7 Essential Automations for Faster In‑House Legal Intake

If your team feels overloaded, look at the first mile. Across in‑house departments, 20–40% of matter cycle time disappears in intake and triage—not in substantive lawyering. The good news: targeted automation can reclaim that time while improving accuracy, visibility, and trust with the business.

At Sandstone—the modern legal ops platform and knowledge layer for in‑house legal—we see the biggest wins when intake, playbooks, and approvals operate as one living system. Below are seven automations that compound value with each request.

1. Smart Request Forms That Auto‑Structure Context

Dynamic intake forms collect exactly what’s needed based on matter type (NDA vs. vendor DPA vs. marketing review). Conditional fields pull source data from CRM/ERP (counterparty, deal value), enforce policy (required privacy flags), and validate inputs up front. Why it matters: fewer back‑and‑forths, cleaner data, faster routing.

How to implement: start with your top three request types and convert existing checklists into fielded forms. In Sandstone, forms map to your data model so every submission is machine‑readable from day one.

2. AI Triage and Skills‑Based Routing

Not all requests are equal. An AI classifier can label risk level, topic, and urgency, then route to the right owner or queue based on expertise, region, or capacity. For example, low‑risk NDAs go to a shared service lane; high‑risk DPAs route to privacy counsel with a security review automatically kicked off.

How to implement: define routing rules in plain language (e.g., “If PII = yes and vendor = new, assign to Privacy + Security”). Sandstone’s agents apply these rules and post confirmations in Slack/Teams.

3. Playbook Surfacing and Suggested Answers at Intake

When business users submit, they should see your positions immediately: what’s standard, what’s negotiable, and how to proceed. Auto‑surface relevant playbooks, clause fallbacks, and FAQs based on the form inputs. For common scenarios, provide a self‑serve path that resolves the request without human touch.

How to implement: encode your playbooks as structured rules tied to data fields (e.g., “Marketing can use Template X if budget < $50k and no sensitive data”). In Sandstone, the knowledge layer links positions to real workflows so guidance is actionable, not buried in a wiki.

4. Approval Orchestration With Clear SLAs

Approvals often stall matters. Automate who approves (and in what order) based on triggers like contract value, data categories, or exception types. Send timed reminders, escalate on SLA breaches, and capture a complete audit trail with reasons for decision.

How to implement: list your top five approval paths (Security, Privacy, Finance, Exec) and codify the gates. Sandstone agents request approvals in‑app or via chat, track timestamps, and unblock bottlenecks with automatic escalation.

5. First‑Draft Document Generation From System Data

Speed the first turn. Generate NDAs, DPAs, order forms, or marketing disclaimers from approved templates, auto‑populating counterparty, addresses, and commercial terms from CRM/procurement. Layer in AI to propose fallback clauses aligned to your positions.

How to implement: start with templates that already see volume. In Sandstone, clause libraries and playbooks drive generation, so drafts are policy‑compliant on creation—no manual merge fields or risky improvisation.

6. Automated Diligence and Artifact Collection

For vendor reviews and commercial deals, have the system request the right artifacts (SOC 2, DPIA, insurance certs) and run checklists dynamically. If the vendor processes PII, automatically trigger privacy questionnaires and risk scoring; if high risk, route to a deeper review track.

How to implement: convert your diligence spreadsheet into a ruleset. Sandstone orchestrates requests to counterparties, tracks completion, and stores artifacts in the matter record so nothing gets lost in email.

7. SLA Dashboards, Feedback Loops, and Knowledge Capture

You can’t improve what you can’t see. Track time‑to‑first‑response, cycle time by request type, and approval latency by function. Close the loop by capturing the final outcome, the negotiated positions used, and any new edge cases—automatically feeding your playbooks and forms.

How to implement: define two SLAs (acknowledge, resolve) and measure them per queue. In Sandstone, every closed matter strengthens the knowledge layer so tomorrow’s triage is smarter than today’s.

One Actionable Next Step

Run a two‑week pilot on one high‑volume intake (e.g., NDAs):

- Stand up a smart form with required fields and dynamic logic.

- Route low‑risk items to a shared lane; generate first drafts automatically.

- Set SLAs (24h acknowledge, 3‑day resolve) and track them in a dashboard.

If cycle time doesn’t drop by at least 25%, expand the playbook surface and tighten approval routing. Most teams see faster gains.

Why This Matters for Trust and Growth

Legal shouldn’t be a bottleneck; it should be the connective tissue that keeps the business moving with clarity. When intake, playbooks, and approvals run on a living, AI‑powered operating system, every request compounds knowledge instead of leaking it. That’s the Sandstone effect: strength through layers, crafted precision for your processes, and natural integration with how your teams already work.

When you make the first mile frictionless, the rest of the journey gets measurably faster—and more defensible. If you’re ready to turn legal from reactive support into a proactive force, start with intake. The compounding benefits begin immediately.