Disclaimer: In adherence to an active Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), select information and visuals have been withheld to protect proprietary content. I’d be happy to provide further insights and showcase additional materials during an interview or case study discussion.

Project Overview

LegalCollaborator is a B2B SaaS platform for Enterprise Legal Management designed to help corporate legal departments streamline how they engage outside law firms through competitive bidding. The platform improves how teams issue requests for proposals (RFPs), compare proposals, and collaborate with law firms from intake to selection.

I led the end-to-end design process from research and early ideation to wireframes, user testing, high-fidelity UI, and developer handoff.

• Role: Lead Product Designer

• Timeline: 1+ Year (Idea to MVP)

• Platform: Wolters Kluwer Enterprise Legal Management Suite

• Team: 1 PM, 2 Engineers, Legal SME, myself as the lead designer + 1 UX Designer

The Challenge

Corporate legal departments traditionally manage legal engagements through disjointed tools like email, spreadsheets, and shared folders. This causes slow proposal cycles, limited transparency, and inconsistent firm selection.

Legal ops teams voiced frustrations around:

• The time-consuming process of managing RFPs manually

• A lack of standardization when comparing proposals from law firms

• Minimal insight into legal spend, staffing plans, or diversity metrics

• Difficulty tracking firm performance across engagements

We saw an opportunity to create a centralized platform that brought order, insight, and efficiency to a chaotic and costly process.

Discovery & Research

To validate the problem space, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with legal operations professionals and in-house attorneys across multiple enterprise organizations. We also included law firms in the research to understand their pain points when responding to RFPs.

Through our research, we discovered:

• Legal ops teams lacked a structured workflow and needed a centralized source of truth

• Attorneys wanted to compare firms more easily—not just on price, but also on value and diversity

• Law firms were overwhelmed by inconsistent formats and unclear requirements

We also conducted competitive analysis on legacy legal tech platforms, identifying opportunities for better UX, proposal comparison tools, and transparency around cost and strategy.

Defining the Product

From our research, I defined three key product pillars that guided design:

1. Transparency – Give clients a clear view of pricing, staffing, and engagement terms

2. Efficiency – Enable structured RFP creation and streamlined communication

3. Accountability – Allow clients to evaluate law firms on more than just cost

These principles grounded every design decision. We mapped out the user flow and experience architecture to support each goal.

UX Design & Strategy

We began with low-fidelity sketches and white-boarding sessions to shape the information architecture and user flows. After validation with stakeholders, we moved into Figma to build wireframes for the core workflows:

• Creating a Matter RFP – Users input scope, deadlines, staffing needs, and budget expectations

• Comparing Proposals – Clients view and compare submissions from multiple firms, including pricing models, diversity data, and strategic notes

• Collaborating with Law Firms – A secure, built-in chat thread allows for quick clarifications and attachments

We focused on creating a clean, intuitive UI that surfaced the right information at the right time—avoiding the clutter that plagued existing tools.

Usability Testing & Iteration

With an interactive prototype in hand, I facilitated multiple usability testing sessions with target users on both the client and firm sides.

What we learned:

• Clients needed more clarity when evaluating pricing models, especially when comparing hourly vs. fixed fee

• The dashboard was overwhelming at first glance — users preferred a progressive disclosure model

• Law firms requested clearer instructions and more structured input fields to reduce proposal mistakes

Based on this feedback, we:

• Redesigned the comparison dashboard using collapsible sections and visual indicators

• Introduced smart defaults and contextual help for proposal creation

• Enhanced the filtering and sort logic for viewing multiple submissions

Final Design & Key Features

The final design delivered a clean, responsive interface built for clarity, speed, and collaboration. Key features included:

• Matter Creation Wizard – A guided, multi-step form that ensured consistency across RFPs

• Proposal Comparison View – Interactive cards and tables to visualize cost, staffing, and firm notes

• Integrated Messaging – A built-in thread for direct communication between clients and law firms

• Admin Controls – Role-based access, firm scoring, and dashboard configuration

Outcomes

LegalCollaborator launched successfully to enterprise pilot clients. Early metrics showed strong results:

• Reduced time spent managing legal RFPs by over 20%

• 15% increase in user satisfaction across legal ops teams (based on internal surveys)

• Clients saved tens of thousands through transparent competitive bidding

• Finalist at the Global Innovation Awards for excellence in legal tech design

These outcomes validated our strategy and gave the platform strong traction for scaling.

Reflection

LegalCollaborator was one of my most rewarding projects. It was a true zero-to-one build in a complex, high-stakes space. My biggest takeaways:

• Designing for multiple personas means constantly balancing priorities and creating shared understanding

• Strong research upfront prevents misalignment and saves engineering hours down the line

• Simplicity is a feature — especially in industries where clarity builds trust.

What’s Next

Since the MVP launch, we scoped and began work on Phase 2 features:

• Firm performance scoring and historical engagement data

• Smart suggestions based on similar matter types and past pricing

• Expanded notification system and activity logs