PIONEERING
LEGAL OPERATIONS
AT THE INDEPENDENT
ORDER OF FORESTERS
Foresters Case Study
The Independent Order of Foresters (“Foresters”) is not your traditional life insurance or financial services provider.
Instead, Foresters is a non-profit fraternal benefit society with a rich history spanning over 140 years and serving
more than three million members in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Because Foresters
champions the well-being of families by providing life insurance, savings, retirement, and investment solutions,
Foresters is committed to handling their member’s most sensitive information by continuously improving their
operations over time.
Over fifteen years ago, Shelley Wilson, Senior Manager of Legal Operations and Support at Fo resters, selected
Mitratech’s Secretariat to alleviate Foresters entity management needs. Because of the success she found with
Secretariat, when she began to think of new ways to innovate her legal department in a similar fashion, Wilson felt
compelled to seek other Mitratech solutions.
DISCOVERING A NEW SOLUTION
In 1998, Foresters implemented a legal management solution that met their immediate requests: to develop a
workflow process and transition away from hardcopy files and folders. Over time, they began to realize that they
had not spent enough time thinking about what they truly wanted to accomplish by implementing a system. As a
result, Foresters used the system out of the box, limiting the required customizability as their needs changed over
time. The software company went out of business, upgrades to the solution came to an end, and the system no
longer met the requirements of a flourishing legal department.
Armed with the knowledge of their previous selection process, Foresters decided that they wanted to transition
into an electronic environment, automate invoice approvals with an e-Billing system, have increased functionality
compared to their incumbent solution, and invest in a customizable system that could evolve with the legal department
over time. “eCounsel seemed to fit all of those new requirements,” said Wilson.
FINDING THE KEY TO SUCCESS
Before the selection of Mitratech’s eCounsel, the legal department at
Foresters was unable to generate reports without manually exporting
data into a separate spreadsheet. One of the features that attracted
Foresters to eCounsel was the ability to achieve greater visibility into
their operations with the use of robust report generation tools. “Analysis
Center is going to play a huge role in our eCounsel world because —
as we know in this day and age – everybody wants data, reports, and
visuals. Analysis Center is really going to allow us to produce that
analytical data. “When we built eCounsel, we built it specifically for
“Analysis Center and eBilling are key to our
future success.”
- Shelley Wilson,
Senior Manager of Legal
Operations and Support
at Foresters
what we need divisionally so we are truly able to fine tune our reporting based on the fields we have created in
eCounsel which is perfect.” Wilson realized her vision of a streamlined systems landscape by combining the power
of matter management, e-Billing, and a data analysis tool housed within a singular platform. “Analysis Center and
e-Billing are key to our future success,” added Wilson.
PLANNING FUTURE EXPANSION
There are currently four departments utilizing the eCounsel matter management and e-Billing solution at the
Independent Order of Foresters: the traditional legal department, compliance and risk, corporate secretary, and
the special investigations unit. Each function holds unique requirements. When building the system, there were
individual logical groups created with special permissions to restrict access across the departments. Exhibiting
incredible foresight, Foresters was able to deploy the entire system across four departments, allowing all parties
to enjoy the benefits of the program while sharing the cost. When asked if there would be further expansion of
eCounsel into other departments in the future, Wilson stated, “Never say never. Already, other departments are
asking how they may be able to leverage use of eCounsel for their purposes. It’s important to not only show our
internal cost savings, but also the value it brings to other areas, demonstrating the return on the investment in the
eyes of our stakeholders.”
REMAINING AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Proving to be a true thought leader in the legal profession, Shelley Wilson created a new position for herself as
the Senior Manager of Legal Operations based on her compounded expertise. By investing in her professional
development, she has leveraged the need for such a position by becoming an operational specialist for Foresters.
When asked about the growth of the legal operations role Shelley noted, “There are so many career opportunities
in operations where there weren’t before.”
Wilson has developed several best practices for her organization, including implementation processes to drive
high user adoption rates for new systems. When asked her advice for a legal department searching for a solution,
Wilson noted, “We had a dedicated team that was responsible for eCounsel and its implementation, design, launch
process, and so on. We engaged the appropriate people the entire way through the project. We had total buy-in
(including the lawyers) for the entire process.”
The purpose of Foresters is to champion family well-being through
quality life insurance and investment products, unique member
benefits such as scholarships, and inspiring community activities. To
continuously improve as an organization, Foresters is committed to
staying ahead of the curve in every capacity. As legal departments have
become valued business partners to the organization in recent years, the
need to sit on the forefront of innovation has expanded. Shelley Wilson
emphatically explained, “We built eCounsel, not for where we are
today, but where we want to be in the future.”
“We built eCounsel, not
for where we are today,
but where we want to be
in the future.”
- Shelley Wilson,
Senior Manager of Legal
Operations and Support
at Foresters
ABOUT MITRATECH
Mitratech is the leading provider of fully integrated Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) solutions for global legal
departments of all sizes, including almost 40% of the Fortune 500 and more than 750 organizations in all. Mitratech’s
offerings include the flexible, comprehensive, and trusted TeamConnect, eCounsel, and LawManager product
platforms, all of which offer end-to-end matter management, e-Billing, legal hold, contracts management, entity
management and GRC solutions. Mitratech clients are able to prove demonstrable value creation for their organization
by automating legal workflows, improving business outcomes through actionable data and insight, increasing
collaboration with external partners and reducing overall legal spend. To learn more, visit www.mitratech.com
CONTACT MITRATECH
Mitratech Holdings Inc.
5001 Plaza on the Lake
Suite 111
Austin, TX 78746
512-382-7322
www.mitratech.com
info@mitratech.com