Matter Center was originally designed by Microsoft’s legal department for its own internal use and it is the tool the legal department uses today. In my earlier conversations with Microsoft executives, they denied that they would make the product available commercially directly to law firms and legal departments.
Today’s announcement said that it has already shipped Matter Center to IT providers who specialize in serving the legal community, who are already offering it to their clients. These partners include Epona, Handshake Software, LawPoint365, Perficient, Ubiquity Wave, Project Leadership Associates and the PayneGroup. Microsoft Services will also offer for-fee consulting and support services for Matter Center beginning in September. Later this year, Microsoft will make Matter Center available broadly through GitHub.
Matter Center will allow users to create or view legal matters right from Outlook; tie Word, Excel, OneNote and other files to those matters; and securely collaborate with other legal professionals inside or outside their organizations, according to the announcement.
