Legal Case Management Software and Microsoft 365: Making Them Work Together

Most solicitors' practices run two systems side by side: a case or practice management platform that holds matters, time, billing and deadlines, and Microsoft 365, where people actually draft, email and meet. Legal case management software works well when the two behave as one workflow. It works badly when fee earners save a document in three places and nobody is sure which version went to the client.

This guide explains what these systems do, how they typically connect to Outlook, Word, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, how cloud, hosted and on-premises models differ, and what to examine on migration, permissions and client-money integration. It is written for partners and practice managers who are choosing, replacing or tidying a system. For the wider picture, see our legal sector page.

What legal case management software does

A case or practice management system is the operational record of the practice. It is organised around the matter: one client, one piece of work, one file. Depending on the product and the type of work, it usually covers:

• Matters and contacts: client and third-party records, conflict checks, matter opening and closing.
• Documents and emails: a central file for correspondence, drafts, precedents and attachments.
• Workflows and deadlines: task lists, diary dates, limitation reminders and stage-based processes, common in conveyancing and litigation.
• Time recording and billing: fee earner time, disbursements, invoices and write-offs.
• Accounts: client and office ledgers, cash book and reconciliation, either built in or linked to a separate accounts package.

The terms case management, practice management and matter management overlap. In general, case management is about the work on a file, practice management extends to billing and firm-wide reporting, and many products cover both. Ask suppliers which features are native and which come through connected tools.

The Law Society's Lexcel standard lists file and case management, information management and financial management among the areas it assesses (Law Society, Lexcel).

How case management systems work with Microsoft 365

Integrations differ by product, so treat this as a map of what to ask for, not a promise about any supplier.

Outlook

The usual feature is an add-in that lets a fee earner file an email, or an attachment, to a matter from the Outlook ribbon. Check whether sent items are filed as readily as received ones, and whether shared mailboxes are supported.

Word and other Office apps

Integration normally means opening a document from the matter, saving it back to the matter with a version note, and merging matter and client details into precedents. Ask whether co-authoring in Word is supported on documents held in the case system, or whether files are checked out and locked to one person.

Teams

Some systems offer a Teams app or notifications, such as a task alert or a link to the matter. What matters more is that Teams conversations and files do not become a parallel, unmanaged file, as covered below.

SharePoint and OneDrive

Two models exist. In the first, the case system stores documents itself and SharePoint is used for firm-wide policies, templates and intranet content. In the second, the case system uses SharePoint or OneDrive as the document store and holds the matter metadata and links. Both can work. The risk is a hybrid, where nobody can say which copy is the file of record.

Many integration problems come down to tenant configuration rather than the product itself, so it helps to have your Microsoft 365 support team involved before contracts are signed.

Cloud, hosted or on-premises: choosing a deployment model

The same product may be offered in more than one form, and the model affects cost, resilience, integration options and who is responsible for patching and backup.

No model is correct for every practice. A small team of fee earners may prefer a supplier-run service. A larger practice with specialist integrations may need a dedicated environment. If a migration to the cloud is on the agenda, our cloud migration services and managed cloud services pages explain how we approach it. Resilience should be tested against your own recovery needs, as set out in our guide to disaster recovery and business continuity for legal practices.

Document management and version control

Poor document control is where most day-to-day risk sits. Fee earners edit drafts, email them to clients, receive amended versions and save them in whichever folder is nearest. A legal case management software deployment should reduce that, not add another place to look.

Agree these points before go-live:

• Single file of record: one named location for each matter's documents, with a rule on what happens to copies elsewhere.
• Naming and metadata: a convention that does not depend on individual habits, ideally with matter number and document type captured automatically.
• Version handling: decide whether drafts are saved as new versions of the same document or as separate files, and who may mark a version as final.
• Email filing: decide whether every substantive email is filed, and who is responsible when a fee earner is absent.
• Retention: link to the firm's file retention policy so closed matters are archived on a defined schedule.

SharePoint document libraries have version history, and OneDrive syncing lets files be worked on from a laptop. Neither is a substitute for a matter-centric file. Version history in a library tells you who changed a document; it does not tell you which matter it belongs to unless the metadata is set up to say so.

For the confidentiality side of document handling, our article on client confidentiality and data security in legal practices covers labelling, sharing and external collaboration.

Migration and data integrity

Changing case management supplier is one of the more disruptive projects a practice undertakes. The matter record is the firm's memory, and live matters cannot pause. The main risks are data loss, data corruption and loss of audit history.

• Scope what moves: live matters, closed matters, contacts, time entries, ledger balances, documents, emails and diary entries. Decide what stays in an archive instead.
• Clean before moving: duplicates and orphaned documents migrate as readily as good data.
• Test with real data: run at least one trial migration, and have fee earners check sample matters they know well.
• Reconcile totals: compare client ledger balances, work in progress and matter counts before and after. Differences need an explanation, not an assumption.
• Preserve audit trails: ask whether document dates, authors and filing history survive the move, or whether everything is stamped with the migration date.
• Keep a rollback route: retain the old system, read-only, for an agreed period, and confirm the licence and hosting costs for that.

Where documents are moving into Microsoft 365 as part of the project, our cloud migration team can plan the transfer and permissions mapping alongside the case system work.

Access and permissions

A case management system and Microsoft 365 each have their own permission model. They need to agree. If a restricted matter is locked down in the case system but its documents are also in an open SharePoint library, the restriction means nothing.

• Role-based access: partners, fee earners, secretaries, accounts staff and practice management need different rights over matters, billing and ledgers.
• Ethical walls and restricted matters: confirm how the system hides a matter from named staff, and whether the restriction extends to search results, email filing and reports.
• Single sign-on and multi-factor authentication: tie the case system to Microsoft Entra ID where supported, so joiners and leavers are handled once.
• Leavers: check how quickly access is removed from both systems, and what happens to open matters.
• External sharing: decide whether clients, counsel or other parties get access through a portal, SharePoint sharing links or neither, and who approves it.

These controls also support the security expectations in our guide to cyber security for solicitors and the SRA, and a periodic cyber security audit is a sensible way to test that the settings match the policy.

Accounting and client-money integration points

Client money is where a case system stops being a convenience and becomes part of regulatory compliance. The SRA Accounts Rules define client money, require client accounts to be held at a bank or building society in England and Wales, and set out the records you must keep. Under rule 8.3, reconciliation of each client account must be done at least every five weeks, with the record signed off by the COFA or a firm manager. Accounting records must be kept securely for at least six years under rule 13.1. The full text is on the SRA Accounts Rules page.

Whether accounts are built into the case system or sit in a separate package, test these points:

• Ledger by client and matter: the system must produce client ledgers identified by client name and matter, a list of ledger balances and a cash book.
• Bank feeds and statements: understand how bank data arrives and who checks it, since statements are needed at least every five weeks.
• Reconciliation reports: look for a three-way comparison of bank, cash book and client ledger total that can be signed off and stored.
• Controls on postings: check how the system prevents a payment from a client ledger without sufficient funds, and how it handles authorisations.
• External packages: if the general ledger sits elsewhere, confirm what is exchanged, how often and who resolves mismatches.

Practices that also advise on financial matters may find our page for financial services firms relevant.

Teams or SharePoint for matter files?

This question comes up in almost every legal Microsoft 365 project. According to Microsoft, files shared in a Teams channel are stored in the team's SharePoint site, while files sent in a private or group chat go to the sender's OneDrive for Business (Microsoft Support, file storage in Teams). That has two consequences for a practice.

• Documents shared in a chat belong to an individual's OneDrive. If the person leaves, matter content can be lost or become hard to find.
• Documents in a channel inherit the access of the team, which may not match the matter's restrictions.

A cautious pattern is to treat the case system as the file of record, use Teams for conversation and short-lived collaboration, and set a rule for filing anything substantive back to the matter. Our comparison, Microsoft Teams vs SharePoint, explains the technical differences in more depth.

Implementation: a step-by-step plan

A typical sequence looks like this.

A managed IT support partner can run the Microsoft 365, identity and device work in steps 4 to 6 so the case system supplier can focus on the application.

Evaluation checklist and questions for suppliers

Use the table below as a scoring sheet during demonstrations. Weight the rows according to the type of work the practice does.

Questions to ask suppliers

1. Where is our data stored, and who can access it?
2. How is the Outlook integration deployed, and does it support our shared mailboxes?
3. Which system holds the master copy of a document, and what happens if both are edited?
4. How does the product restrict a matter, and does the restriction apply to search and reports?
5. Can you show a client-money reconciliation, signed off and stored, from your own demonstration data?
6. What are your backup, recovery time and recovery point commitments, and where are they written?
7. What does it cost, and how long does it take, to export all our data if we leave?

Conclusion: make the two systems work as one

Good legal case management software and a well-run Microsoft 365 tenant should give fee earners one place for the matter and familiar tools to work in. The decisions that matter are practical ones: where the master document lives, how permissions follow the matter, how client-money records are produced, and how data comes out again if you change supplier.

If you are reviewing your case management setup, planning a migration or want to check that Microsoft 365 is configured properly around it, talk to our team. We act as a specialist technology partner for legal practices and can review your integration, permissions and resilience before you commit to a supplier.

Frequently asked questions