Every law firm needs a weekly meeting to review open matters. Here’s how to conduct a simple, focused 5-Minute Matter Review that keeps your work — and your meeting — on track.
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It’s easy to lose sight of all the moving pieces in a law firm, especially as you scale your business. Adding another clerk, paralegal, or attorney will allow you to accept more clients, but it will also move you one step further away from the work itself. As you delegate, you may struggle to stay on top of the dozens of files in progress and the new ones coming in. That’s why you need a process for holding short, focused reviews of every active matter.
We recommend the 5-Minute Matter Review. It’s a simple and effective way to bring visibility, control and accountability to your legal work.
If your firm is already using kanban boards, task lists or matter stages, that’s great! But if those systems aren’t consistently reviewed and updated, they’ll only give you an out-of-date snapshot of the progress of your files. A weekly review helps you:
- Spot blocked or overdue work early.
- Keep your team aligned on priorities, even if they change.
- Ensure work is progressing toward key milestones.
- Avoid deadline surprises and client frustration.
- Make smarter resourcing decisions.
It doesn’t take long — just five minutes per matter.
How to Run the 5-Minute Matter Review
The beauty of this five-minute review is that it’s easy to build into your firm’s existing team meetings. And if you’re not already having a weekly meeting, it’s a great way to create the habit. Here’s how.
Schedule a Regular, Weekly 30- to 45-Minute Meeting
Some law firms like to do these on Mondays to set the tone for the week ahead. Others hold theirs on Fridays to capture everything that’s happened in the week and ensure everyone hits the ground running on Monday morning.
One of our clients holds weekly meetings on Thursdays so that his team has time left in the week to make last-minute adjustments. This also means he can avoid holding meetings on Friday afternoons, when everyone is just itching to get out of the office. Do what works best for you and your team.
Read: “Stop Wasting Time: How to Run More Efficient Law Firm Meetings.”
Bring the Full Team Together
That might mean all lawyers, paralegals and legal assistants, or a smaller team, depending on your size and scope. These meetings should be mandatory. The process only works when you have input from everyone involved in your active files.
Share The Digital Matter Board or Dashboard
Whether you’re using Clio Manage, Microsoft Planner, Legalboards or another practice management platform, you should be able to filter your dashboard to show only active matters. Share the board at the meeting, either on a screen in your conference room or in your video meeting. Everyone should be able to see the board.
Ask These Five Key Questions
The team member responsible for each file should be asked these five guiding questions:
- Where is the matter now?
- What’s stuck or overdue?
- What’s the next key milestone or deliverable?
- Who owns the next step?
- Are there any scope or resource issues?
This is a slightly modified version of a typical stand-up meeting. Including the next key milestone or deliverable and who is responsible for it helps keep your team aligned on priorities, deadlines and overall timelines for each matter.
Update Your Digital Matter Board As You Go
Your team should be keeping your board up to date as work progresses, but based on the discussion in the meeting, you may need to shift cards or reallocate work. You may also flag issues, adjust due dates, and set follow-up meetings for more complicated issues that require deeper discussion.
Even the best legal project management system falls short if it’s not routinely checked. The 5-Minute Matter Review gives you a quick, structured way to review each active matter to ensure work is progressing, manage risks, and keep your resources aligned around delivering results for your clients.
Why a 5-Minute Matter Review Works
Whether your team is small or distributed across multiple locations, embedding this review into a weekly team meeting creates shared visibility, improves communication and keeps your matters on time and on budget. This approach:
- Keeps meetings short: The team stays focused.
- Provides task-level clarity: Vague updates become actionable tasks.
- Follows a predictable rhythm: The weekly cadence builds habit and accountability.
- Allows for proactive intervention: You’ll identify roadblocks and bottlenecks before they become crises.
The 5-Minute Matter Review in Action
Let’s imagine you’re a litigation firm using Clio, reviewing your active files. Next up is Johnson v. Smith. The team runs through the five questions and decides on the action to take.
Review:
- Where is the matter now? In the discovery stage.
- What’s stuck or overdue? The client hasn’t returned signed verifications.
- What’s the next key milestone or deliverable? Interrogatories are due Friday.
- Who owns the next step? The paralegal.
- Are there any scope or resource issues? The paralegal needs help getting the client to respond.
Action: The attorney will follow up with the client today. Mark the task as “Client Delay.”
Time elapsed: 3 minutes
Build the Habit, Build the Firm
A five-minute per matter review might seem too simple — but that’s the point. The power is in the rhythm. By dedicating just a few minutes per file every week, you’ll achieve several things:
- Catch issues before they escalate.
- Facilitate delegation to your team (and minimize management headaches).
- Improve team collaboration and coordination.
- Meet deadlines.
- Deliver better service.
- Protect profitability.
And best of all, you and your team will stop guessing where things stand — and start knowing.
Get the Power Zone Playbook for Lawyers
By Karen Dunn Skinner and David Skinner
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Karen Dunn Skinner and David Skinner help lawyers and legal professionals build more efficient, productive and profitable practices. They’re the co-founders of Gimbal Lean Practice Management Advisors and lawyers with over 20 years of experience each in Canada and Europe. Together, they’re the exclusive Global Advisors on Legal Process Improvement to the International Institute of Legal Project Management. They write and speak regularly, facilitate legal process improvement projects across North America, and have taught Gimbal’s LeanLegal® approach to thousands of legal professionals.
Image © iStockPhoto.com.
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