counsel, and discussed with a provider.

This happens constantly, especially in practice areas like personal injury, mass tort, or insurance litigation, where case complexity and outside involvement are standard. What starts as a simple request quickly becomes a flurry of CCs, forwards, and status calls.

The Limits of Traditional Communication Tools

Most legal teams lean heavily on email, shared drives, and phone calls to bridge these gaps. But these tools weren’t built to manage multi-party casework:

• Email is easy—but it’s ephemeral. Threads get lost, files go stale, and there’s no clear source of truth.
• Shared drives get cluttered, and access management is a constant concern.
• Phone calls create moments of clarity, but leave no record, no context, and no continuity.

Even modern case management systems often focus exclusively on internal workflows. External coordination gets left to ad hoc tools and heroic effort.

What Collaboration Infrastructure Looks Like

What’s missing isn’t just a better way to communicate—it’s a better way to collaborate across boundaries.

Forward-thinking firms are investing in infrastructure that extends beyond their internal teams. That includes secure, centralized client portals where all parties can:

• Access the latest documents
• Submit or request information
• View case updates in real time
• Ask questions without triggering another email chain

A well-designed portal doesn’t replace relationships—it enhances them. It creates clarity, consistency, and calm in a space that often feels chaotic. And it keeps the entire network aligned without overburdening any one person.

Rethinking the Cost of Coordination

It’s easy to assume that coordination just comes with the territory of legal work. But it doesn’t have to be this heavy.

When firms treat collaboration as a strategic priority—not just a logistical hurdle—they open the door to faster resolution, better client experiences, and more scalable operations.

The cost of keeping everyone in the loop is real. But with the right systems in place, it doesn’t have to be so high.